Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Labour Party does not agree to this proposal, which is that all of the remaining Stages of the Bill dealing with the so-called pension levy in the public service should be guillotined at 10.30 p.m. tonight. There are a number of reasons we are opposing the guillotine. First, there are 51 amendments that have to be considered and there will not be sufficient time to consider them in the time that has been allowed.

Second, the Government, and the Minister for Finance in particular, has indicated on a number of occasions that there would be some tweaking of the pension levy. None of the amendments tabled by the Minister for Finance provide for any such tweaking. The amendments tabled by the Minister are purely of a technical and drafting nature. I know that many Members on the Government benches who would have been seeking to give some comfort to their constituents in the past few weeks would seek to get at least some minor changes made in the levy. That is not provided for in these amendments and if the Bill passes, as is the Government's intention, at 10.30 p.m. tonight, any changes which would have to be made subsequently to the pension levy, that is, either changes sought by members of the Government side or changes which might be negotiated afterwards with trade unions, would have to be the subject of separate legislation brought before the House.

This proposal is providing for a situation where the passing of the legislation will make the pension levy a done deal which would then not be amenable to amendment and will be presented, presumably, by the Government as something that has been enacted by the House. In those circumstances, the Labour Party cannot agree to a guillotine of this debate at 10.30 p.m. tonight.

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