Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I want to make a proposal to the Taoiseach on this item. He proposes to guillotine Second Stage of the Bill at 7 p.m. and Committee and Remaining Stages at 10 p.m. I know the Taoiseach has offered to extend the sitting until 11 p.m and he will guillotine it at that time instead. That, unfortunately, does not meet the requirements. This Bill, for the reasons we stated before and which Deputy Burton has outlined, has a range of issue that require attention.

There is also the critical issue of the proposal to give the Minister for Finance the power to extend the life of the bank guarantee scheme. I suggest to the Taoiseach that we agree to take Second State of the Bill today, take Committee Stage after statements on the European Council tomorrow and take Report Stage on Thursday. That way we would have the opportunity to properly examine the Bill.

I heard what the Taoiseach had to say about access to money and so on. The timeframe to which I referred would allow for proper parliamentary scrutiny of the Bill and would not compromise the need to deal with the Bill reasonably quickly. It would be done this week. I am sure there can be co-operation in the House on the taking of the Bill and this would be a reasonable way to deal with it. Otherwise, the Labour Party will have to oppose the proposal before us, that is, to guillotine Second Stage at 7 p.m. and Committee and Remaining Stages at 10 p.m.

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