Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The Government has apparently decided to hold Committee Stage of the NAMA Bill in the committee rooms, downstairs in the dungeons. Will it give serious consideration to holding Committee Stage, which will deal with over 100 sections, in plenary session on the floor of the Dáil? This is very important legislation and Committee Stage is vital. To bury it two floors underground in Leinster House would be to do a grave disservice to all the people around the country who are worried about the implications of the €54 billion outlay.

Once the Lisbon treaty referendum is over, the timescale for the budget - if it is to be in early December - will be quite short. What does the Government propose to do with regard to the publication of the Estimates? The publication of the Estimates has been abandoned in recent years and it is very difficult for the Opposition in particular to have a sense of how the Government is framing its budget, particularly in the context of the McCarthy report, without the publication of estimated outlines of expenditure.

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