Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Labour Party wishes to oppose the Government's proposal for taking the NAMA legislation today. It is somewhat unusual to have amendments from the Seanad although we get the odd amendment from time to time. In this case, 37 amendments were made to the Bill, most of which were proposed by the Minister. The Government wishes to guillotine discussion on this at 3:30 p.m. It is not just for procedural reasons that the Labour Party is opposing this proposal; it is because of the scale. This is the biggest corporate welfare cheque ever written. We are told every day that there is no money. There is no money for the Christmas bonus——

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