Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Today, the Cabinet considered the legislative requirements in the aftermath of the budget. As I stated earlier to Deputy Gilmore, two Bills will be required, namely, a social welfare Bill and a Bill on public sector pay. The social welfare Bill will be taken this week and the public sector pay Bill will be taken next week. We envisage a change to the Order of Business for that purpose. The budget debate and financial resolutions will be taken on Wednesday as normal and will be resumed on Thursday. We will then take the social welfare Bill and on Friday morning the carbon budget will be taken followed by the Remaining Stages of the social welfare Bill.

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