Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I want to ask the Taoiseach more about the two Bills promised. He stated we will have a social welfare Bill, Second Stage of which will be taken on Thursday and Remaining Stages to be taken on Friday. In addition to taking Remaining Stages of the social welfare Bill on Friday we will also deal with the carbon budget, which presumably will include proposals on a carbon levy or tax. When will the social welfare Bill be published? I presume it will not be published until after the Budget Statement is made tomorrow. The budget debate will effectively be truncated some time early on Thursday to allow for the social welfare Bill to be introduced. Is the Taoiseach seriously stating that a social welfare Bill, which for the first time since the time of Ernest Blythe will introduce reductions in social welfare, will be published some time on Wednesday evening or night at the earliest, with Second Stage debated on Thursday and all Stages completed on Friday? That is utterly unacceptable as a parliamentary procedure and is unnecessary. The only reason this is being done is because the Taoiseach and the Government think the backbenchers will be too cowardly and wobbly to face their constituents on this issue over the weekend. They are being corralled here this week and will be made vote for this before they go home at the weekend so they will be able to tell constituents that no matter what they say about social welfare their hands are tied.

When will the Bill dealing with public sector pay be published? Will that Bill have any proposals or measures on public sector pensions?

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