Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

During the course of the session many Deputies have been asking for the enactment and progression of legislation and as we come towards the end of the session it is unfortunate that a sizeable number of Bills require to be dealt with. I made the point last week, which is something we need to address, namely, that when Bills are referred to committees it is totally in the hands of the committee to decide how long it will stay on Committee Stage before returning to the House. There should be a time limit applied so committees that receive legislation would regard it as their priority work, thus allowing Report Stage to proceed in the House and preventing the pushing back of legislation. I take the point on some legislation that has only recently been published. We are trying to deal with issues that need to dealt with immediately by legislation before we rise. However, there are a number of problems and they are not all on the Government side. I make that point for future reference. I hope that, during the next term, some means will be found by committees, Departments and Ministers to determine how soon legislation can return to the House. There are some cases where it does not come back as quickly as would otherwise be the case.

With regard to Second Stage Dáil debates on these matters, approximately one hour and 30 minutes was allocated for the Electricity Regulation (Amendment) (Carbon Revenue Levy) Bill and an hour and 17 minutes was allocated for the Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill. It may be the case that we will not require the use of the guillotine for the legislation going through the House this evening but it must be provided for by the Whip in the event that it will take the time allocated because he must proceed with other legislation. It is not for the purpose of being gratuitous but for the good order of the House. If we can get the Bill through before 7 p.m., all the better. In this case, the guillotine will not be utilised and we will move on to the next Bill and have more time to consider it.

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