Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

We have had a number of proposals throughout this week to guillotine legislation where it has been perfectly clear that guillotines were not necessary, as the Bills were dealt with in the House in the normal way. This indicates an incompetent handling of Dáil business by the Government. A guillotine should be used sparingly. Generally, it is used to process legislation quickly where there is some urgency or an emergency and it must get through in a quick time or it might be used by government in circumstances where the Opposition was holding up legislation or being obstructive in some way. None of the legislation to which guillotines are being applied has been subject to a lack of co-operation by the Opposition. There is absolutely no need for a guillotine on this legislation. The Labour Party understands why it is necessary to have this Bill in place. We support the EU stabilisation agreement and there is no need whatever to have the legislation guillotined in the way the Government proposes.

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