Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I wish to raise a couple of matters under ord an ghnó and a question under reachtaíocht atá geallta. We wondered whether the Taoiseach would be available to take questions and I am pleased he has committed himself to doing that. I will be even more pleased if he answers the questions. Second, a total of 24 parliamentary questions were taken together by the Taoiseach; 13 of the questions were from me. They were taken at the end of Question Time so we did not get time to deal with them. Sometimes one cannot govern what happens but this issue arises all the time. It is not within your authority, a Cheann Comhairle, but is a matter for the Taoiseach. It is ridiculous. We spend time putting down what we consider to be thoughtful questions in an effort to scrutinise, get information and have debate and discussion, but we are not given an opportunity to deal with them.

Under promised legislation, when will the Government publish the fiscal responsibility Bill? Is it intended to include in the Bill elements of the agreement reached at the EU summit last week and when will it be debated in the Dáil?

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