Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

There is a time limit on the period in which the Finance Bill has to be enacted. It is not an open-ended situation. What is being proposed here is an arrangement for time as between different sections of the Bill. First, those who apply themselves to Committee Stage work are well aware it very often happens that they can start on a Bill but debate bogs down in the early sections and the later sections are not reached. Therefore, it is a sensible arrangement that there should be a time allocation for different chunks of the Bill. Second, as we know, many of the amendments are related. Members will find that, in practice, the committee will debate a number of the amendments together. The Government is satisfied that the time arrangements are adequate and generous.

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