Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The Government has not accepted too many Bills from the Opposition. Attendance has been very poor from the Government side. Indeed the quorum has to be provided by the Opposition, which is unprecedented. It was always the case that the Government side needed to provide a quorum. The only reason the Government introduced that was to allow its Members to be down in their constituencies on that Friday. Whenever the Friday sittings take place Government Deputies are down the country while the Opposition Deputies proposing the legislation are up here. That is too cynical by half and in many ways it contributes to the notion that the Friday sitting, unfortunately from the Government perspective, has-----

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