Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

Since the original draft of the Bill issued, the Bill has been very substantially amended and rewritten and what we are now looking at is a different Bill. It is not the same Bill as was debated in the Dáil last week.

We are getting less than an hour - 7.54 p.m. to 8.45 p.m. - to discuss what is effectively a new Bill with considerable changes, such as the spreading out of social welfare benefits to part-time workers over five days rather than six, which will substantially affect people's incomes, as well as a series of other major changes. It is not acceptable that what is effectively a new Bill should be discussed for less than an hour and that the Technical Group will not have a chance to speak on it at all. We will not be able to make any comment on what is effectively a new Bill. We want to protest in the strongest possible terms. This is not acceptable, and more time must be allowed on Second Stage to discuss the Bill along with the raft of amendments that change it substantially.

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