Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I reject this motion emphatically. Everything about it is wrong. It should not be here. Such a mess has been made of this legislation that the only decent thing for the Minister to do is to withdraw it, take a few weeks out and, when she has had proper time to consider what she is doing, reintroduce the legislation so we can discuss it here in a proper manner. The only good thing that happened here today was the Ceann Comhairle's statement that he had asked, under Standing Order 141, that a revised explanatory memorandum be produced. That arose as the result of a request I made when I was Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government during the last Oireachtas. I wrote to the then Ceann Comhairle requesting that where substantial and significant amendments are proposed, to help Members discuss them on Committee Stage, a new and revised explanatory memorandum should always be produced. I am pleased that the Ceann Comhairle invoked that this morning.

We will not have time to discuss all the details of the amendments on Committee Stage, because not only did the Government guillotine Second Stage, it has also guillotined this motion tonight and it will guillotine Committee, Report and Final Stages. The Minister has been in office for 14 months. I am personally shocked that within such a short period of time she has become so unfair and unreasonable towards Members of the Oireachtas. If this had happened more than 14 months ago and she had been sitting on this side, she would rightly have been giving out about how the Dáil was being treated with disrespect.

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