Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)

A slight difficulty arises here. The Order of Business says the Minister and spokespersons for the main parties may speak for 30 minutes. It does not allow for the sharing of time. I made this point on Friday last. The order goes on to say the speech of each other Member shall be 20 minutes. There is a distinction between the time allowed to a spokesperson and to an ordinary Member.

On this occasion, I will ask the permission of the House to allow the sharing of time but I ask that the Technical Group clarify this matter so that it can be built into the order. On Friday, I had to disallow the sharing of time, even though the Deputy who was sharing was able to speak immediately afterwards. This is a technical point.

The arrangement is that a spokesperson is speaking on behalf of his or her party or group, as distinct from speaking as a Member. That is why additional time is given to them. I simply wish this matter to be clarified. I do not want to have this discussion every time a spokesperson wishes to share time.

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