Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

It is not agreed to. The proposal is the debate on the European Communities (Amendment) Bill 2012 should be guillotined after only four hours of discussion. This must be seen in the context of an incredible proposal to have three hours of discussion tomorrow on the European Stability Mechanism Bill 2012. These are two major pieces of legislation to institutionalise in EU treaties new funding mechanisms which will have massive implications for European taxpayers and are linked with torturous austerity for ordinary people across Europe. It beggars belief the Government is proposing the use of the guillotine after only a few hours of debate on both Bills. These issues should have been the subject of massive national debate in the last two months, but because the Government concentrated on badgering and blackmailing the people in the course of the referendum campaign on access to the European Stability Mechanism-----

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