Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not agreed. We are opposing the Order of Business today as a protest against how the House is being dealt with and organised this week. There is an extraordinary attempt to suppress any meaningful articulation of issues around, for example, the Social Welfare Bill. It is being rammed through the House utilising the guillotine approach. On Friday we will have a property tax Bill. What the hurry with that is I simply do not know because it is not due to come in until next May, but the Government seems intent on ramming it through by next Friday at 6 p.m.

Our spokesperson has estimated that in respect of the amendments tabled for the Social Welfare Bill each Deputy will only have 13 minutes and there are probably only four or five Deputies who will get in on Committee Stage. This is aside from any other Member who many wish to speak independently of the spokespersons from the main Opposition parties.

In the programme for Government, the Government promised more effective financial scrutiny, that the Dáil would be in a position to hold the Executive to account and that it would tackle the extensive overuse of guillotines. The Chief Whip and Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, said the overuse of the guillotine was one of the great frustrations for Deputies. It will be used in abundance this week to ram the budget through. The only conclusion we can come to is that the reason this is being done is to ensure Labour Party backbenchers and some Fine Gael backbenchers do not get another weekend at home prior to any further decisions having to be made either in the Social Welfare Bill or regarding budget decisions.

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