Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

After much of the downtime the Dáil has experienced in recent weeks whereby the schedule was not very heavy, it is totally unacceptable that we should have a late sitting today and probably again in the coming weeks. The normal procedure of the Dáil has been abused in terms of the way the Government has approached the Environment (Miscellaneous) Provisions Bill. The reason for tonight's late sitting is because the Government has been trying to sneak in amendments on Report Stage instead of ensuring they were dealt with on previous Stages of the Bill or, as was proposed yesterday, that the Bill would have been recommitted to Committee Stage. Instead, the Government is seeking that the House would sit late to suit its agenda of trying to ensure that such issues are not debated and that the Opposition would not get a proper chance to address them and table amendments. For that reason, we will oppose the proposal for a late sitting.

We hear much rhetoric about having a family-friendly Dáil but situations such as this, which the Government creates, whereby the Dáil sits until 10.30 p.m. do not in any way contribute to ensuring that this is an attractive place for people to work.

The Government is suiting its own purposes, driving legislation through the Dáil and not ensuring the democratic mandate we all have is exercised by ensuring there is proper debate.

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