Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I will make substantive points on the issue of low pay and on the amendments in the discussion on Report Stage.

We will not oppose the motion. The Anti-Austerity Alliance supported the Workplace Relations Bill and the Minister of State claims that these changes are necessary arising from that legislation. However, there is a point at issue about parliamentary procedure and the right of the Dáil to scrutinise legislation properly. There is a right and democratic way of doing things and a wrong way of doing them. This is another example, although a less cynical one, of what we saw last week with the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, where unrelated amendments were tabled at the last minute, thus preventing proper scrutiny. In this case, I do not believe it is done to prevent proper scrutiny, but because it is the quickest way of doing it. That does not herald some type of democratic revolution, or fulfil the democratic revolution that was heralded.

There are questions for the Minister of State as to why this was not foreseen when the Workplace Relations Bill was debated. If there had been proper parliamentary scrutiny at that stage, the fact that these other changes were required could have been recognised. Why could we not have a Workplace Relations (Amendment) Bill which could go through the proper parliamentary process and the proper Stages of scrutiny? It is not good practice and is fundamentally undemocratic to cut short the ability of the Dáil to examine legislative changes.

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