Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It is not agreed to on two counts. I understand on the time allowed for statements on the Scally scoping inquiry that there will be eight ten-minute slots.

The standard practice for statements is that time is allowed for a Minister to respond. Given the seriousness of the issue, one would expect that half an hour would be provided for questions and answers. However, there is no opportunity to come back on it, which is a mistake.

The second issue with which I have difficulty relates to the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. The Bill has been under discussion for 1,000 days. That is six and a half years after the first recommendations were made on this legislation. A large number of spurious reasons have been given for delaying the Bill. Many tactics have been used by various Members here and in the Seanad as a result of the massive lobby put on by the alcohol industry. Time had been allowed to discuss the Bill tomorrow night and there is no reason we cannot deal with that. There are 14 Members of this House who are continuing to engage in these kinds of delaying tactics and have tabled all sorts of spurious amendments on the Order Paper. They come from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and, in one case, the Labour Party. I strongly appeal to the Taoiseach and Deputies Micheál Martin and Brendan Howlin to ask their party members to withdraw those amendments. Let us stop the game playing on this and get this important legislation through as quickly as possible.

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