Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The reason the passage of that Bill took such a long time is the House decided not to employ the Standing Order that provides for the guillotining of the debate on a Bill if there is a major rush to have it passed. I am not suggesting the Minister should guillotine the debate on this Bill, but he has that power if he is in a major rush to have it passed. However, it could prove to be a futile exercise because the vast majority of his colleagues who want to have the Bill passed quickly have stated if somebody is unduly delaying its passage, he could guillotine the debate.

This idea that there is some Machiavellian way in which people on this side of the House could hold this up indefinitely is not correct. I checked with the Office of the Ceann Comhairle and there is no change in the Standing Orders. I was 99.99% certain of it beforehand because I happen to be a member of the Sub-Committee on Dáil Reform and I knew we had not brought in anything to limit the guillotine. The reason the guillotine does not work like it used to in the old days is that the Government cannot do that against the massed Opposition. In this case, however, the masses of the Dáil are totally in the Minister's favour.

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