Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In fairness to the Government, I do not believe it is at fault for all of this. As the Chief Whip said, the number of Bills it has counted does not meet the number of Bills that have been held up. There is a problem with how this is being interpreted. There is a tendency on the part of your office, a Cheann Comhairle, to act as gatekeeper. That is certainly my belief. There was an instance in recent weeks when I put forward an amendment to the Social Welfare Bill 2019. The Government was outlining four or five items that it intended to check and I sought to add one, but it was ruled out of order as being a cost on the State. That is ridiculous given that the Government was outlining all the costs it was going to deal with itself, but one extra item was going to be too prohibitive. There is a problem with this, so I was looking forward to debating it in the House because I believe we must act on it.

Possibly the only way to resolve this would be to let it go to the courts so they can give clarity on it. I can get legal opinion to say that we can do this and you, a Cheann Comhairle, can get legal opinion to say that we cannot. All of that is opinion. We need the courts to adjudicate on it, and perhaps the way to do that is to pass this motion.

See this speech in context