Dáil debates
Tuesday, 29 September 2020
An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
3:00 pm
Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source
It is not agreed. I will not waste the House's time with another vote as people will want to get on with other business but we had a discussion about the length of time that would be made available for the debates on Covid and on the winter plan. A number of members of the Business Committee made it clear that we wanted a slot of two hours and ten minutes for each debate and that we wanted each debate to be taken separately. The times have been reduced back to one hour and 45 minutes each which means that, yet again, smaller groups and parties will have ridiculously short speaking slots to respond to very important issues. That is unacceptable. It is another consequence of the Government's rigging of the speaking arrangements in the House. It does a very serious disservice to the public and to democracy. The slots should be as were requested at the meeting of the committee, that is, two hours and ten minutes for each debate.
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