Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I make the same point. I was at yesterday's meeting of the Business Committee. The time was changed without any consultation. There are people in this House who want the Business Committee destroyed and for it to be defunct. The motion proposing no confidence in the Tánaiste is a Sinn Féin motion, but the Government decided to table a countermotion. That is its right and there is precedent for that. However, the trick of the loop is the speaking time. We are down to five minutes for our group, and all other Opposition parties are restricted in their time. There is also the fact we are here for 20 minutes or so and will then be decamping across the river to the convention centre at enormous cost. That is a waste of time given that we will vote on the Finance Bill in the convention centre tomorrow in any event. It is a display of pure heavy-handedness in an effort to crush the Opposition. I object to it in the strongest manner.

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