Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is deliberately distorting what I said. I was responding to Deputy Mac Lochlainn, who legitimately raised issues around the sitting of Parliament and so on. I was not justifying anything in regard to the number of days here and so on. I get the impression that Deputy Boyd Barrett wants to create opportunities to hog the debate himself, to the detriment of many other backbenchers from other parties across the House. He wants to create scenarios where he is getting far more of an input than others.

The Deputy knows that it is envisaged that there will be debates on Covid tomorrow. I do not know why he is just ignoring that reality. There will be a 100-minute debate, with statements, questions and answers, on mental health and Covid, which I think most Deputies in the House believe is a very serious issue which should be debated.

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