Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will talk about the changes to Questions on Promised Legislation. I wrote to the Ceann Comhairle and I appreciated his reply explaining the changes are part of a pilot scheme that will go on until the end of the year when it will be discussed again. Our representatives on the Dáil reform committee and the Business Committee have opposed the changes from the beginning. It is an unfair system. We had dealt with the queuing and there was no issue. We had used a card system, which we thought was fair. The system rewarded a Deputy who was interested in getting up in the morning, going out and collecting his or her card early, and getting the opportunity to raise a question. The new system will reward the Government. It already has plenty of speaking slots and its representatives are failing to turn up for many of their allotted speaking times. We need to go back to the system that was there because it was fair to everybody. It was open to everybody to queue, submit a question and raise issues of considerable concern.

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