Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

They are not agreed. The contempt the Government has demonstrated towards the Opposition in recent weeks in rushing through legislation with guillotines applied across the board is totally unacceptable. The disrespect for sectoral committees and for the Opposition's duty and responsibility to scrutinise legislation is totally unacceptable. There is not enough time to debate the local property tax Bill, for example.

On foot of the proposed emergency health legislation, an emergency meeting of the Business Committee was held earlier and the Opposition indicated it would agree to more sitting days. We have no opposition to additional sitting days and we could even sit next week. Let us take enough time to go through these matters.

The Maritime Jurisdiction Bill 2021 formally cedes Rockall to Britain and that has never been done in legislation before. It has 45 minutes allocated to the debate but Sinn Féin has submitted dozens of amendments. It is derisory and disrespectful and the order must change. I ask the Taoiseach to agree to more sitting days this week and next week.

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