Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this Bill. Sometimes I wonder if we should be thankful for the opportunity to speak on it because it has been such a rushed job to get here. I condemn the way the Government has made a complete farce of the legislative process this week.

We had a committee meeting that was forced to suspend yesterday after discovering that the deadline for Opposition amendments had passed before the committee ended its pre-legislative scrutiny. In the Seanad, the Government guillotined Committee Stage of the circular economy Bill without giving Senators the opportunity to debate the amendments they had submitted. In the Dáil yesterday evening, we took Second Stage of the mica Bill, despite the fact that the deadline for amendments had been earlier that day. We were only made aware on Monday that we would sit today and discuss three Government Bills that had not yet even been published.

Not only does it put incredible stress on the Bills Office and Oireachtas staff, it makes a joke of the whole process when legislation is treated in this way and we do not properly and fully engage with all legislative Stages. It takes away the opportunity for proper scrutiny, which is a fundamental role of Opposition Deputies. Maybe that is the reason it is being rushed through and this deadline has been imposed. Opposition Deputies were willing to cancel constituency appointments and sit later or longer, but not giving us the opportunity to scrutinise all this legislation being rammed through is not acceptable and it happens every year. It shows complete contempt for the parliamentary process.

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