Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In a week when we in the Opposition called for the urgent introduction of temporary targeted measures to alleviate the real hardship caused by the cost-of-living crisis, we are instead seeing urgency in the rushing through of Bills. Yet, there is no urgency in bringing forward measures that should have been done to address the cost-of-living crisis. Instead, we see five Bills will be shoehorned into five hours of debate on Committee and Remaining Stages tomorrow. These are significant Bills, including the remediation of dwellings Bill addressing the hardship experienced by many families due to mica, with no time for pre-legislative scrutiny and adequate consideration of the amendments. That is just one of the five Bills. Another is the Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill, about which many civil society organisations have expressed serious concerns. It is again being shoehorned in, with 45 minutes given to address Committee and Remaining Stages. It is simply not good enough for the Government to seek to order its business in this way. We oppose the Order of Business for that reason.

See this speech in context