Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has to accept the Government is making a bags of this. It threw in an amendment in the Seanad at the last minute and now the Minister of State is coming in here for a guillotined debate on an amendment that could have extremely far-reaching consequences and he is telling us to just accept what he has read out. There has been no proper oversight, scrutiny or pre-legislative scrutiny of this amendment and the Government is doing it at the last minute. On no level would the Minister of State accept, as a Deputy in this House never mind a Minister of State, that this is the way to do business. The Government is chucking in the amendments in the Seanad and then coming in here in a time-limited manner and hoping to get away with it. It is not good enough. We are going to be opposing this amendment and pushing it to a vote.

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