Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

First, I am disappointed that my proposed amendment and the amendment from Deputy Gibney were ruled out of order. I understand the reason given was that they were not in line with the spirit of the Bill. Deputy Gibney's amendment sought to have the maximum number of junior Ministers set at 20, while I sought to have it set at 15. It seems to me that this is legislation changing the number of junior Ministers. I wonder whether, if we had changed the proposed figure from 20 to 24, it would have been in order. Are we only allowed to increase the number of junior Ministers and not decrease it? Perhaps we can discuss that somewhere.

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