Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There certainly is a delay with the committees and the business of the House is being stalled because of that. That is solely the responsibility of the Government for trying to overstep the mark of all previous convention and trying to muddy the waters between the Government and the Opposition for its own advantage, and to neuter the Opposition. It is not good enough for it to have a majority, to control the Dáil schedule and to have a majority on all committees; it also wants to populate the Opposition benches and quieten the voice of the Opposition.

I want to ask about one specific Bill, namely, the Defence (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, by means of which the Government is planning to get rid of the triple lock and launch an attack on our neutrality. When will it come to the House? Is the Government planning to have pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill or is it planning to ram it through? Could we have a timeline and dates? Could we get a commitment that there will not be an attempt to impose a guillotine?

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