Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)

Before I start, I would like to put on the record again my concerns about the amount of Dáil time that is given over to statements. Since the Government was formed, we have dealt with only two pieces of health legislation on the floor of the Dáil, and only one of those was new legislation. The other Bill, the Mental Health Bill, was restored from the previous Dáil. This is not good enough. We need law reform in a host of areas and I would like to see some of those progressed. In fact, only last week I published a Private Members' Bill. I would be happy to work with the Minister to use Government time to progress that legislation, if necessary.

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