Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I move:

That, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders:

1. (i) there shall be no Order of Business today within the meaning of Standing Order 26;

(ii) there shall be no Leaders' Questions today pursuant to Standing Order 27;

(iii) oral questions shall not be taken today;

(iv) matters may not be raised today under the provisions of Standing Order 21(3) or 32; and

(v) business shall be suspended until 7 p.m. on the conclusion of the motion on the Nomination of Members of the Government;

2. The proceedings on the motion on the Nomination of Members of the Government shall be taken at 3.15 p.m. and brought to a conclusion at 6.15 p.m. today by one question which will be put from the Chair, any division demanded thereon shall be taken manually, and the following arrangements shall apply:

(i) the speeches of the Taoiseach and of the Leader of Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the Green Party and Sinn Féin, or a person nominated in his stead, who shall be called upon in that order, shall not exceed 15 minutes in each case;

(ii) the speech of each other Member called upon shall not exceed ten minutes in each case;

(iii) Members may share time; and

(iv) a member of the Government or Minister of State shall be called upon to make a speech in reply which shall not exceed ten minutes.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I object to the moving of this motion and propose the deletion of all words after "that" and their replacement with:

Notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, the proceedings and the motion of nomination of Members or Members of the Government shall be taken immediately after Leaders' Questions and shall continue after Private Members' business and conclude at 10.30 p.m. by one question which shall be put from the Chair; and any division demanded thereon shall be taken manually.

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Ceann Comhairle)
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Is the Deputy formally moving that amendment?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Yes. I move amendment No. 1:

That all words after "that" be deleted and replaced with the following:

"Notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, the proceedings and the motion of nomination of Members or Members of the Government shall be taken immediately after Leaders' Questions and shall continue after Private Members' business and conclude at 10.30 p.m. by one question which shall be put from the Chair; and any division demanded thereon shall be taken manually."

The Taoiseach and the members of his Government have returned to this House, after an absence of two weeks, at a time when Molesworth Street is filled with people waiting for passports and there is increasing panic in financial circles that more and more liquidations and insolvencies are being recorded.

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Ceann Comhairle)
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I remind the Deputy that we are dealing with a procedural motion.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I understand that.

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy has proposed an amendment to a procedural motion.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Yes. I do not agree that this State should fall down on its constitutional responsibility to provide the citizens of this State with passports as they pursue their right to travel, as determined by a High Court case in the 1980s.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It is clear that the Government is falling down on its constitutional responsibilities, as well as its political responsibilities to focus on the real needs of the people.

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Ceann Comhairle)
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There will be ample opportunity to make these points at a later stage.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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For that reason, a Cheann Comhairle-----

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Ceann Comhairle)
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I ask the Deputy to stick with the procedural motion.

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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People who have got jobs abroad cannot go to them.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It smacks of the height of arrogance that, after a fortnight's absence from the House, the Taoiseach has come in here to blandly say we will have no Leaders' Questions, no questions to the Taoiseach and no Adjournment debate. He did not say whether there will be any answerability or accountability on the issues that are affecting people all over the country. For that reason, I strongly oppose the Government motion and propose that we continue with Leaders' Questions in the ordinary way. I believe we should extend the sitting of the Dáil until 10.30 p.m. and have a vote on the proposals the Taoiseach will make.

P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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There should be no cover-up.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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I would also like to object to the manner in which the Taoiseach proposes we should deal with the long-heralded reshuffle of the Cabinet, which is to be announced today. He has proposed that the House should resume at 3.15 p.m. in order that he can make the announcement and the leaders of the parties can make 15-minute statements in the House. That will account for an hour of the debate. A further ten minutes will be accounted for when a Government Minister wraps up at the end of the debate. The remaining hour and 50 minutes will be divided equally between Government and Opposition speakers. Therefore, Opposition Deputies will have 55 minutes in which to comment on changes in the Government. We do not yet know what the extent of such changes will be. The changes may relate purely to personnel.

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Timmy Dooley might be promoted.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Legislation may be required if the structure of Departments is to be changed. In any event, these changes will require some teasing out by the Members of the House. I refer to issues like the functioning of Departments, the division of various responsibilities, the appropriateness of linking a particular policy area with another area, the cost of changing Departments and the manner in which such changes might sit with the Government's previous policy on decentralisation. It will not be possible to address all such issues in the length of time that is proposed. Under an alternative proposal made by the Labour Party Whip, Deputy Stagg, the business of the House would continue until 9 p.m. - we do not particularly object to the proposal to start considering these matters now - and we would have a minimum of six hours for the debate. In the original business that was notified to us, we were told the vote on the composition of the Cabinet would take place at 7 p.m. When the media managers got hold of that proposal, the relevant time was changed to 6 p.m. because they felt it might make a nice picture for television to have the newly appointed Ministers driving to Áras an Uachtaráin at 6 p.m. to receive their seals of office.

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Will they go there by bicycle?

John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Perhaps they will drive up Molesworth Street.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The rights of the elected Members of the House, who represent the people, to comment and to express an opinion on the composition of the Cabinet and the structure of Departments is being sacrificed again for the headline, the picture and the public relations spin. This is a signal that this is more about public relations than about good government.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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It is not just about the rights of voices in this House, it is about the responsibilities of voices in this House. We have, within a stone's throw of this institution, citizens of the State who are going through a traumatic time-----

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Ceann Comhairle)
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I have to remind Deputy Ó Caoláin that this is a procedural motion-----

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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That is correct.

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Ceann Comhairle)
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-----and there will be ample opportunities to make these points.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I am asking about procedure, but the Ceann Comhairle did not let me finish my first sentence. Will he settle back and allow a little bit of fair play? I am indicating that we have citizens outside this institution who are going through a traumatic time in their lives and for their children. There is no accommodation of address of these matters in the proposed ordering of business for today. Whatever about the shuffling of the deck of cards across from us and whatever other changes may be presented, there are real and harrowing issues that must be addressed, issues that have grown in their importance and in their need of substantive address since last we sat in this Chamber. Yet the Taoiseach is proposing that we ignore all of that, that we have the business only of the so-called Cabinet reshuffle and Private Members' business to follow.

That is simply not good enough, and more is expected from the Members of this House against all of the calamitous situations that are ongoing in the lives of ordinary people. This is absolutely unacceptable and I re-emphasise that it is our responsibility and that collectively there is a failure in terms of address of these matters in what the Taoiseach is proposing. Accordingly, the Sinn Féin Deputies will oppose this proposition.

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Ceann Comhairle)
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I am obliged to dispose of the amendments.

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Ceann Comhairle)
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As amendment No. 3 has been lost, amendments Nos. 1 and 2, as a consequence, cannot be moved.