Seanad debates

Thursday, 4 December 2008

10:30 am

Photo of Donie CassidyDonie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

Senator O'Toole informed me he objected in the strongest possible terms. First, this is the norm in the Dáil. Second, it has been done before in the Twenty-third Seanad. The House will sit for the next three Fridays and it is an effort to start business with the Minister of the day. There are three other days' sittings when we will take Adjournment Matters and other matters of importance.

If an urgent matter arises between Thursday morning and Friday morning, as the leaders know, I would not be reluctant to allocate time to have it brought to the attention of the House, under the stewardship of the Cathaoirleach. Tomorrow there will be an all-day debate on the economy, which every Member has requested. As we all know, it is a serious challenge to the whole nation and to the Government. On one of the other Friday sittings we will deal with Second Stage of the Finance Bill, a huge Bill that will come before the House for consideration. On the other Friday, two Bills will be brought before the House. If there were only one other sitting day during the week, I would accept that is unreasonable, but I do not believe it is unreasonable when there are three other sitting days that allow for nine Adjournment Matters to be raised in total over the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

I arranged business in this way so that we would all get out of here by 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock on Friday evening. Some colleagues have to go home to Waterford, Kerry and Donegal and, if possible, it would get them home by midnight. That is the spirt in which I am doing this. To have the Minister for Finance present in the Chamber for two out of those three Friday sittings is of the utmost importance. If the Committee on Procedure and Privileges does not have to meet, I will put the correct wording to the House 30 minutes after the Order of Business. Colleagues at the group meeting knew that this was what I was proposing to do this week.

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