Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

Yesterday the Leader outlined in his reply on the Order of Business that we had quite a number of Bills to deal with in this term. Why are these Bills not being debated now to prevent a flood of Bills in the last few weeks of the term? This is an ongoing problem. I do not know whether the Leader is at fault or whether the various Departments are not bringing these Bills forward for the Leader to introduce. It is certainly a problem that must be addressed because it is happening on an ongoing basis. We all know that rushed legislation can be bad legislation.

Why will the Leader not allow a number of the Bills from the Opposition side that are on the Order Paper to be introduced in Government time? Bills are introduced by this side of the House in Private Members' time, the latest example being the Independent Members later today. Surely there should be a response from the Leader to allow some of these Bills to be addressed in Government time when there is not sufficient legislation coming to the House.

I agree with Senator Boyle that we should have a debate on the broadcasting regulations on sport and the free-to-air programmes. If the Minister, Deputy Ryan, persists with his proposals for rugby football, he will cut off the IRFU's funding stream totally and he will destroy rugby football in this country. It is about time we had a debate on this issue, as Senator Boyle requested previously.