Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I wish to return to the point I made yesterday about legislation. Looking at the Order Paper for today, one can see 12 Bills tabled by various Members on this side of the House that are yet to be dealt with: two from Senator Bacik, three from me, two from Senator Quinn and others from Senators Coghlan, Regan, Ryan, Alex White and Cummins. I note that yesterday in the other House there was a row and questions about why the Multi-Unit Development Bill 2009 was reposing in the Seanad. I do not blame Members of the other House for asking what we are doing with the Bill on Report Stage. We have business that could be done now. The Government should either move ahead with these Bills or produce its own, but we should be spending at least half our time dealing with legislation. I ask the Cathaoirleach to use his influence in this regard. To ensure the image of the House is projected properly, we need to do this work. I ask the Leader to bring this matter to the attention of the Government. If it cannot provide legislation, there are 12 Bills on the Order Paper produced by the Opposition at no cost to the Exchequer or the Civil Service, by employing our own draftsmen and so on, which could be dealt with. I ask the Leader to consider this seriously in order that we would be seen to be doing our work.