David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

If it was agreed by the House then that is even worse because it says that this House is not open to reform. I take exception to the Independent Group whose Members are appointed to this House by the Government. They talk about people from outside this Chamber having the right to come in and address this House, which I agree with, but they were part of the decision to prevent the second largest Opposition party from addressing the President of the European Parliament yesterday.

To be respectful, we withdrew an amendment we had tabled to allow for the proper timing of the President to come into this Chamber. In addition, we did not press the issue when the President was here, but it shows a complete lack of willingness by the political parties in government to have any kind of meaningful reform. Even minor requests by Opposition parties are put to one side. This was not about Standing Orders. There was no breach of Standing Orders because this would not have amounted to giving Sinn Féin status as a group. It was nothing of the sort; it was an opportunity to allow us as an Opposition party to welcome an important guest. We have 14 Dáil Members who are equally disgusted at the way in which our party was treated here yesterday.

This brings me to the Order of Business about which I have a question for the Leader. At a time when the lies and hypocrisy of this Government, including broken election promises, are now being exposed, when hospital accident and emergency departments are being closed-----