Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

People have criticised Ministers for not coming into the House but we must get our own house in order. I raise again the role we can play in European legislation. I understand a letter was sent to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission about the allocation of staff to deal with that issue. That was more than six weeks ago and I am anxious that the Deputy Leader looks at this issue again - the setting aside of time to deal with very important legislation.

We have been here now for 12 months. Recently it took us 90 minutes to have nine votes. We must look at our own procedures and use our time more efficiently. We are reluctant to move with the times and we will soon be entering a major debate on this. We must show the electorate we are prepared to change with the times. I am not convinced that has happened yet. I have no difficulty with votes being called but I have a difficulty with there being an electronic system in place but it still takes 20 minutes to deal with the issue once a vote is called. We need to move on from there.