Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I shall not call a vote on the first issue that I wish to raise. I urge the Leader to arrange a debate on the motion set out in No. 2 on the Order Paper. Every day that one comes into the Seanad there are calls for us to deal with the scrutiny of European legislation. Today we have been asked to adopt, without debate, the EU scrutiny work programme 2013 of the Oireachtas joint committees' priorities. I appeal to the Leader to reconsider his proposal and to arrange a debate. For some considerable time Members on both sides have called for an opportunity to scrutinise EU legislation. The least that we can do is to debate a motion and not just an item that is laid down in the Order Paper. It seems completely illogical and somewhat farcical that we have calls every day to adopt issues yet a motion to adopt an EU scrutiny work programme is proposed to be adopted without debate.