David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to add to the Senator's comments. I have just received a copy of the Report Stage amendments from the Bills Office. Senators had no choice but to table amendments late because the House sat late last night. The difficulty is that the Government is trying to ram through seven or eight Bills this week. It wants to guillotine the Bill and not give anybody, ranging from the staff, the Bills Office and Senators, enough time to table amendments and scrutinise legislation. The fault does not lie with the Bills Office, the Leader or Senators. For a number of weeks over the past number of months we did not sit for a number of days and no legislation came through. In the last week of the session the Government wants to ram through all of the legislation because it suits. That is not good enough. I want the Minister to convey the message that it is not fair to treat the Seanad, the staff of the Bills Office and Seanad, and Senators in this way. It is appalling.