Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The other Independent Senators and I have collectively discussed the Bill and will strongly support it. The amendment, which will extend the definition in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 to the term "employee" when it is used in the legislation, is necessary and good.

The Bill will create an offence and empower the Minister to make regulations. Those two provisions are being relied on in respect of the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 as amounting to incidental expenditure for the purposes of allowing the Government to veto that legislation under the Standing Orders of Dáil Éireann. While I will not bother the House at great length on the matter, I recently had the opportunity to study in detail the provisions of the Standing Orders of the Dáil, which is a matter usually for that House, and the provisions of the Constitution which it is supposed to reflect. I have come to the view that the Government is wholly wrong in attempting to use the money message veto in respect of a Bill simply because it either creates the right for a Minister to make a regulation or creates an offence which, if it was committed, might or might not cost money to prosecute. Somebody has to call out the Government on the matter because it abuses the Standing Orders of Dáil Éireann.