Paul Murphy condemns government 'bulldozing' of Dáil business

Thanks, Ken Corlett. It is appropriate that we have a question today on the Parliamentary Liaison Unit of the Government, because the behaviour of the Government in relation to the Parliament in the last week has been quite striking in the bullying approach of the Government, using its majority to bulldoze things through without even proper discussion. Two examples in one week, last Thursday, the bringing in of the motion to ram through the increase in the property tax without prelegative scrutiny, without the agreement even of the relevant committee. And this week, far more seriously, unprecedented, discriminatory legislation that poses a threat to public health, and the Government plans to get it through against the opposition in the business committee of every single opposition group, plans to get it through in one day. How is that a democratic approach to these important issues? I mean, I am against the substance of what is in it, but at the very least, do you not accept that we should have had a debate about this over a proper period of time, and the way the Government is doing it risks making very serious mistakes? I would say the Deputy Mayor has the broader issue of guillotining of bills and so on. I think on climate change, for example, a lot of views were taken on board through the Oireachtas Committee, both a prelegislation phase and subsequently. And it is a bill that has gone through change as it has gone through the House, and yet it is a groundbreaking piece of legislation. I think it has been a very active legislative session, and the balance has to be struck between, you know, having due time for debate on legislation, and also getting legislation through. Because we have a housing crisis. Housing is a huge crisis, and there has been a very active session on a range of housing initiatives, legislative initiatives by the Minister, which we do need to get through. We do need to get the Land and Development Agency on a statutory basis to get on with the business of building houses and getting houses built. We do need the affordability bill through, and I am glad it has been passed by this House to enable people to be able to buy houses that they can afford. We can have paralysis by analysis, or we can have agility and some degree of speed and efficiency and get things done as well. I think more broadly speaking, in relation to some of the issues that have been raised. Sometimes I would say to the opposition, on the far left in particular, I come in here many weeks, and almost in the beginning every week there was a demand for a debate on something. I am not saying it was not important, but the balance between a legislative chamber and a debating chamber sometimes gets lost here. And deputies seem to be more interested in statements and debates than actually giving more time to legislation. And then complain afterwards that there is not enough time for legislation. Legislation? I think the week itself is short. I think the time, I have been saying this consistently in opposition and in government, the time they voted and allocated for legislation for government time is tight enough with the best will in the world. And many people do use the House now for platform. That is their entitlement. They are elected. But let's not pretend it is all one-sided here in terms of the management of our time, the utilization of our time, or how individual deputies or different parties will use their time in the Dáil. And I think there are both sides to that argument and that debate. And there are many sides to it, actually. And different parties will have different perspectives and different emphasis in that regard. And I think that needs to be said. So, now that you're doing alright, we're doing well. When I'm doing well, you're doing well. I'm doing well. So I'm doing well. Take care, everybody. Thank you.