Dáil adjourns for three hours on early completion of Bills

THE DÁIL adjourned unexpectedly yesterday for three hours because of the early completion of a number of Bills.

It was also scheduled to sit for two hours later than normal to allow for debate on two pieces of legislation.

The Broadcasting Bill, which has been going through the Oireachtas for the past 13 months, was completed more than an hour earlier than expected.

Four hours had also been allowed for the second reading of the Companies Bill, legislation to enhance the powers of the Director of Corporate Enforcement to ensure compliance with company law. This, however, was dealt with in just over an hour.

No provision had been made for further legislation, and the Dáil adjourned for three hours at 1.40pm. The adjournment is the longest in recent memory because of mistiming of legislation.

Hours before the adjournment Labour deputy leader Joan Burton pointed out that there had been five guillotines this week on legislation. She asked if the Government was determined to “effectively rule by guillotine, which is the same as ruling by decree”.

She wanted to “lay down a marker as regards the seven proposed guillotines in next week’s business, in particular in relation to the Financial Services (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill for which the Government has provided at the most three hours for the entire Bill.”

This legislation allowed the Minister for Finance to extend the bank guarantee deadline and the Bill “is going to hang like a millstone around the necks of future generations and give the Minister power over something like €60 billion of an increase in the national debt”.

Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton said “the guillotine is undermining proper legislation”. Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said a considerable amount of legislation had to be finalised and if that could be done there could be “more debate”.