Could I ask the Minister whether it is proposed to give extra Government time to clear the backlog of the approximately 100 Private Members' Bills that have been published? The Government seems short of legislative business but there is plenty of legislation before the House and all we do is deal with it on a Friday. Would the Minister be amenable to the idea that we would give time during the week when we are short of Government legislation to deal with Private Members' Bills in order to reduce the list? At the rate we are going it will be years before we get through the 100 Bills that have been published by Members of this House into which they have put great effort.

At the previous meeting in which I was involved Ministers were contending for space in the House to advance Government legislation. A plethora of Government legislation is available and there is more time now than was ever the case in the House for Private Members' Bills.

There are more Bills now.

The Friday sittings are an initiative of the Government and Deputy Ó Cuív knows as well as I do that Private Members' legislation has always been taken in Private Members' time in the past and somehow we managed. Perhaps it was the case in those days that Members did not have the same familiarity with legislation as is the case now, but my impression is that there are still many who are strangers to legislating.