It is proposed to take No. a20, motion re sittings and business of Dáil; No. 20, motion re withdrawal of Road Traffic Bill 2014; No. 21, motion re referral to select sub-committee of proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the terms of the agreements between the European Union and Canada, the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; and No. 37, Water Services Bill 2014 - Committee Stage (resumed).

It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that the Dáil shall sit later than 9 p.m. and adjourn at the conclusion of Topical Issues; that Nos. a20, 20 and 21 shall be decided without debate; that Private Members' business shall be No. 70, Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Right to Personal Autonomy and Bodily Integrity) Bill 2014 - Second Stage; and that tomorrow's business after Oral Questions shall be No. 37, Water Services Bill 2014 - Committee Stage (resumed).

There are two proposals to be put to the House. Is the proposal for dealing with the late sitting agreed to?

No, I object to the way business has been ordered for today and the rest of the week and was ordered last week. It is extraordinary, for example, that Topical Issues have been moved to 10 p.m. The debate is meant to provide an opportunity for Deputies to raise and give a profile to an issue that is topical and obtain a response, yet it is proposed to take the debate at 10 p.m. The Government made a big thing of this at the beginning of this Dáil when it changed the name from the Adjournment Debate to Topical Issue Matters, provided more time for the debate and held it at the start as opposed to the end of the day. Last week the debate was arbitrarily taken off the agenda at the whim of the Government parties. This week it will be held at 10 p.m. this evening, 11 p.m. tomorrow and 8.30 p.m. on Thursday. This illustrates that the Government's commitment to Dáil reform has been an abject failure.

The seeds of many of the issues that have arisen in recent weeks in terms of disruption of the Dáil and so forth were sown in the Government's arbitrary approach to the regulation of the House, with business changing from day to day. Tomorrow the debate on the Water Services Bill will essentially be guillotined in the evening. Any sense that the Dáil has an input into how things are done in terms of the organisation of the House is being undermined by the Government to suit its political agenda from day to day. I oppose the proposal that the Dáil sit later than 9 p.m. for these reasons. I cannot for the life of me understand the reason the Topical Issue debate was not scheduled for 1 p.m. Why did the sitting start at 2 p.m. when we could have met at noon or 1 p.m.? The relevant Deputies and Ministers would have made it their business to be here. Playing fast and loose with the daily schedule, as the Government is doing at will, is not good enough.

May I also speak to No. a20?

We will deal, first, with the proposal for dealing with the late sitting.

The way in which the Government which majored on Dáil reform, political reform and so forth has ordered the business of the House in the past short period is incomprehensible and does not make sense. It is all about trying to rush through measures without proper scrutiny - that is the crucial point. It is not that we want to prolong or have an artificial debate but that we want to scrutinise the measures being brought forward. The Topical Issue debate is a very important tool for Teachtaí Dála of all parties, including the Government parties, to raise issues which are topical. The business, as proposed, has been reordered, as it was in recent weeks. I oppose the proposed late sitting and give notice that Sinn Féin will also oppose No. a20.

I, too, am concerned, although I will leave my remarks and objection until the discussion on the next proposal, No. a20, which deals with the guillotining of the debate on the Water Services Bill.

The Government changed the way business was conducted by changing the old Adjournment Debate which was held at midnight or 1 a.m. for years without anyone showing an interest in it. On a small number of occasions, we have had to change the time of the Topical Issue debate, which normally takes place in the course of the day. The debate gives Deputies the right to ask questions and obtain answers from Ministers.

We are in the closing stages of this session. The Water Services Bill was published on 2 December and so far there have been 11 hours of debate on Second Stage and 13 hours of debate on Committee Stage. Of the 46 Committee Stage amendments submitted, 16 were ruled out of order. When the debate was adjourned on Friday, Deputies had voted on amendment No. 29 and were debating section 7. Fourteen amendments remain to be debated in eight groups on Committee Stage. The Minister and a number of Deputies have indicated that they intend to table amendments on Report Stage. The Committee Stage debate is scheduled to resume after the Order of Business and continue until 8.30 p.m. when we will take Private Members' business which will be followed by the Topical Issue debate. The debate will resume at 10.45 a.m. on Wednesday and continue until noon when we will take Leaders' Questions, the Order of Business and statements on the European Council. It will resume again at 2 p.m. and continue until 6 p.m. when we will have a sos for one hour. The debate on Report and Final Stages will commence at 7 p.m. and continue until 9.30 p.m. when the House will take Private Members' business and the Topical Issue debate before rising at 11.50 p.m. If Deputies wish to take the Topical Issue debate at the time scheduled for statements on the European Council, I do not mind. The Water Services Bill will then be brought to the Seanad where the Second Stage debate has been scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. on Thursday, 18 December, with Committee Stage scheduled to be taken at 10 a.m. on Friday, 19 December, and Report Stage being taken subsequently. The Seanad may also sit on Monday, 22 December. The schedules of both Houses are subject to change.

The proposal which aims to bring some cohesion to the remainder of the debate is to group the Committee Stage amendments to the Bill in the way that is normally done, for instance, in the case of the Finance Bill. There are rankings of committee proposals in order of priority. A number have been ruled out of order and all of the others will be discussed individually.

Is the Taoiseach referring to today's business?

I am referring to the business for today and tomorrow.

The first issue to be dealt with is the proposal for dealing with the late sitting.

I am not sure whether Deputy Micheál Martin's party was represented at the Whips' meeting earlier at which these matters were discussed.

Is the proposal for the late sitting agreed to?

Is the proposal for dealing with Nos. a20, 20 and 21 agreed to?

It is not agreed. What we have here is the arbitrary rescheduling of the Dáil to suit the Government's political agenda. I have not heard any rationale as to why the Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill should be withdrawn, given the numbers of lives lost on the roads and so on. There is always an imperative to have legislation like this passed. In terms of how the Dáil is organised, we will be writing to the Ceann Comhairle about the need for a radical change in how we do our business. The Government has to lead on this. We sent our document on political reform to it over a year ago-----

You had 75 years.

The bottom line is that a democratic revolution was passed. We are witnessing a constant and consistent suppression of the rights of Deputies to articulate issues, whether it is Question Time or Topical Issue debates being circumscribed and restricted, as they have been, on a consistent basis or otherwise. We now have the guillotining of Bills. The Minister, Deputy Varadkar, more or less told the Seanad yesterday that Senators had better shape up and pass the Water Services Bill without amendment.

He did not say any such thing.

If they did not, the original regime would apply and people would pay higher charges, despite the fact they have been deferred to April by the Government. This kind of approach, namely, that we do things the Government's way or there will be consequences, is the very antitheses-----

You had five or six guillotines a day.

-----of the Dáil reform that was promised by the Government. The Taoiseach said it would do things differently, and every political party signed up for change at the time of the general election. Nothing has happened in that regard. The Taoiseach, in the last reply-----

I think you have made your point.

-----went through three days of the ordering of the business of the House and the rationale behind it. There is no rationale behind having Topical Issue debates at 11 p.m.

You used to have adjournments at midnight every day.

The consistent approach to trying to manage the House is causing difficulties for the House and Ceann Comhairle. I do not want to draw the Office of the Ceann Comhairle into it, but it is causing difficulties in terms of ongoing disruption. I do not tolerate some of the behaviour of others, but if the Taoiseach does not treat the House with respect, the House then falls into disrepute, which is a major issue.

We will call a vote on this measure. The guillotine is being imposed on Committee and Report Stages of the Bill. We have to remember that this is the Government's second chance at this Bill. It is highly controversial, unpopular and unfair. Can I use the word "hames"?

You could, or "a hash".

It made a complete hames of it and ignored everything that was said and every amendment. It did not accept one amendment from Sinn Féin. This time, it is doing the same thing. It is rushing the Bill through. It has been edifying that the debate we have had here has exposed some of the flaws in the Bill. The notion that one can get something wrong once, and then twice, is not the way to do business. One would imagine that the Government would be a bit sensitive about this issue, given that it is a major issue in the public mind. Sinn Féin is opposed to the guillotine being imposed.

It is not acceptable in any sense, in particular in regard to the Water Services Bill, that a guillotine would be imposed. The Bill would have progressed much faster if the Minister had not come in here last week and tied himself up in knots, giving wholly contradictory figures to the Dáil and being unable to answer the legitimate and forensic questions from Opposition Deputies.

In regard to the ludicrous so-called conservation scheme, theoretically water charges will leave houses at the same time as social welfare bills will arrive to pay partly for them. The Minister could not answer the most basic questions and disappeared a third of a million households in providing only €130 million for so-called conservation grants. A grant of €100 would cost €165 million.

We are not debating the issue; we are only debating the timing.

Yes, but one can see the problem with shutting down the debate. In terms of income, the Minister provided €271 million next year for income, but has lost €218 million.

We can deal with that when we deal with the Bill.

If the Minister is acknowledging that there will be a significant level of non-payment and boycott, he should say so rather than trying to arrogantly shout down the legitimate questions of Opposition Deputies. I recommend that there be no guillotine. I strongly recommend that the Government postpone further consideration of this Bill until January, when we can have a full and logical enumeration of the figures and the realities, and suspend the water charges until then. With the benefit of a month of contemplation, perhaps the Government will abolish the odious water charges anyway, which is what will happen, whether it takes six months or a year. It will take no more than 18 months.

I thank Deputies for their comments. In regard to what Deputy Martin said, he is aware of what is required. When the Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill was introduced, it was as a Dáil Bill. It is a matter of considerable importance. In order to bring it before the Seanad, which the Minister proposes to do, a motion has to be moved to withdraw it from the Dáil timetable. The Whip has met all spokespersons, including those from Fianna Fáil, and this is the reason the motion appeared today. It is being brought before the Seanad because it is of such considerable importance.

In respect of the adjustment of the timetable, another change introduced by the Government was to have comments before, as well as after, European Council meetings. I am quite prepared to come in tomorrow at 11 p.m. and discuss the European Council agenda. The time allocated for Topical Issues can be substituted for the time allocated originally for European Council statements after the Order of Business tomorrow, with the proviso that the time for Topical Issues might have to be brought forward. If Deputy Martin is agreeable, I am happy to come in tomorrow at 11 p.m. and discuss the European Council. He can discuss his important Topical Issue after the Order of Business tomorrow if he wishes.

The cynical smile of the Whip shows the truth of the cynical approach.

That is not a smile, it is a grin.

There were 11 hours of debate on Second Stage and 13 hours so far on Committee Stage. Deputies Adams and Higgins mentioned the conservation grant. The same applies in respect of unemployment lists. When the Minister of the day introduces a budget at the end of any year, there may be an increase in the unemployment rate, which has to be catered for, or the number of medical cards to be granted, or whatever. The allocation of €130 million may well have to be increased, and if it has to be increased-----

We will not go there.

-----then that is what will happen.

This is about time.

The Fianna Fáil spokesperson on the environment, who is not here, talked about paying for that money and the removal of USC from increased taxation. Perhaps he might explain that to the population at large.

The time for the Order of Business is up, but I will allow the two party leaders to ask a quick question.

Do not forget the Technical Group.