It is proposed to take No. 11, motion re membership of committees; No. 12, motion re Statement of Estimates for the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission; No. 36, Civil Debt (Procedures) Bill 2015 - Second Stage, resumed; and No. 37, Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015 - Order for Report, Report and Final Stages.

It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that: the Dáil shall sit later than 9 p.m. tonight and shall adjourn on the adjournment of Private Members' business which shall be No. 74, Central Bank (Variable Rate Mortgages) Bill 2015 – Second Stage, which shall take place at 8.30 p.m. or in the event a division is in progress at that time, immediately thereafter, and shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion after 90 minutes on Wednesday, 8 July 2015; No. 11 shall be decided without debate; the proceedings in relation to No. 12 shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion after 20 minutes and the following arrangements shall apply: the speech of a Minister or Minister of State and of the main spokespersons for Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the Technical Group, who shall be called upon in that order, shall not exceed five minutes in each case, and such Members may share their time; and the resumed Second Stage of No. 36 shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion at 6.30 p.m. tonight.

Tomorrow's business after Oral Questions shall be as follows: No. 37, Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015 - Report and Final Stages, resumed; No. 12a, National Minimum Wage (Low Pay Commission) Bill 2015 – motion to instruct the committee; No. 38, National Minimum Wage (Low Pay Commission) Bill 2015 - Order for Report, Report and Final Stages; and No. 1, Statute Law Revision Bill 2015 - amendments from the Seanad.

It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that the proceedings in relation to No. 12a shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion after one hour and the following arrangements shall apply: the speech of a Minister or Minister of State and of the main spokespersons for Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the Technical Group, who shall be called upon in that order, shall not exceed 15 minutes in each case; and such members may share their time.

There are five proposals to be put to the House. Is the proposal for dealing with the late sitting agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with No. 11, motion re membership of committees, without debate, agreed to?

It is not agreed. My understanding is that this motion relates to removing Deputy McNamara from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children and from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

This is due to his voting against the Government on an issue. Four years ago, the Government spoke about a democratic revolution, giving Parliament more independence and having more respect for it. One would have assumed that once Deputies were appointed to committees and given their commitment and involvement therein, they would be allowed to continue making their contributions in the autumn of this Dáil.

At least we have a party whip. Deputy Martin is afraid of it.

Hold on.

The Deputy is afraid to enforce his party whip.

The Government is bouncing members off committees.

Deputy Martin wants to play both sides.

It is a form of jackbootism. It is dictatorial.

Have you ever heard such rubbish?

Please. I ask the Minister of State not to interrupt.

The Minister of State can never resist his impulses to demonstrate how tough he is and-----

He is a great man for bouncing people.

At least we have a party whip. Deputy Martin is afraid to enforce it.

-----how such a man of steel can kick people off committees at will-----

Please get on with it.

Deputy Martin cannot be accused of being a man of steel.

Will the Minister of State stay quiet, please?

-----so that the remainder of his backbenchers will be forever in fear of him-----

I-----

The Minister of State must refrain. Perhaps the man beside him might refrain.

-----and what he might do to them if they should ever have the temerity to do something that would be adverse to the Government's position and fortunes. In terms of parliamentary reform and the Parliament's future, this is more a relic of the past than anything we should be doing today or in the future. I disagree fundamentally with what the Government is doing in removing Deputy McNamara from these committees simply because he took a different position from the Government.

Deputies can vote against Fianna Fáil at any time they want.

Yes.

They have a licence from now on.

Deputies, please.

Deputy Martin is entitled to make-----

I am amused by Deputy Deasy, who has from time to time-----

No. Does Deputy Adams agree to this proposal?

The new anarchists.

Through the Chair, I know that the Chief Whip must be concerned, but Deputy Deasy always celebrated his own contrarian and independent streak as a distinctive trademark-----

Thanks very much for all of that.

I do not know what kind of streak Deputy Martin is celebrating.

-----that distinguished him from other members of the mainstream Government parties-----

Deputy Deasy always respected the Whip.

He still has the-----

Deputy Martin has made his point.

-----and has managed to stay on the right side of the Fine Gael law. I oppose this proposal and we will vote against it.

I have no objection.

Even Sinn Féin would not lower itself to Fianna Fáil's standards.

No, but it would lower itself to Fine Gael's.

Deputy Martin, who has been in the House for a long time, knows that-----

Fine Gael and Sinn Féin would be good partners.

-----the membership of committees reflects the parties' strength within the Parliament. It is only fair that people who are on a committee represent the party that appointed them. This is in accordance with long-established procedures.

No. The Government has given up.

Fair play.

The Deputies are quiet.

No whip.

Is the proposal for dealing with No. 12 agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with No. 36 agreed to?

No.

We are not accepting this proposal because it represents a guillotining of debate on a very important Bill. As I have stated consistently in recent months, the way in which the business of the Dáil is being organised is shoddy. There was a valley for months during which little was discussed and few Bills were laid before us, only for us now to be running over ourselves in the last two weeks with Bills, committal orders instructing the Dáil, as will be the case tomorrow in respect of another Bill, and the ramming through of legislation without proper consideration of the issues. This Bill will have significant consequences for many citizens in terms of attachment orders, bills, debt payments and so on. We oppose its guillotining.

I noted that the Chief Whip stated of Fianna Fáil: "Even Sinn Féin would not lower itself to Fianna Fáil's standards." If only the same could be said of Fine Gael. This proposal is a mark of doing Dáil business in a Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil way.

Deputy Adams is handy enough with the guillotines himself.

The guillotine is being used to rush this Bill through the Dáil as quickly as possible. It is regressive legislation that targets the low-paid and people on benefits. Its guillotining raises a number of serious questions, particularly about good governance and whether democracy is functioning in terms of the Government's narrow remit to push its agenda with no consideration for other voices in the Dáil. Conversely, the Government claims that it cannot introduce legislation to stop additional top-ups to the pensions of former Ministers and Taoisigh. The full resources of the Government are being used to guillotine the Second Stage debate of the Civil Debt (Procedures) Bill. Will the Minister consider what the Government is doing? The Bill was published only last month. Its handling is contrary to all of the conventions of the Dáil, as there are supposed to be two weeks between each Stage, yet this has not happened. We object strongly to what is being undertaken.

I am informed that, on Second Stage, six hours of debate were devoted to this Bill. It has been well ventilated in the House. Indeed, towards the end of that debate, there was difficulty getting speakers-----

Not from Sinn Féin.

-----and quorums were being called to continue it. A Government must govern. If parties decide to try to block legislation, the Government must eventually make a decision. The subject matter of the Bill came from the Law Reform Commission and there is broad support for ending the imprisonment of people for debts of this nature. It is sensible legislation and should progress to Committee Stage, having had a good debate on Second Stage. Committee Stage will be provided for.

Is the proposal for dealing with No. 12a tomorrow, National Minimum Wage (Low Pay Commission) Bill 2015 - motion to instruct the committee, agreed to? Agreed.