It is proposed to take No. 12, motion re proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the Educational Research Centre (Establishment) Order 2015 - back from committee; No. 13, motion re referral to joint committee of proposed recommendation by Dáil Éireann of appointment of a member of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission; No. 14, motion re Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Bill 2014 – Motion to Instruct Committee; No. 15, motion re proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the Ombudsman Act 1980 (Section 1A) (No. 2) Order 2015; No. 39, Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Bill 2014 - Order for Report Stage and Report and Final Stages; and No. 40, Children First Bill 2014 - Order for Report Stage and Report and Final Stages.

It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that: (1) the Dáil shall sit later than 9 p.m. and adjourn on the adjournment of Private Members’ business which shall be No. 198, motion re social services and support, which shall take place not later than 9.45 p.m. or, in the event a division is in progress at that time, immediately thereafter, and which shall, if not previously concluded, adjourn after 90 minutes; (2) Nos. 12, 13 and 14 shall be decided without debate; (3) the proceedings on No. 15 shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion after 45 minutes and the following arrangements shall apply: (i) the speech of a Minister or a Minister of State and 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; (ii) the speech of each other Member called upon shall not exceed five minutes in each case; (iii) a Minister or a Minister of State shall be called upon to make a speech in reply which shall not exceed five minutes; (4) Report and Final Stages of No. 39 shall be taken today and the proceedings thereon shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion at 8.45 p.m. by one question which shall be put from the Chair and which shall, in relation to amendments, include only those set down or accepted by the Minister for Justice and Equality; and (5) Report and Final Stages of No. 40 shall be taken today and the proceedings thereon shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion at 9.45 p.m. by one question which shall be put from the Chair and which shall, in relation to amendments, include only those set down or accepted by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.

Tomorrow’s business after Oral Questions shall be No. a1, Defence (Amendment) Bill 2015 [Seanad] - Second and Subsequent Stages; and No. 41, Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015 - Order for Report Stage and Report and Final Stages.

It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that Second and Subsequent Stages of No. a1 shall be taken tomorrow and shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion after 95 minutes and the following arrangements shall apply: (i) the proceedings on Second Stage shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion after 70 minutes; the opening speeches of a Minister or a Minister of State and 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; the speech of a Member of the Others shall not exceed five minutes; a Minister or a Minister of State shall be called upon to make a speech in reply which shall not exceed five minutes; and (ii) the proceedings on Committee and Remaining Stages shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion after 25 minutes by one question which shall be put from the Chair and which shall, in relation to amendments, include only those set down or accepted by the Minister for Defence.

There are six 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 Nos. 12, 13 and 14 agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with No. 15 agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with No. 39 agreed to?

It is not agreed. We are again witnessing the unnecessary guillotining of debate on important Bills, in this case, the Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Bill 2014, on which essentially there will be about an hour's debate, followed by the Children First Bill 2014 on which there will also be about an hour's debate this evening. What we have been witnessing is the very bad handling of Dáil business in the past three to four months. In the early stages, from April and May onwards, very little legislation passed through the House. In fact, the House did not sit for quite a number of weeks. It sat for only a day and a half a week after the May bank holiday. I think I counted about 17 sitting days over a long period of time. If we go back over the last six months, the amount of time the Dáil has sat has not been very impressive, particularly in dealing with legislation. We then get to the end stage of the session and, in the past two to three weeks, we have been witnessing the ramming through of Bill after Bill, with debate being guillotined. This throws out the window all of the reforms that were meant to happen in how legislation was to be considered and dealt with in the House. It undermines the status of the House in terms of its credibility in dealing with legislation of importance. It is regrettable that the Government has ordered business in the House in this manner, with very late sittings, up to midnight in some cases, for the last few weeks. It a very shoddy piece of work.

Of course, as today is Bastille Day, the guillotine is out. The Government proposes to guillotine the debate on any number of Bills this week as it races towards the finish line of this Dáil session. I oppose the guillotining of the debate on Report Stage of the Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Bill 2014. What we have seen is four years of foot-dragging in reaching the final stages of the Bill that supposedly is to remove the bank veto. This is important legislation which merits adequate time. Some 29 amendments have been tabled since Committee Stage, some of which are quite detailed and which potentially will lead to substantive changes to the Bill. However, the Government has allocated less than two hours for the debate. If we do the maths, that means about four minutes have been allocated to deal with each individual amendment, which is clearly insufficient. In fact, it is more than insufficient; it is an insult to the Dáil. It is also the case that specific organisations such as FLAC have concerns about the capacity of the Bill to help people in mortgage distress. It has cited, for example, the cut-off date of 1 January 2015 as being problematic because it means that the bank veto is only being removed for those distressed mortgage holders in arrears before that date. There are also concerns that the appeals system will be expensive and unwieldy. The Taoiseach is wrong to try to railroad this and other legislation through the Dáil. It is another example of poor governance and denies the proper democratic oversight important legislation deserves.

Everybody wants this legislation to go through. I have been asked questions about it here for the last number of months. We have been waiting for a very considerable period for amendments to be drafted by Opposition parties and so on.

In respect of what Deputies Martin and McDonald said, I think this Dáil is one of the top parliaments in Europe in terms of the number of days sitting and the length of days sitting. I am glad Deputy McDonald has pointed out the difference between herself and her leader. He says he is not very good at mathematics. Deputy McDonald has worked out precisely from a mathematical formula the length of time that is allocated here.

I thank the Taoiseach. Absolutely.

Fine compliments there.

I figured it was beyond the Government Deputies.

Deputy McDonald must have been out advising Syriza on the mathematics.

Fair play to Deputy McDonald. She is sharper at the maths than her leader.

There is nothing wrong with my maths, I can tell the Taoiseach.

Only when it comes to budgets.

What about the quality of the Friday sittings?

This is legislation which we need to get through. There are people who are demanding it and who need it.

The Taoiseach should stop, for God's sake. He has ignored them for four years. He should give us a break.

It has been talked about for long enough. It is time to do it. It is for the benefit of hard-pressed people who need this fast.

Is the proposal for dealing with No. 40, Order for Report, Report and Final Stages of the Children First Bill 2014 agreed to?

It is not agreed based on the same principle as the opposition to the previous proposal. This again represents a guillotining of a very important Bill, namely, the Children First Bill. The proposal is that Report and Final Stages shall be taken today, but again, there is a very short amount of time to deal with the amendments and the issue itself. Coming after the guillotining of No. 39 it reflects very badly on how this House is being managed and organised by the Government side. It undermines any concept of parliamentary reform or any sense of credibility in terms of how we do our business.

It is a guillotine job.

I agree with those comments. Once again, this is very important legislation that has been awaited for a long time. There has been an inordinate delay in bringing the Bill through the Houses of the Oireachtas but we find ourselves again at the eleventh hour and with a rush to the finishing line and the use of the guillotine, so we object on those grounds also.

There are just four amendments to be addressed. Approximately four and a half hours of discussion was had on the Bill on Committee Stage. It is important legislation and must be progressed.

Is the proposal for dealing with No. a1, Second and Remaining Stages of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2015, tomorrow, agreed to? Agreed. We have three minutes to speak on the Order of Business.