Of all of the promised legislation before this House, the abortion legislation has the most unequivocal democratic mandate from the people of this country. It is also has a very definite timeline to make abortion facilities available to women in this country. A minority of people, however, seem to wish to frustrate the democratic wishes of the people in this country, regardless of the consequences for Irish women, and there is now a real danger that legislation will not pass in time. I want to know a number of things. Amendments are normally given a very strict deadline but some have now been accepted from this minority for the Order Paper today. They were debated yesterday but are being brought in again today. I want to know if they are in order. We are never allowed to do that.

They are not out of order.

Regardless of that question, given the obvious attempts by some to frustrate the democratic wishes of the people of this country, at this stage we need to send a clear signal. I refer to sitting on Friday, if necessary, and sitting until this legislation finishes this week. This legislation could also be amended in the Seanad, so the Dáil, if necessary should sit on extra days before Christmas to deal with any amendments that might come from the Seanad. We need a clear signal that this attempt to frustrate the abortion legislation will not succeed and that the legislation will pass into law before Christmas.

I understand that seven and a half hours have been set aside for debate tonight. That is a large block of time and I hope that will be sufficient for us to pass the legislation through the Dáil today. I encourage any Deputies making contributions on this legislation to be pithy and to not repeat arguments they have already made. That is unnecessary and only causes us to take more time than needed. It is fair to say there was a time when things were different, when we had majority Governments and the Government controlled the House. When that was the case, perhaps we stifled debate too quickly and used the guillotine too frequently.

I am not asking for a guillotine. I am asking for a Friday sitting.

That led to bad legislation being enacted. Now we have the other extreme. Legislation is being held up in this House and in the other House. As a consequence, all sorts of other legislation is backing up behind it and that is very frustrating.

What about the Friday sitting?

That is a matter for the Business Committee.