I wish to support my colleagues regarding the amendment to the Order of Business and the proposal that the Taoiseach and Government Chief Whip should come into the House. Members are not seeing the democratic revolution promised by Fine Gael and the Labour Party when they came into government but are seeing an abandonment of the democratic process. The suspension of Standing Orders is the suspension of the rule of law in this House.

Tell that to Senator Crown.

It is a shameful event for any Government to use a process that should only be used in emergencies to get its own way and to ensure it has a majority. As the Taoiseach stated in the other House, we cannot proceed until the Government has a majority. As to the reason, it is because it wishes to predetermine the outcome, which already is written. This report could already have been written and left on some shelf. The committee will go through the process and then will have the result but it is a foregone conclusion. What is shameful about this, after what Members witnessed last week and today, is that the Government undoubtedly is pushing through its agenda and will make sure this kangaroo court, that is, this banking inquiry, will drag people in front of politicians-----

I thought the Senator was in favour of it.

-----and because the Government has now manufactured a majority on the committee, it will predetermine the outcome. Shame on all those Members opposite, because today they are abandoning the rule of law inside this House-----

The Government has a majority.

-----in order that the Whip opposite and the Leader opposite, who did not get their way-----

Senator Coghlan, you have indicated you wish to speak.

As for the democratically-convened meeting of this House in Select Committee, they have now abandoned it.

The Senator is over time.

As they do not like the outcome, they intend to change it.

I call Senator Paul Coghlan.

That is a disgrace to democracy.

Members have heard a lot about democracy here. I support the motion, which I hope will allow Members to move on. It is good for the House that there will be four Senators on the committee rather than two. Moreover, as Members will be aware on foot of the release by the Committee on Procedures and Privileges that was issued yesterday evening, this of necessity in its initial stages is a scoping inquiry, not a bank inquiry. While it is to be hoped that in due course it will become a banking inquiry seamlessly, apparently that is not scheduled to happen until late in the autumn in any event. This will allow both the committee and Members to move on and it will enable it to have its necessary initial meetings before the summer recess. In brief, I welcome it and I believe it has excellent members. It already had and I believe two further excellent members will be added.

That is according to the Senator's side of the House.

I ask Senator Daly to listen. The Government is the Government because the people put it there.

Does the Senator have a question for the Leader?

That is why it has the majority.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, "That No. 13 on the Order Paper be taken before No. 1." I also wish to state I am shocked by the disgraceful tampering on the part of the Government to try to fix this banking inquiry. Members should consider what they are trying to achieve in this regard. Is not the purpose of the banking inquiry to get to the truth of what happened? If that is its purpose, why can Members not move ahead and accept those who were nominated last week have the expertise to achieve that aim? This is exactly what the public hates about politics. It is about everything that is wrong with politics to try to tamper with an inquiry like this, because it is perceived to fix the result. I do not state that necessarily is what will happen but that is how it appears. I appeal to Members on the Government side to reconsider what they are doing here because they are reducing people's faith in the political process. Why must a Government always believe it needs a majority in everything? The purpose of this inquiry is to get to the truth and Members should accept the democratic outcome of last week's committee meeting.