I oppose No. 1 on the Order Paper. I agree with the Senators who have spoken already, including Government Senators, who are concerned about the amount of legislation being brought before the House before the Christmas recess. The Leader spoke about this last week and expressed his frustration, but that does not solve the problem. There are three Bills to be guillotined next week. The Bills may be worthy and we may support some of them-----

No. The debates are not being guillotined.

They are being guillotined if one looks at the proposed schedule for next week. It states Second Stage of the Prisons Bill 2015 will commence at 1 p.m. and conclude at 2.30 p.m. Not all spokespersons will get a chance to speak, and not everybody who wants to contribute will be able to. Perhaps the debates will not be guillotined on Committee and Report Stages, but we do not know. There are two weeks remaining before the Christmas recess is upon us; therefore, at some point it will have to conclude, or is the Leader going to say these Bills can roll over until the new year? Perhaps the Leader would respond to this. It is a clear concern that they could potentially be guillotined. Speaking time is being narrowed: allowing only one and a half hours for Second Stage is not really how the House has done its business up to now. The same goes for the Courts Bill 2015, for which 90 minutes are allowed, which means that not all Senators may get a chance to contribute. There is a guillotine planned for the International Protection Bill, the debate on which must conclude by 7 p.m. with a final question.

The Government promised us a new way of doing politics and a democratic revolution. It promised us that debates on Bills would not be guillotined, but it has guillotined debates on more legislation than the previous Government. It is the same story every year as we move towards Christmas. There is a rush of Bills coming through, but we sit here in September and October looking for legislation and cannot get it. It always seems to be from the Department of Justice and Equality; therefore, they could do with getting their house in order. We will strongly oppose No. 1 and will not co-operate with the Government next week if it seeks to guillotine debate on any of these Bills.