The Order of Business is No. a1, motion regarding the eighth report of the Committee of Selection, to be taken on conclusion of the Order of Business without debate; No. 1, motion regarding the arrangements for the sitting of the House on Monday, 9 July, to be taken on conclusion of No. a1 without debate; No. 2, Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2018, all Stages, to be taken on conclusion of No. 1, with the time allocated to group spokespersons for the debate on Second Stage not to exceed six minutes and all other Senators not to exceed four minutes, and the Minister to be given no less than five minutes to reply to the debate, with Committee and Remaining Stages to be taken immediately thereafter; No. 3, Declaration of Independence Day Bill 2017, Report and Final Stages, to be taken on conclusion of No. 2; and No. 4, National Archives (Amendment) Bill 2017, Report and Final Stages, to be taken on conclusion of No. 3.

I ask the Deputy Leader whether there has been agreement with all parties on the Order of Business. I was requested to come here this morning and did not have time to check the situation.

I am struggling to hear the Senator.

That is not unusual.

It is unusual that I lead off on behalf of my party; I am a stand-in. The proposal is that we meet on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; is that correct?

That is correct.

I would like to hear the views of Members of the House about this particular proposal. I am aware that the Government is particularly anxious to get the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 through the House. It is a priority as far as it is concerned, and it is very important to the Government that it be passed in the Seanad before the summer recess. The other proposals regarding the Order of Business are quite acceptable but I would like to hear the views of the other Members of the House on this particular matter.

I accept the establishment of a committee of the Seanad relating to Brexit. It is important and significant. The last committee prepared a report. I would like to see more emphasis on the implementation of that report, or at least its promotion, before we go into another report and have another deadline at the end of December, because the countdown to March 2019 is on. That is the month in which the United Kingdom proposes to leave the European Union. The period between now and then is crucial. After that time there will be no more contesting of the European elections. That is a fact. I do not see any prospect of a reversal of the decision via another referendum, despite what we might hope for. From my experience, as a member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly and as a representative of the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union, COSAC, for the meeting next week in Vienna, I do not believe there will be any change in the situation in the United Kingdom in the near future from either the Conservatives or the Labour Party. The priority must be that all the resources of the State are used to ensure that we get the best deal possible for this island. We are an island off an island off the coast of Europe. I respect the value of a seat on the United Nations Security Council, which is important. We had one before and I do not believe it created a great reaction or contributed much to the economy. I believe the resources of the State should be focused solely on Brexit, and that all contributions and ideas should be considered.

I gave a lecture last Tuesday at the National College of Ireland. It is a college that is working on solutions to problems. It is very advanced in the area of cloud computing and it is now investigating what would need to happen to ensure a seamless border which would not have to be controlled. I accept that the Border between Northern Ireland and the Republic must remain as it is now, without any barriers whatsoever. I also understand the concerns of the Democratic Unionist Party, which does not want to see a border down the Irish Sea. Negotiations are continuing. We look forward to the outcome of the negotiations of the British Government at Chequers tomorrow. I hope that it will take a united approach. At the end of the day, our interests are primary and vital but I also believe that a good deal for the United Kingdom should be a good deal for the Republic of Ireland.

It is important that the proposed committee is established and that it meets as soon as possible. We should remember that work is going on elsewhere as well - I am the Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs - and I hope that committee will be up and running as quickly as possible.

Arising from the proposal for the Order of Business and the first motion, which is to be discussed after the matter to be taken without debate relating to proposals to meet and consider Committee Stage of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill further on Monday, I want to indicate a few things at this stage, without anticipating the debate on that proposal, which I presume we will discuss further.

That matter is to be taken without debate.

The Senator has only one bite of the cherry.

Now that I have seen the GRECO report, I really feel that the attitude of the Government on this matter has been shameful.

Hear, hear.

There has been concealment and deception and it is wrong.

It is all motivated by a desire to slip things through so as to satisfy the ego of one person in a hurry. That is what is happening here.

What I want to say to the Deputy Leader here today, through the Chair, is that even if Committee Stage finishes next Monday, in the hours allocated for it - and nobody has been filibustering this debate, even though speeches from the Minister have been quite lengthy, I have noted - if there are to be Report Stage amendments, these must follow a decent space of time, in which we have time to consider what happened on Committee Stage and have time to prepare proper Report Stage amendments. It is utterly wrong, especially in view of the rules of the House in respect of Report Stage amendments and the manner in which they are debated, to say to us that this House will have a matter of hours to do its homework and have it in to the Bills Office.

The other point is that the Bills Office deserves some consideration in this regard. It is a hard-working body, which serves this House very well. It works and assists the Members of this House in doing their work well. It will, however, be inundated with work on the conclusion of Committee Stage. It is fair that it should have time to carry out that work properly and it is fair that Members of this House should have the opportunity to prepare their amendments properly as well.

I do not see why we should have No. 1 decided without debate. I would like to hear the Deputy Leader's assurances about the time that will intervene between the end of Committee Stage and the beginning of Report Stage. I would like to hear her assurances on this point. This is another deceitful effort to brush this issue under the carpet, to say there will be no debate and to force us into a situation where there is not sufficient time to consider our Report Stage amendments.

We therefore must oppose the Order of Business and must oppose the arrangements for Monday. We have to waste time again because we are not being told the truth. I note RTÉ can see the GRECO report and while a Minister could come in here and warn Senator Craughwell that he would be disappointed by the terms of the GRECO report, when we see what RTÉ has broadcast today, it is no disappointment. The only disappointment is how a shabby attempt to deceive this House has come off the rails. If this is going to happen, all of the consequences fall on the Government. I was a member of the Fine Gael Party and I can tell the House that never in the past did it abase itself to one person in the way it is doing now. That party should be collectively ashamed of themselves for what they are doing.

Well said.