Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

What Deputy Ó Broin is saying suggests the officials are having as much difficulty dealing with the timeframe allocated to the Bill as we are. Otherwise they would have come here with advice that the amendment is okay and it can be let through. Why this is not the case is crazy. What the Minister of State is saying is that the Government has not really had enough time to consider it. Surely the Government should have considered what amendments were submitted by the Opposition before now and made a decision on whether it thinks they are okay. To be honest, it would not be satisfactory either way but is there assurance, for example, that a guillotine will not be imposed on Report Stage? It might give some comfort if it was known for certain that any subsequent amendments the Opposition tabled would not be guillotined. It would make a bit of a difference. It still would not address the fundamental point that Deputy Ó Broin is making, which is that the Government should have come prepared to accept or reject amendments and have them properly considered.