Is that all there is to democracy? Just majority rules? No minority rights whatsoever?

This is the Government's motion.

No, we are not. It is more like 70 minutes.

What we have heard from the Government benches is an incredibly narrow view of what democracy means. You could paraphrase the Chief Whip with "We won, you lost, we can do whatever we want.". I am sorry but that is not democracy. Where is the space in that for the rights of minorities? Where is the space in that for the rights of opposition?

The rules that protect those rights were deliberately, consciously and repeatedly broken by the Ceann Comhairle last week. It is her job to protect those rules and to ensure they are abided by but instead she broke them one after the other. There was the unprecedented situation of a vote being called on the Order of Business and no vote being granted. It was an incredible, unprecedented situation of the Government's own proposal for Standing Orders not actually being voted on and simply deemed passed and the agenda…

Why not?

No.

Why not?

Let us have a committee of selection right now.

Let us do it.

No. Set up the committees, please.

Set up the committees, please.

I am, yeah. Set up the committees, please.

Do not be telling lies about committees then.

Tell the truth about the committees.

Will you tell the truth about committees, Darragh?

You have been on the fence the whole time.

One of the most cynical arguments we have heard in relation to the speaking time row in the past 24 hours has been the suggestion that the Opposition is wasting time on this unimportant thing when there are very important issues happening like the housing crisis, Trump and so forth. Commentators, who have cheered on every step of the way while the Government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, made developers and landlords rich and worsened the housing crisis, now profess to care about the housing crisis and that we should…

You could have just accepted her ruling.

Are you saying it was not prearranged?