In some ways, this is a formality we go through at the end of each year. As I understand it, it is the final authorisation of the expenditure of money throughout the year and of money that will be carried over that has not been spent. It is an opportunity to dwell a little bit on the issue of the expenditure of the enormous amount of public money totalling €86 billion. It is the public's money and it is an extraordinary fact, with this record level of expenditure, we can still be in a situation where we have more t…

It is not necessarily the case that the budget will go up the next year-----

I am not sure the Minister is right in what he has said.

I am not sure the Minister is right.

I do not want to delay this Bill any further. I understand it needs to be passed notwithstanding the debates we might have about it. It is a little bit odd that anybody would oppose it because this is money we have to have spent to keep the show on the road. We might want to spend it differently or spend more but we need this money to cover the costs of public services and so on that carried us through this year. I understand that the committees scrutinise stuff but not everything is scrutinised as forensically as …

The restrictions are still there.

The Government - Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - has blocked the occupied territories Bill since 2018 by putting a money message in its way, allowing Israel impunity for the crimes it has been committing for years against the Palestinians. After a year of genocide, the Government is still finding legal excuses to say it cannot do anything about the occupied territories Bill until after the election. Now we have the revelation of the real explanation by The Ditch , that the US ambassador contacted Micheál Martin 90 minu…

-----based on consequences-----

-----the warning of consequences-----

Yes.

He was shouting at me

We can go online. It is online. It has been published.

It has been published.

The rest of the country is discussing it but we cannot discuss it.

This Saturday, there will be tens of thousands out on the streets again calling for this Government to finally impose sanctions, but the truth is the Government is using excuses because it is kowtowing to the US Government to prevent actual sanctions being imposed on Israel for genocide.

The US Attorney General will tell the Government how to write it.

The US Attorney General is in on it.

On a point of order, are the amendments dealing with USC in the next section?

Are you not going to call the movers of the motion first?

Sorry, I meant to say amendments - the sponsors of the amendments in the grouping.