Legislators and the Oireachtas

Sir, – Stephen Collins claims that TDs are too consumed with the election to be bothering with legislation ("Legislation all but forgotten as TDs look to re-election", Opinion & Analysis, December 19th).

Last week Clare Daly and myself spent hours in the Dáil chamber debating some of the many amendments we had introduced on three Bills – the International Protection Bill 2015, the Planning and Development (Amendment ) Regulations 2015, and the Garda Síochána Policing Authority Bill 2015.

Given that we failed to get the opportunity to discuss all our amendments, due to the Government decision to guillotine all three of them, despite their immense importance, we can only assume that we are much more interested in discussing legislation than the present Government.

A bit more interest in legislation from the media could possibly have the positive effect of keeping pressure on the Government to show more respect for parliamentary democracy. – Yours, etc,

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MICK WALLACE TD,

Wellington Bridge,

Co Wexford.