Before moving onto Leaders' Questions and to advise the House, Members will be aware that a new Technical Group has been formed. Before we take Leaders' Questions today, since the designated leader of the Technical Group is now included I thought this would be an opportune time to remind Members of the procedure under Standing Order 27, which provides for those questions. Leaders' Questions are confined to the leaders of Fine Gael, the Labour Party and now the designated leader of the Technical Group, or in their absence, their respective designated deputy leader. Each leader has two minutes for his or her opening question and one minute for a subsequent supplementary. The Taoiseach has three minutes for the opening reply and one minute for the reply to each supplementary. The overall time allowed is 21 minutes.
Business of Dáil
That is a joke.
A leader's question must be brief and be about a matter of topical public importance and the single supplementary question allowed must be relevant to that question. Members will appreciate that in order for the Leaders' Questions procedure to be effective as intended by the Dáil in introducing this facility, both the leader asking the question and the Taoiseach or member of the Government replying should be allowed to do so without any interruption. I ask for the continued co-operation of Members in this regard to ensure that the Leaders' Questions procedure reflects well on the proceedings of the House.
As before.