Tairgim:
Go dtoghfar Séamus Ó Tonnaí mar Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
In proposing Deputy Tunney as Leas-Cheann Comhairle I do not wish to reflect in any way on Deputy Harte or on his suitability for the office of Leas-Cheann Comhairle. We are proposing Deputy Tunney for a number of reasons, first, because of his personal qualities and his status in the House. We believe that he is a Deputy who has the respect of Members on all sides, that he is held in high regard by Members in general and that he will make an excellent Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
I wish to point out also, that Deputy Tunney is fluent Irish speaker. It is important that a certain volume of the business of this House be transacted from time to time in Irish and it is in support of that wish of ours also that we are putting forward Deputy Tunney for this position. We believe he is competent to conduct every aspect of business in this House in Irish and that he will do everything in his power to encourage the use of Irish in our discussions and debates. Finally, I wish to tell the House that we are putting him forward on the basis of what we see as a need for balance in our affairs in this House.
For a long time there was a tradition in this House that one side supplied the Ceann Comhairle and the other side supplied the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I am not going to go into the circumstances in which that tradition was broken because I am quite certain that if we were to argue from our side that it was a Coalition Government who broke that tradition somebody from the other side would argue equally forcibly that Fianna Fáil were responsible for the first break with that tradition. Parliamentary historians can decide who was responsible.
At this stage I believe that this Dáil should restore that balance. The Ceann Comhairle is an Independent Member of the House but he was the nominee for the Chair of the Coalition parties. It was their right to put you, Sir, there and it was your right to accept it. It is our view that, in order that a reasonably fair balance should obtain in our affairs, we should have the opportunity on this occasion to put forward our nominee as Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
That is especially so in the new type of Dáil we have here. There is a very unusual spread of membership. I do not know if a similar composition of membership has obtained in any Dáil for a long time. We have a Coalition Government, two parties who have a bare majority over our party, with a number of Independent Deputies who apparently reserve to themselves the right to vote from time to time in any way they wish. We have an unusual combination of forces and membership in the Dáil. We believe it would be fair and reasonable that, if the Coalition Government parties have their nominee in the Chair as Ceann Comhairle, this side of the House is entitled to have their nominee as Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
On the basis of Deputy Tunney's personal qualities, acceptability and suitability, because of his great love for and competence in the Irish language and because of our wish to see a reasonable balance obtain in the House, I have the honour to propose Deputy Jim Tunney as Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Again, I wish to reiterate that I do not want to reflect in any way on the capacity of Deputy Harte as a Deputy of this House.