I do not propose to take item No. 3 on the Order Paper to-day.
PUBLIC BUSINESS. - SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATE—VOTE No. 52 (DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE).
Might I ask the President whether the Executive Council intends to take any immediate action, in view of the change in the composition of the Dáil?
I do not understand the meaning of that question.
The Minister, by notice at the last meeting, arranged that Vote No. 52, which is a Vote proposing to give to the Department of Agriculture certain moneys, should be taken to-day.
Yes.
It appears that that is not to be proceeded with.
Yes.
I would like to know whether the President would give the Dáil an opportunity to-day of raising the question of confidence in the Ministry.
I understood that the Deputy was to have given notice of that yesterday, but I have not heard that he did.
Probably you, sir, will inform the President and the House whether it would be in order to give twenty-four hours' notice of a motion of that nature.
I think that twenty-four hours' notice, or anything less than full notice, unless by agreement, of a motion for a vote of no confidence would not be in order.
Would the Minister for Finance, before proceeding with Vote 52, consider the advisability of appointing a Commission to inquire into this whole transaction, which is the most fishy transaction, in my opinion, that was ever perpetrated by a Government in any country?
There is another transaction to be settled first.
It is not a laughing matter.
The Deputy cannot raise it until we come to it.
I will raise it when we come to it, and then they will not laugh.
I desire to give formal notice that on the motion for the adjournment, which, I understand, was to be for a long period, I shall move that the House do meet again on Tuesday next, and that there will then be presented to the House, for consideration on that day, a vote of no confidence in the present Executive Council.
If the Deputy had asked me to meet on Tuesday I would have been perfectly agreeable to do so, and it was my intention to move that the House adjourn until Tuesday. If the Deputy had followed out the correct practice he would have given notice of the motion. Surely I am not to be asked to assist him in a matter which he ought to know quite well himself.
Is the President agreeable to take on Tuesday a motion, of which notice has now been given, for a vote of no confidence?
Certainly.
I hope the terms of the motion will be in our hands as soon as possible.
I suppose, sir, I am not to be taken as agreeing to that motion.