We are not satisfied that it is necessary to delete these words from this Standing Order at all. The Minister for Finance wants to make it appear that there was no good reason why a date should be mentioned in the Standing Order, by which the Appropriation Bill should be passed and the Estimates finished. I submit there is a very good reason. If the Estimates were to drag out as they have been dragging out up to the present, and with no date on which to finish, the discussion of the Estimates would be a farce because the money would have been spent. You are, according to the Order Paper to introduce another Vote on Account. That means that the whole object of a discussion of the Estimates in detail will be avoided, that the time will have passed, the money will have been spent, and no one will approach the discussion of the Estimates with any feeling of reality that the discussion is going to do any good whatever. In his Budget speech, the Minister for Finance said that it would require great and sustained efforts to attain economies that would make it unnecessary to impose new taxation next year. I think it will be generally recognised that, when Estimates are introduced into this House, and when there is a majority behind them there is very little hope of any Opposition actually reducing the Estimates for that year, but that the fruit of the criticism will bear effect in the coming year, mainly. Whilst that may appear more or less to run counter to the argument that a certain period such as August should be definitely fixed it is not so in reality, because the ultimate way in which this House has to enforce its opinion, its desire for economy, and proper administration upon the Executive, is by means of the threat that Supply will not be voted. This could be used as an artifice by an Executive that wanted to use it in that way, an artifice for removing that ultimate power from the Dáil, and preventing it from endeavouring to interfere and deny Supply.
These are the reasons why we intend to oppose this motion. We think that no reason whatever has been brought forward to show why it is necessary. As has already been said in connection with other matters, ten Bills have been introduced that were not necessary at this period at all. A good deal of the time of the House was occupied in discussing them, and now, in order to get holidays, it is proposed to vote on account again another one-third of the total amount necessary for Supply, and to put the Estimates on the shelf until the holidays are over. We think that if the Executive felt it necessary to bring in these ten controversial Bills, they, and those who support them, should also be prepared to do the national work properly and get through these Estimates before the holidays. We see no reason why it should not be done. We had on the Adjournment last night a very important matter introduced which would need the attention of the House, and when these Constitution Bills were under discussion here it was a constant taunt from the benches opposite that matters, such as unemployment and general criticism of administration, were being neglected whilst they were being dealt with. We pointed out that we were not responsible for the introduction of these Bills, and we are here to say now that we are prepared to continue, to discuss these Estimates, and to sit here until the work that is on the Order Paper is finished. We think that no excuse has been put forward by the Executive that would justify us in not doing that.
As regards this particular Standing Order, we believe that it was drawn up with due consideration for the needs of the public services, and with full regard to the necessity for having the Estimates definitely put through by a reasonable time. The 1st August is not an unreasonable time. The Estimates are usually introduced on the 1st April, and you have April, May, June and July—four months—in which the discussion of the Estimates could be carried on. We think that it should have been the business of the Executive, in arranging the programme of work for this session, to make certain that the discussion of the Estimates should get priority over anything else. There are other sessions in which other work could be done, but the main purpose of this session ought to be to enable Deputies to criticise the administration of the Executive. No other opportunity for detailed criticism of administration is in fact given. For that reason we ought not now, in order to get over a special difficulty in which the Executive find themselves—if they have not designed it for a special purpose; perhaps they have—adopt this course. There is a way, and a proper way, for getting over this difficulty and that is to continue the discussion of these Estimates and to do so during the period that it is now proposed to take in recess.
