I propose to take the business in the following order:— (1) Intoxicating Liquor (Occasional Licences) Bill, (2) Constitution (Removal of Oath) Bill and (5) Estimates. I propose that Public Business be not interrupted at 9 o'clock.
Order of Business.
I take very strong objection to Private Deputies' time being taken by the Government. I look, and I hope the majority of the members of the House will look, upon my motion, which calls upon the Government to take steps forthwith to meet the immediate needs of the unemployed, as a much more important matter and a much more urgent matter than the Constitution Bill.
Has the motion not been accepted?
By whom?
By the Government.
If it has been accepted by the Government, I have not been informed of it.
In the debate on last day, it was clearly intimated by members of the Opposition that they understood that we were accepting the motion, which we did. As regards this Bill, I suggest that its passage will really save time and enable us to get on to the sort of work in which Deputy Morrissey is interested. By allowing continuous discussion of this Bill and getting finished with it as quickly as possible, we will be enabled to deal with the other matter.
It has been stated by the Minister for Industry and Commerce and by the President that it was intimated to the House that this motion was being accepted by the Government. I was in the House during practically the whole of the discussion on the motion and I heard no such statement from the Government Benches. If there is a definite decision that my motion as on the Paper is being accepted, I should like to hear it.
It is, as I have already stated. On the last occasion on which the debate took place, I heard about four or five Deputies rise one after another and assert that they understood that the motion was being accepted. I left it at that. I took it that somebody else had already intimated that it was being accepted.
We may take it now that the Government are intimating their intention of accepting this motion. I want to make clear, however, that that is not the end of the matter. If the President is accepting the motion, I am entitled to hear, and the House is entitled to hear, what steps he proposes to take to give effect to the motion—when he proposes to give effect to it, and how. In view of the wording of the motion and the state of unemployment, I submit that this matter is much more important than the question of the Oath. If the Bill to abolish the Oath is not discussed or carried, people will not be hungry. If my motion is not carried, they will go on being hungry.
Steps are being taken—they were being taken before this motion was put on the Paper—to deal with this question. The putting of the motion on the Paper did not expedite the matter at all. In fact, by taking up a lot of the time of Minister here, the motion probably helped to delay this matter.
In the reply of the Minister for Industry and Commerce to Deputy Morrissey, he intimated that other Ministers would speak later and give the House some details of the action the Government was taking and proposed to take. Although the debate continued for two hours on Friday, no Minister spoke, and it looks as if Ministers do not want to take the House into their confidence.
It comes very well from Deputy Blythe to speak like that. We, on these benches, have watched him on many occasions sit with his head practically on his lap listening to Deputies making speeches without giving any indication of what his Government's policy was. I understood that it had already been indicated to the House that we had accepted this motion, and that steps were being taken to deal with it. I was simply waiting on the last occasion for a suitable occasion on which to intervene. I sat out the whole debate on the last day waiting for a suitable occasion to intervene, so that I might indicate to the House what our view on the whole question was. When this business which we now propose to proceed with is through, we will be able to get on to that matter.
The President states that he waited for a suitable time to intervene in the debate. I suggest that a very suitable time to intervene would be at 9 o'clock to-night.
If this Bill is through.
The motion is more important.
The President has stated that he understood it was understood by the House that the Government were accepting this motion. These are very ambiguous terms. Assuming that the Government had decided not to accept the motion, would the President stand over that word "understood" as meaning that they had intimated that they would accept the motion? We want to get something definite from the Government. I do not think this ambiguity should continue with the present Government for any length of time. Is the President aware that the majority of the people of the Saorstát are more concerned with the relief of unemployment than with the abolition of the Oath? Has the President taken any steps, other than public meetings, flag waving and attending big functions, to ascertain the views of the common people of the country on this question?
There are over 8,000 cases of outdoor relief in the city of Dublin at present and there were 160 cases of ejectments listed last week.
They were there last year.
Mr. Byrne
When we pressed the Minister for Finance to give some information to the House of the Government's plans to deal with the problem, the only reply we got was that his Parliamentary Secretary would deal with the situation and that probably something would come out of the Budget. We pointed out that there was immediate necessity for some relief measures and there is only one opinion——
How long is the problem there?
I now put the question—That Public Business be not interrupted at 9 o'clock.
Question put.
The Dáil divided: Tá: 66; Níl: 74.
Tá
- Aiken, Frank.
- Allen, Denis.
- Bartley, Gerald.
- Beegan, Patrick.
- Blaney, Neal.
- Boland, Gerald.
- Boland, Patrick.
- Bourke, Daniel.
- Brady, Bryan.
- Brady, Seán.
- Breathnach, Cormac
- Breen, Daniel.
- Briscoe, Robert.
- Browne, William Frazer.
- Carney, Frank.
- Carty, Frank
- Clery, Micheál.
- Colbert, James.
- Kennedy, Michael Joseph.
- Keyes, Raphael Patrick.
- Kilroy, Michael.
- Kissane, Eamonn.
- Lemass, Seán F.
- Little, Patrick John.
- Lynch, James B.
- McEllistrim, Thomas.
- MacEntee, Seán.
- Maguire, Ben.
- Maguire, Conor Alexander.
- Moane, Edward.
- Moore, Séamus.
- Moylan, Seán.
- Murphy, Patrick Stephen.
- Cooney, Eamonn.
- Crowley, Fred. Hugh.
- Derrig, Thomas.
- De Valera, Eamon.
- Dowdall, Thomas P.
- Flinn, Hugo V.
- Flynn, John.
- Flynn, Stephen.
- Fogarty, Andrew.
- Geoghegan, James.
- Gibbons, Seán.
- Gormley, Francis.
- Gorry, Patrick Joseph.
- Goulding, John.
- Harris, Thomas.
- Hayes, Seán.
- Jordan, Stephen.
- Kelly, James Patrick.
- O'Grady, Seán
- O'Kelly, Seán Thomas
- O'Reilly, Matthew.
- O'Reilly, Thomas J.
- O'Rourke, Daniel.
- Powell, Thomas P.
- Rice, Edward.
- Ruttledge, Patrick J.
- Ryan, James.
- Sexton, Martin.
- Sheridan, Michael.
- Smith, Patrick.
- Traynor, Oscar.
- Walsh, Richard.
- Ward, Francis C. (Dr.).
Níl
- Alton, Ernest Henry.
- Anthony, Richard.
- Beckett, James Walter.
- Bennett, George Cecil.
- Blythe, Ernest.
- Bourke, Séamus A.
- Brasier, Brooke.
- Brodrick, Seán.
- Burke, Patrick.
- Byrne, Alfred.
- Byrne, John Joseph.
- Coburn, James.
- Collins-O'Driscoll, Mrs. Margt.
- Conlon, Martin.
- Corish, Richard.
- Cosgrave, William T.
- Craig, Sir James.
- Curran, Patrick Joseph.
- Davin, William.
- Davis, Michael.
- Dillon, James M.
- Dockrell, Henry Morgan.
- Doherty, Eugene.
- Doyle, Peadar Seán
- Duggan, Edmund John.
- Esmonde, Osmond Grattan.
- Everett, James.
- Fitzgerald, Desmond.
- Fitzgerald-Kenney, James.
- Good, John.
- Gorey, Denis John.
- Hassett, John J.
- Hayes, Michael.
- Hennigan, John.
- Hogan, Patrick (Clare).
- Hogan, Patrick (Galway).
- Keating, John.
- Keogh, Myles.
- Kiersey, John.
- Lynch, Finian.
- MacDermot, Frank.
- McDonogh, Fred.
- MacEoin, Seán.
- McGilligan, Patrick.
- McMenamin, Daniel.
- Minch, Sydney B.
- Mongan, Joseph W.
- Morrissey, Daniel.
- Mulcahy, Richard.
- Murphy, James Edward.
- Murphy, Timothy Joseph.
- Myles, James Sproule.
- Nally, Martin.
- Norton, William.
- O'Brien, Eugene P.
- O'Connor, Batt.
- O'Donovan, Timothy Joseph.
- O'Hanlon, John F.
- O'Hara, Patrick.
- O'Higgins, Thomas Francis
- O'Leary, Daniel.
- O'Mahony, The.
- O'Neill, Eamonn.
- O'Reilly, John Joseph
- O'Shaughnessy, John Joseph.
- O'Sullivan, Gearóid.
- O'Sullivan, John Marcus.
- Reidy, James.
- Reynolds, Mrs. Mary.
- Roddy, Martin.
- Shaw, Patrick Walter.
- Thrift. William Edward.
- Vaughan, Daniel.
- Wolfe, Jasper Travers.
Tellers:—Tá: Deputies G. Boland and Allen; Níl: Deputies Morrissey and Anthony.
Motion declared lost.
Deputies
Resign! Resign!
Do you want a motion? I invite the parties interested to put down a motion if they want resignations.
After ten years they want to discuss unemployment.
The Deputy does not want it.