It is proposed to take the business as on the Order Paper.
Order of Business.
Are Nos. 12, 13 and 14 being taken?
Nos. 12, 13 or 14 will not be taken to-day.
Might I ask when they will be taken? The Railways Bill only reached Deputies yesterday, and a measure of such importance ought to get some consideration.
A Deputy
To-day.
It reached me yesterday.
There was a second one the Deputy got this morning.
I am speaking only of the one I got yesterday, and a Bill of its importance should get some consideration before it comes to the Dáil. I suggest to the President that he might give us reasonable time for consideration of it.
I and many other Deputies received this Bill only this morning. Deputy Good is in the happy position, if you like, of having received it yesterday afternoon, but I did not leave Cork until 3.50 yesterday afternoon, and up to that time I had not received the Bill. I received it only when I came in this morning.
It is proposed to take it this day week. The Bill does not appear to be very complicated, and it ought not to take much time to understand it.
If an additional week could be allowed it would be very useful in respect of a measure of this kind. It could be taken this day fortnight.
It is suggested by the Minister in charge that it would be much more important to have a week between the Second and Third Stages.
There will surely be that, anyway.
I gather then that it will not be taken before this day week.
Are the two Bills to be taken this day week, because pressure of time with respect to one does not bear with regard to the other?
It might be possible to have an arrangement as in the case of similar Bills whereby they could be introduced and have a joint Second Reading debate. It would seem to be the natural course to take.
They are altogether different subjects.
They are precisely the same subjects.
Nonsense!
I would remind the Deputy that when he was President of the Executive Council and had to introduce a Road Transport Bill and a Railways Bill he suggested an arrangement to the Dáil which was agreed to by the Dáil——
They are two different subjects altogether. One deals with writing down property, with ruining the value of a property and other things of the sort and has nothing to do with the other Bill. If the other Bill were once passed there would be very much clearer consideration for the second Bill. One of them, at any rate, marks no advance on the information in the Department thirteen months ago.
It marks an advance on the intellect applied to it.
Could we not have an arrangement by which Bills would reach members before particulars of them appeared in the Press? Can I have an answer from the President on that? Would the President arrange that Bills would reach members of the House before a summary of the measures appeared in the Press?
So far as I know, whatever is the custom in the past is going to be adhered to. It is not in our charge, and I do not know that there has been any departure.
There was no publication in the Press prior to the circulation of the Bill to Deputies.
So far as I am concerned, a short summary of the Bill appeared in the Press, and the Dublin Press particularly, before I got the Bill into my hands.
That is the fault of the Deputy's arrangements for getting Bills into his hands.
It is not.
May I take it then that Nos. 12 and 13 will be postponed until this day week?
Yes, until this day week.