Business will be taken as on the Order Paper except that No. 6 will be taken before No. 5. Private Deputies' business will be taken at 12 o'clock. If necessary we shall move that the Dáil sit later than 2 p.m. in order to complete the Second Stage of No. 3, the Public Services (Temporary Economies) Bill. I also want to announce that it is proposed that the Dáil should meet next Tuesday and adjourn on Friday, 7th April, for the Easter recess and meet again on 26th April.
Order of Business.
I see that it is proposed to take to-day No. 3 on the Order Paper, the Public Services (Temporary Economies) Bill. This Bill got a First Reading this day week—24th March was the date of the introduction of it. It was then stated, if my information is correct, that the Bill would be in the hands of Deputies on Monday evening. On representations being made that that would give insufficient time to consider the measure the Minister undertook to consider that point and to allow a longer time. The Bill was not circulated on Monday. As between Monday evening and Wednesday there would have been close on two days which were considered insufficient for the consideration of the Bill. The Bill, however, was only circulated, I believe, yesterday morning and it is now proposed to take the Second Stage to-day, so that 24 hours is all that has been allowed for consideration of the Bill while 48 hours were considered insufficient when it was introduced. I, therefore, object to the measure being taken to-day on the ground that we have not had sufficient time to consider it.
We are not taking No. 3 at the moment.
It deserves some explanation.
Shall I make it when the motion for Second Reading is being moved?
You have a better opportunity now.
The Ceann Comhairle is in the position of receiving a motion for First Reading of a measure, and if agreed to, it is then put down for Second Reading. If a Private Member were introducing a Bill the Ceann Comhairle would not allow the date to be fixed for the Second Reading unless he were in possession of the Bill. This Bill got its First Reading in good faith and in the same good faith it was to be circulated on Monday evening. There was a breach of good faith in regard to the circulation of the Bill and only 24 hours are allowed for consideration before being put down for Second Reading. Not only that, but it is proposed that the Second Reading is to be finished in a single sitting 24 hours afterwards. That is treating the House with discourtesy.
I admit that there would be a good deal of substance in what the Deputy says if this were a complicated measure involving a principle which it might be difficult to apply. The principle of the measure which we are to consider on Second Reading is one which has long agitated the public mind, a principle which members of the Opposition themselves have already accepted: that is, that there should be during the present period of financial stress some attempt to secure economies in the public services. That matter, as I have said, was before the people at the General Election of 1932. The necessity for trying to secure economies of this particular kind was referred to by me in my Budget statement last year. It has been clear to every section of the House and to the public generally that the Government had this question long under consideration and the only thing that the House is asked to determine to-day is whether it is going to accept the principle of securing economy in the public services during the present financial crisis. That is the only question to be determined. I think that on such a simple matter as that, it is not necessary that a prolonged study of the Bill should be made in order to enable us to accept that principle.
On the occasion of the introduction of the Budget last year the Minister indicated a saving in the public services of something like £250,000. That was in May last. The point I am putting, and I put it with force, is that while that information was conveyed to the Dáil and the country in May last year we suddenly got notice of this Bill a week ago. The Bill is promised for circulation on Monday. It does not circulate until Thursday. We are asked now to consider it. There is more than the principle involved in the measure; there is a certain segregation and a certain difference between the various classes of persons from whom deductions are to be made. There are other questions involved. There are the commitments and the statements of Ministers concerning this matter. There is the statement, I believe, of the President of the Executive Council, that sums under £400 a year would not suffer any deduction, and there is a departure from the pronouncements—as we understand them—of Ministers in this connection. If one were to go no further, one has only to read what the Secretary of the National Teachers' Organisation says in this morning's Press in connection with the statement of the Minister for Finance himself, which also is before the public. The points I am putting to the Ceann Comhairle are that he gets in this Bill on this day week; in all good faith he accepts the statement that it will be circulated at a certain time; on that understanding the Bill is put down for a certain date; that understanding is departed from. The objection made in connection with the taking of it at 44 hours' notice stands much more strongly in connection with 24 hours' notice. The Chair is, in my opinion, discourteously treated in connection with this proposal from the Minister.
As the Deputy knows, the ordering of business is not a matter for the Chair.
This is too important a matter to pass too lightly over, and the Minister's last statement increases, in my opinion, the importance of it. Are we in the position that anything that has been made the subject of discussion by the Fianna Fáil Party—particularly spoken from their election platforms—is to agitate the public mind so sufficiently that people will so think over the matter that Bills are to be introduced and dealt with in this particular way? I submit to the House that this Order is on the Order Paper under false pretences, and that this House, and you included, sir, has been tricked in this matter.
What do you say to that, Minister?
The House has been tricked in this matter. The House is in this position that it did not know last night—until Deputy Cosgrave asked at 10.30 what was going to be taken this morning—that this Bill was going to be taken. No voluntary statement was made from the Government Benches as to what exactly was going to be done. On Thursday last, when the Government thought that they were not going to sit on Friday, they asked for permission to introduce —without its even being on the Order Paper-the First Reading of this Bill. As far as we were concerned we granted it. It was not done on Thursday because the Government decided to meet on Friday. Now, a procedure that has been adopted—contrary to commonsense and the proper doing of business—to facilitate Government business is being abused here. Normally, a Bill should not appear on the Order Paper for a First Reading until the Ceann Comhairle had the Bill in his hands, and was in the position that immediately the House had made an Order he could proceed to carry out that Order by having the Bill printed. That procedure has been adopted for the convenience of Government business, and it is now being abused.
I would like to call the attention of the House to what transpired on Friday last. I asked—column 1391 of the Official Report—"When will the Bill be circulated?" The Minister for Finance replied: "On Monday evening." This was when it was proposed to have the Second Reading on Wednesday. I then said: "If we find that the time for consideration of the measure is too short, will the Minister entertain favourably an application to postpone the Second Reading?" The Minister answered: "Agreed." Deputies waited from Monday until yesterday morning to get the Bill. They got the Bill, without even any explanation as to what the details of the measure meant, such as apparently were supplied by the Minister for Finance and to the Press, with no intimation—good, bad or indifferent— until the House was adjourning last night at 10.30 that this measure was going to be taken this morning. I submit again, sir, that this business is on the Order Paper under false pretences, and that you and the House generally have been tricked in the matter.