It is proposed to take the business as on the Order Paper, items Nos. 2 to 7 inclusive, omitting item No. 5—Bread (Regulation of Prices) Bill, 1936, and then to take items Nos. 11 and 9 (Estimates for Public Services, Votes 32 to 40, inclusive).
Order of Business.
Would the Vice-President say when do the Government intend to make a statement as to their policy regarding the crisis in the League of Nations and as to when they intend to give the House an opportunity of discussing their policy?
I take it that when the Estimates that are on the Order Paper for to-day have been passed by the House we will then go on to the other Estimates that follow —the Estimates that come under the President's Department. When these Estimates come before the House questions relating to external affairs can, I take it, be addressed to the President.
The Government, I suppose, appreciate that the matter is urgent as both the Council and the Assembly of the League of Nations are meeting very shortly. It is desirable, therefore, that we should have time to consider a matter of such importance with the deliberation that it deserves.
As both the Council and League of Nations are meeting on Wednesday week, I take it that the Government will give the House an early opportunity for discussing its policy at the League of Nations before the delegation from Saorstát Eireann leaves for Geneva?
A lot will depend on how the House deals with the business already announced. If the business already announced is disposed of early, I take it there will be ample time to discuss the other Estimates, particularly the Estimates for the President's Department on which these matters would arise.
I take it that it is fair to assume that if we have disposed of the business ordered, other than the Estimates, and it is then found that time does not permit for dealing with a variety of small Estimates before the League of Nations Estimate is reached, that an exception will be made in regard to it and that an opportunity will be given to the House for discussing it, even if that means postponing the President's other Votes to a later date?
The Deputy is raising a lot of hypothetical questions to which it is difficult to give an answer now. There is a considerable amount of important business still to be done. We have this week and all of next week for the business already ordered before any question about the League of Nations need necessarily arise. I am hoping that we may be able to take the President's Estimates this week, provided the other business already mentioned has been disposed of.
The Estimate for the Department of Justice need not, I take it, have precedence over the President's group of Estimates?
We are anxious to take the Estimate for the Department of Justice.
I would ask the Vice-President to note that the Opposition are anxious for an opportunity, on the League of Nations Estimate and before the League meets, to discuss the present European crisis.
I take it that the House may expect to have a statement from the President when the League of Nations Estimate comes on?
The League of Notions it is now.