The business will be taken as on the Order Paper, Nos. 3 to 7, inclusive, then No. 11, No. 1 to be taken with No. 3, public business to be interrupted at 9 o'clock to take No. 11, if the business has not concluded before that. If the business as ordered be finished, the Dáil will adjourn until Wednesday, 31st March.
Order of Business.
Then there has been a change of plan? We were told the 7th April.
You are a week nearer the general election, if that is any consolation to you.
The Parliamentary Secretary has told me that he did state at the Committee on Procedure and Privileges that probably the adjournment would be to the 7th April.
Give us Easter week, anyhow.
Have we any say in the matter?
I know that in May there will be two Catholic Church holy days which will necessarily interrupt the business of the Dáil for two weeks. Taking that into account and the time that will be available for financial business and the other business to come before the House, it might put back the ordinary adjournment to an unusually late date.
Can the Vice-President say when it is proposed to introduce the Budget?
Speaking from recollection, I think the date is the 14th of April.
Is it not unprecedented, or at any rate very unusual, for the House actually to meet in Easter week? If one has to choose between the two things, would it not be desirable to sit during the weeks when the Catholic holy days take place? The mere fact of the holy days occurring in the middle of the week after all is not absolutely conclusive that the House should not sit during that week.
The people in this country often work in Easter week.
31st March, then?
It is a matter for the President. We do not care when he adjourns to.
I would put in a strong plea for meeting on the 7th April.
The adjournment, therefore, will be to the 31st of March.