It is proposed to take business as on the Order Paper— No. 10, then Nos. 2 to 9, inclusive. When the business is concluded it is proposed to adjourn until Wednesday, 26th February.
Order of Business.
That is for three weeks?
Three weeks from yesterday.
Is the long adjournment proposed because the Government are not in a position to put business before the House for consideration?
There is something in that. There are certain Bills that we had hoped we would be able to produce to the House in a fortnight, but I am told to-day that it is unlikely that they will be ready before three weeks.
I think, in view of the position that is developing throughout the country, particularly in my own constituency, in Cork, the House should meet more frequently. I can see a very serious development taking place in the South of Ireland and I think it is too long an interval to allow three weeks to elapse before the next meeting of the House.
Perhaps the Minister would leave that question over until later in the day and, in view of the very serious situation that is said to exist in regard to tillage as a result of the inadequate distribution of petrol and other matters like that, would he consider during the day whether, if the House is to adjourn for three weeks, a statement might not be made on the adjournment to-night, or some suitable occasion during the night, as to the position which will assure people in the country, who have been making representations with regard to supplies that impinge on the tillage campaign, that these matters will be dealt with?
May I further represent to the Tánaiste that the petrol situation is about to create unemployment for hundreds of lorry drivers and van drivers in the country? It may be that that is impossible to avoid. It may be that something will turn up which will make it possible to avert that catastrophe. I suggest to the Tánaiste that it would be eminently desirable if the country could look forward to a meeting of this House on this day fortnight at which that position could be reviewed.
In the meantime I suggest that this House should ask employers to hang on to their lorry drivers and van drivers as best they can, even though in the end it may be wasted money, and they have to let them go at the end of the fortnight, but in the hope that better news will then be available and that it will be possible to keep them on permanently. If those men are thrown out of their jobs, hundreds of them will never get back. We can save the jobs of very many of them if they are just kept going now.
I do not want to create any unnecessary alarm, but I think Deputy Dillon has put the position very mildly when he says that hundreds of lorry drivers are likely to be dismissed. I am afraid it will go beyond hundreds, if it has not already done so.
What about other classes of workers?
Other workers will be affected as well. I do seriously suggest to the Government that it is undesirable for the House to adjourn for a long period, and for Ministers to get up in other places and make statements in connection with the national position which should be made in this House, or at any rate in one of the Houses of the Oireachtas. I had taken it for granted that the adjournment would be until 19th February, because if one looks at page 31 of the Order Paper it will be seen that it more or less gives that impression.
Those dates are always provisional.
I suggest that, if the Government has no business ready for the consideration of the House, there is sufficient business on the Order Paper provided by Private Deputies' motions. I think it may be taken for granted that the discussion of the Private Deputies' motions on the Order Paper cannot be finished to-night. I would ask the Tánaiste to consider the matter seriously, and not make a final decision now.
We have considered the matter seriously, quite seriously, and we are fully cognisant of the position with regard to unemployment. There is considerable expense involved in bringing Deputies together from all ends of the country, but, if the House has a strong view that our next meeting should be on the 19th, or even that it should be on next Wednesday, we are quite agreeable. I should like the House to understand, so far as Government business is concerned, that there are certain Bills which we hoped to have ready on the 19th, but we find now that they will not be ready until the following week at the earliest.
Say the 19th.
If there is any pressure for a meeting on next Wednesday, we are quite agreeable. If you wish to say the 19th, we will say the 19th.
Then we will say the 19th, unless some untoward event occurs which makes it desirable to meet earlier.