In the course of the Budget speech, the House learned, for the first time, that a new order had been passed, which has since been called the Standstill Order. The only manner in which that came before the House was by a motion of a member of the Labour Party to annul it. Three hours' debate was allowed. On the occasion of the annulment motion, the Minister in charge commenced to speak somewhere about 20 minutes to 10 o'clock, and concluded at 20 minutes past 10. The seconder of the motion then proceeded to wind up the debate from 20 minutes past to half-past 10, and that is all that was allowed on it. Now, the cause of complaint is that the Ministerial case was not made in connection with this order until within the last hour of the discussion. Surely, in a matter of that kind, the Government should regulate business in a more becoming manner so far as the House is concerned. Here was a measure of considerable moment to very large numbers of people, and if it were not for the opportunity that was afforded by a discussion that took place in the Seanad, in which there was no restriction as far as I know, in connection with the discussion, this House would not have been in possession of the case that was made, as far as the Government was concerned.
Now, I have got a second complaint to make: that in a matter of that kind, so far as my judgment is concerned, it was not contemplated, when this Act was going through the House, that it would be employed for the purpose of bringing in such an order as that, and we had no suspicion that this Act would be employed for that purpose. The sum and substance of these two complaints is that, whereas this appeared to the Government to be the best method for introducing the standstill order, it appeared to a number of us that there was a far better method adopted in the North of Ireland or across the water in connection with the same matter, and the subsequent amendment of this order would indicate that the Ministry came to the same conclusion. Now, it would be a satisfaction to us if, in the event of any similar departure from practice in introducing an order such as this, an early opportunity would be taken by the Government to explain the case for the order. That is the first point.
The second point is that in connection with these emergency orders, which are published at frequent intervals, it ought to be the concern of the Government to save people's time. An order is issued in which there is a reference to such-and-such an Act or to a previous order that has been made, and no mention whatever is made of the subject-matter of it. It means going to the file, looking up the order and getting it out, and if 100 people do that—perhaps the Minister will say that is an exaggeration—there are 100 minutes lost in making that search. Whereas, if a tag were attached with the information that it deals with such-and-such a matter, it would be of much more service and save the time not only of Deputies but perhaps of persons outside.
