I move for leave to introduce the following Supplementary and Additional Estimates for the service of the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1946, namely:—
Votes Nos.—
35 (District Court),
72 (Alleviation of Distress).
Supplementary and Additional Estimates—Leave to Introduce.
Leave granted.
Would the Minister say when it is proposed to take the Supplementary Estimates?
To-morrow.
Could we now get a picture of what is going to happen? Is it the Government's plan to adjourn this week for the summer recess?
That will depend upon whether all the business ordered not only for to-day but for to-morrow is disposed of and I think that is unlikely.
Would the Minister say, if the Whips considered that the business might be disposed of by sitting on Friday and Saturday thus allowing Deputies——
Deputies
Oh!
I am going to make my point and if Deputies do not like it they can reject it. The point is that the harvest is coming on, the weather has not been very good, there is a lot of work to be done and there are many members who would like to get home and to stay at home——
A damn good job.
——so that my suggestion is that the leading Parties in the House might consider whether it would be practicable to get all the business disposed of by sitting on Friday and Saturday instead of bringing Deputies back here again. The House might, at least, consider that suggestion.
The Deputy should remember that we have a number of Deputies from the south who will want to go home for the week-end. I, at least, would protest against the proposal to sit on Saturday.
Mr. Corish
So would I.
The Deputy would have an opportunity of getting home in the afternoon.
The same difficulty would apply to any week during, say, the last two months. I do not think that the difficulty that Deputies find themselves up against in discussing seriously Parliamentary business is going really to be effectively dealt with until the financial year is changed from the 31st March to the 31st December. Until that is done, our financial business and the main part of our legislative work cannot be done at a time that suits the economy we have.
Surely we are not going to discuss that question now.
The House might at least consider it.
Ordered: That the Supplementary Estimates be taken to-morrow.