It is proposed to take the business as set out on the Order Paper, in the following order: Items 3, 5, 4 and 6. The Money Resolution connected with item 5 will be taken in the appropriate place. If public business should be concluded before 10.30, Private Deputies' business will be taken.
Order of Business.
On the Adjournment, Deputy Hughes' question No. 22 on yesterday's Order Paper will be taken. That was the question with which the Minister could not deal last night.
Is it proposed to sit to-morrow?
Not if the business as ordered is concluded.
There is so much business on the Order Paper from Private Members we must object to the Dáil not sitting to-morrow. Time should be given to dispose of that business.
It is proposed, if public business is finished early, that the remainder of the day will be devoted to the consideration of Private Deputies' business.
There are 17 or 18 private motions on the Order Paper. Some of them have been there for a long time. We consider that the Dáil should sit on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays so that Private Deputies will have an opportunity of clearing off these motions while the Government are preparing other business.
There is little prospect of getting them cleared off, seeing that they are being reproduced faster than they are being killed.
May I inquire if the Government are still of the opinion that they cannot provide time to permit me to discuss a motion which, to me at all events, seems to be of urgent public importance? Surely it is unreasonable to refuse to sit on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, thereby creating a scarcity of time?
What does the Deputy want?
I am asking the Government to arrange for a sitting to-morrow.
The Deputy is being given a licence that no other Deputy is allowed.
Surely I will be permitted to follow the suggestion put by the Leader of the Opposition, that the House should sit to-morrow in order that time should be made available for the transaction of Private Business? The Tánaiste indicated that in regard to the matter raised by me, the Government could not give time this week; no time is available and I must wait until next week. I suggest that the scarcity of time is created through the refusal by the Government to meet three days a week. Everybody else in the House is willing to do so. Why not meet to-morrow if time is so scarce? We are prepared to come.
If two hours are available to-day for Private Deputies' business, there will be no grievance if the Dáil does not sit to-morrow.
Surely there is a grievance when at this particular period additional Parliamentary time is not available to all members of the House. The Government can take their full period of time when they have business ready. I suggest that when Government business is not ready it is utterly unfair to representatives from the country districts that they should be deprived of ordinary Parliamentary time when they have different matters to discuss.
I could not agree to the suggestion that Private Members have a right to Government time.
We claim it, but we are not taking a decision on this matter now.
If the Deputy is putting forward the case that Private Members have a right to Government time, he must make a more convincing one. That is a precedent we will not establish. In order to facilitate the House, Government time is sometimes given, and that practice will be continued. There will be ample time available for the consideration of Private Deputies' motions in the present Session. If the Deputy puts forward the case that Private Members have such a right as I have indicated, he will have to be resisted.
We cannot and will not agree that the Government can shut down Parliament if they have not business ready.
Hear, hear; that is the point.
There is not a motion before the House on this matter, and we are not deciding one now. If such a motion has to be put before the House to-day, at what time could it be considered?
The Deputy will be given an opportunity at 9.30. There is a question on the adjournment at 10 o'clock.
I want to make it quite clear that the Government are not refusing to make reasonable arrangements to facilitate the consideration of Private Deputies' business. They are, however, prepared to resist any claim that Private Deputies have a right to Government time in order to discuss such motions. If the Deputy wants to go on that basis, he will have to be met on that basis.
When will the Agricultural Credit Bill be taken?
The Minister for Finance is dealing with that.