If I may say so, I hope the Minister appreciates the degree of our co-operation inasmuch as we have not yet got the Bill.
Committee on Finance. - Central Fund Bill, 1954-All Stages.
Leave granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to apply certain sums out of the Central Fund to the service of the years ending on the 31st of March, 1954 and 1955.
Agreed that the further stages be taken now.
Question—"That the Bill be now read a Second Time"—put, and agreed to.
Bill considered in Committee.
Sections 1 to 4, inclusive, agreed to.
Question proposed: "That the Title stand part of the Bill."
I appreciate the fact that the Deputy is so anxious to avoid discussion on the Estimates he would give me anything to keep me quiet.
On that, I think it necessary to comment. I understand that the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance asked for supply with the utmost expedition that the House could provide it so that the way might be cleared for an election. To that request we acceded by providing supply to-night so that the decks might be cleared for such business as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach will shortly announce. It is idle to say we avoided discussion on this. We will discuss this up and down the country. We will discuss it for three weeks, four weeks, five weeks or six weeks. We will pursue the Minister for Finance, the Taoiseach and his entire Party to destruction in the country, discussing this business. We will discuss these matters until the Fianna Fáil Party is sick of them and to the point at which the people will be given their opportunity of passing a verdict upon that discussion and when that verdict is given——
If I may put question——
Sit down.
What authority has any Deputy to tell a Minister to sit down?
I am telling the Minister for Finance to sit down.
On a point of order. I only want to know what stage of the Bill we are on.
On the Title.
On the Title of the Bill, we will debate the subject matter of all this business and this Bill; not in futile controversy across the floor of this House of the kind indulged in by Deputy Major de Valera. We will debate these matters in the country, and the sooner we get to the country the better pleased we will be. There is not a single item or figure in these Estimates that we do not yet yearn for the opportunity of discussing ad nauseam with all the sportsmen of the Fianna Fáil Party, not in this cloistered arena but at the chapel gate and in the market place. The sooner the Minister will come with us to that grand debate the better pleased we will be to match words forever on his lips that we are reluctant to discuss the subject matter of these Estimates. We yearn for the opportunity of discussing them before the only audience it is worth discussing them before, the electorate of this country, because we want a verdict not from the Dáil, which contains in it four Deputies who will never see the inside of this chamber again; we want to discuss it in the presence of the electorate of Ireland, the humblest member of which has the right to record his vote, and will record his vote and pass his judgment on that grand debate. Do not say again we are reluctant to debate the contents of these Estimates. Go to-morrow to the country and we will debate them and, as a result of that debate, some of the despicable rags of the Fianna Fáil Party will be seen no more in Oireachtas Éireann and they will regret the challenge thrown down by the sprightly Minister for Finance.
A statement has been made by Deputy Dillon which I wish to repudiate utterly on behalf of the Taoiseach. Deputy Dillon has alleged that we asked for accommodation from the Opposition Party in regard to this business. We asked for no such accommodation but, instead of that, your Leader asked us for accommodation. He asked that we should take on the Vote on Account to-night and that he should be given an opportunity to-morrow. We have conceded him the accommodation which he asked for and I repudiate entirely the suggestion made by Deputy Dillon, worthy of him of course, that the Taoiseach asked for any accommodation at his hands or the hands of any other member of the Opposition.
Question put and agreed.
Bill reported without amendment received for final consideration and passed.
This is a Money Bill within the meaning of Article 22 of the Constitution.
The Dáil adjourned at 10.30 p.m. until 3 p.m. on Thursday, 11th March 1954.