May we take it that the discussion on the Minister's statement will not continue to-day but will be taken to-morrow?
Committee on Finance. - Vote 6—Office of the Minister for Finance (Resumed).
Debate resumed on the following motion:—
That a sum not exceeding £116,480 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1957, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Finance, including the Paymaster-General's Office.
It will be taken to-morrow on the Second Stage of the Bill.
I am not anxious to participate in the discussion but I want to make some sort of reservation in order to preserve the rights of Deputies. In the debate on the Taoiseach's Estimate——
It will be a free for all, subject to the rules of order.
Anybody can talk on anything. That is all I wanted to know.
Mr. de Valera
Might I ask one question? When the debate on the Department of Education was in progress, I raised the matter of the universities and asked the Minister for Education if he had received the statements which were made by the President of Dublin and Cork Colleges of the University. I wanted of my own knowledge to impress upon the Government the urgency of this particular matter. I know very well that under the present circumstances there must be certain priorities. All I want to be assured of is that the Taoiseach himself, because there are apparently more than one Ministry involved, would be aware of the urgent necessity of looking into the matter of the two colleges, particularly in regard to the medical schools.
I think the Leader of the Opposition is slightly out of order but at the same time I am certainly prepared to give the assurance that so far as the topics to which he has referred are concerned both I and, I think, all my colleagues in the Government are fully alive to their importance, particularly from the point of view of the medical schools and medical education. Does that satisfy the Deputy?
Mr. de Valera
I think this was in respect of one of the Votes in connection with the Department of Finance.
Will University College, Cork, also be considered?
It is always considered first. Cork gets everything.
Vote put and agreed to.