It is proposed to take business as set out on the Order Paper: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12 and 6. It is proposed that consideration of Government business be not interrupted today at the time fixed for Private Members' business. But Private Members' business may become Government business later.
Order of Business.
I want to raise a protest in respect of Item No. 12. The Second Stage of the Administration of Estates Bill was taken here before the recess. I think it was in June, but the Minister for Justice can give the exact date. Now, four months afterwards, and two days before the Committee Stage of the Bill, which is to be taken today, we have received a sheet of seven pages of amendments. I submit that it is most unreasonable that, after the recess, seven pages of amendments should arrive only two days before the Committee Stage.
The Deputy can save his blood pressure. If he does not want to give it, it will do next week.
Then let us take it next week.
That is all right.
I have already said that to the Whips opposite and was told it was to be taken today.
Why the harangue?
May I ask the Taoiseach whether there is sufficient Government business for two days next week?
I assume there will be.
It seems that the Government have been on strike during the recess. They can produce nothing but inconsequential Bills. They have got a majority now and can laugh at the people whom they codded at the election.
The Deputy did a lot of laughing after 1948 and 1954.
Is it not true that there is no Government business for this week?
If the Tánaiste had been available, but he is not available. He is on public business elsewhere.
May I inquire of the Taoiseach if it is now to become a practice that the Opposition are to be handed, 24 or 48 hours before a discussion is called for in Dáil Éireann, a sheet of amendments such as that received today, which is in substance a new Bill?
That is not so.
Now the Government have withdrawn that proposal. That leaves the Order Paper with nothing on it for today, except the motion of no confidence put down by the Opposition. Surely the Opposition are entitled to some explanation from the Government of the situation in which, after a recess of three months, there is no business to transact at all at the instance of the Government?
If we did not give time for the motion of no confidence, there would be another complaint.
I am not complaining about that, but I am complaining that, when reasonable representations are made from this side of the House, the only answer is impudence.
No, no!
Is it becoming for a Minister to reply that we need not waste our breath as the Bill can be put off until next week? This matter was discussed all day. We were told by the Whips that it could not be put off as we suggested. When we are forced to raise it in the House and remonstrate, we are told we are wasting our breath. All I am asking is whether, now that the Government have a clear majority, it is desired to create the impression that the deliberate representations of the Opposition are to be treated with derision.
No.
I think all would agree that the more that is done, the more difficult it will become to carry on opposition and parliamentary procedure as they ought to be carried on. If the Opposition have obligations, surely the Government have also?
That statement by Deputy Dillon is a fair example of the equivocal attitude of the Opposition in relation to Government business.
Why the Minister for Health is bouncing in, I do not know, when the leader of the Government is here.
I listened with patience to Deputy Dillon making his point.
He is in charge.
He is only a public nuisance.
I listened with patience to Deputy Dillon.
On a point of order, I addressed my question not to the Minister for Health but to the Head of the Government.
The Deputy spoke as to the Order of Business presented by the Government; any member of the Government is competent to reply to that.
That is a great misfortune. The Minister is well calculated to start a riot.
The Deputy may regard it as a misfortune that I happen to be in charge of business. He thinks I am too able for him, is that not it? I was saying that this is a fair example of the equivocal attitude of the Opposition in relation to Government business. When objection was taken today that the amendments to Item 12 had only been circulated, the Minister said the Bill would be postponed until next week. That did not satisfy Deputy Dillon: he wanted it both ways—he wanted the Bill today and then he did not want to take it today. We cannot resolve the mental confusion under which Deputy Dillon labours. I want to deal with the point by the Leader of the Labour Party that the Government had no business for Dáil Éireann. If the Deputy will turn to page 468 on the Order Paper, he will see, under Orders of the Day, that there is, first of all, the Administration of Estates Bill, the Committee Stage of which has to be taken. Then there is the Apprenticeship Bill, a very important Bill, the Second Stage of which has to be taken and which will have to be taken when the Tánaiste is here to take charge of it. As everyone knows, the Tánaiste happens to be at this moment in Paris.
He appeared before the Árd Fheis yesterday.
He is in Paris on matters of prime importance to the economy of this country. It may be that the Deputies opposite wish him to be here and to neglect the business in Paris.
He was here for the Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis.
We think that the well-being of the economy of the country is much more important than the convenience of Deputies of Dáil Éireann. Next on the Order Paper is the Electricity Supply (Amendment) Bill, 1957, a Bill of which the Tánaiste is also in charge. Again, there is the Solicitors (Amendment) Bill, in Committee, a very difficult Bill, as we all know. Then we have as Item No. 16, the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, of which the Minister for Finance is in charge, but he happens not to be in a position to be here today. Turning then to the question raised as to whether there is sufficient business, we have the Customs-free Airport (Amendment) Bill, Second Stage; and the Charities Bill, Second Stage.
They have not been circulated.
The Finance Bill has not even been circulated; the Customs-free Airport Bill has not even been circulated; the Charities Bill has not been circulated and the Hire-Purchase Bill has not been circulated.
They will all be circulated between now and the date upon which the Dáil is in a position to take them.
I will deal with the Order of Business now.
May I thank the Minister for Health for stressing that the Government have no business?
They have business.
The Administration of Estates Bill was before the House until the Minister for Justice left. It was denied from the Government side that this was a new Bill, but the original Bill as circulated was an eight page Bill. Eight pages of amendments have now been circulated. If there is so much business before the House, as the Minister for Health claims, why not discharge the order as regards the Administration of Estates Bill, reprint the Bill as now contemplated by the Government, and save parliamentary time in that way? An eight page Bill supplemented by eight pages of amendments——
If the Deputy will throw his mind back to what happened on the Greyhound Bill and the pages of amendments circulated by his colleagues he will see it is quite unnecessary.
Certain information has been asked for in questions which were circulated in to-day's Order Paper and which have not been reached. The information contained in the answers is required for the debate for the next two days. Is there any possibility of giving those replies to the Deputies who circulated the questions?
The Deputies can get them as written answers, of course.
I will consult with the Ceann Comhairle to see what is the procedure.
Is it agreed that questions for oral answer may be taken as questions for written answer?
Yes.
For those Deputies who want them?
Yes.