I move:
That Standing Order 83 of the Standing Orders of Dáil Éireann relative to Public Business be amended by the deletion of subsection (2) and the substitution of the following subsection in its stead:—
(2) The speech of a member proposing a motion to which the time limit applies shall not exceed forty minutes and the member proposing, or such other member who has not already spoken as he may authorise in that behalf, shall be entitled to not less than fifteen minutes for a speech in reply; the speech of any other member in the course of the debate shall not exceed thirty minutes.
This motion will implement the recommendation in the recent report of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges that Standing Order 83 should be amended. The amendment recommended by the Committee is reproduced verbatim in the motion.
The object of the amendment is to obviate an abuse which can occur under the present Standing Order whereby a member can take up a disproportionate amount of the three hours available for debate. The Committee feels that as there is a time limit on the length of the debate there should also be time limits on the speeches of members.
The amendment seeks to divide the time between members in the fairest way possible. The proposer of the motion is allocated a maximum of forty minutes and other speakers a maximum of thirty minutes. In addition the proposer, or another member authorised by him who has not already spoken, is given a minimum of fifteen minutes for a speech in reply. The right of reply will no longer be affected by whether or not the seconder has spoken.
It will be noticed that the period of fifteen minutes for a reply is a minimum period. If, for example, as a result of the fact that no further member offers to speak, thirty minutes remain when the member concluding is called upon, he may occupy the full thirty minutes in replying.