May we speak on the Report Stage?
Housing (Loans and Grants) Bill, 1962—Report and Final Stages.
Question proposed: "That the Bill be received for Final Consideration."
The Deputy may speak only on the changes made on Committee Stage.
May we not speak on the Bill itself?
On the Fifth Stage.
Question put and agreed to.
Agreed to take remaining stage to-day.
Question proposed: "That the Bill do now pass."
When I came into the House yesterday morning, I was told I was speaking on the wrong Bill. I forgot we were on the Housing (Loans and Grants) Bill. I want to ask a question in regard to water and sewerage grants for dwellings around the seaside at Portmarnock. I am probably speaking on behalf of thousands of others around the country who have bungalows, wooden structures, in which they reside temporarily. Even though they are temporary dwellers, they live there for several months every year, paying full rates. Can they get a grant under this Bill?
Not under this Bill. I was just wondering if the Deputy——
Only one speech may be made on this Stage.
I have finished.
In case anybody else wishes to speak, I am saying the Minister is concluding.
The Minister will answer later.
That is the final speech.
Might I ask the Deputy to clarify what he has in mind? Is it grants for water and sewerage the Deputy has in mind?
Yes.
This is the Housing (Loans and Grants) Bill.
I thought we were back on the same Bill. There is so much switching around. We have still to deal with sanitary services?
No. That Bill has been passed and has gone to the Seanad.
I am mystified; I do not understand this procedure.
The order of business was announced to the House by the Taoiseach this morning.
I also wish to inquire into this. We voted here a few minutes before 3 o'clock on amendment No. 5. I am amazed to find now that the Bill has been passed.
After the division, the Report Stage of the Sanitary Services Bill was put and agreed.
It was not agreed. Without any argument, I want to say there were a few points I wanted to make on that Bill.
I cannot undo what the House has done.
Whatever way it was put, I did not hear it.
It was put in the usual way and any insinuation that there was——
There is no insinuation.
There is an insinuation in what the Deputy says. "Whatever way it was put," he said.
It must have been put when there was a hullabaloo in the House. No one heard it.
I have never at any time made any insinuations against the Chair. But if after a Vote there is any noise, it is not fair that Deputies should be expected to hear what is being said. I did not hear.
I gave the usual time for the House to readjust itself and I put the Report Stage of the Bill: "That the Bill be received for Final Consideration". Then I paused and asked would the Final Stage be taken, and it was agreed that it would be.
No one heard it. I came down immediately after the Vote.
I cannot argue if the Deputy——
It is all done too secretly.
——if the Deputy does not pay the necessary attention to the procedure.
I do not agree. Some of us were paying attention and if there is noise, it was not right that it should go through. I wanted some advice from the Minister.
I asked a question yesterday and I was told I was on the wrong Bill. Now I am told I am again on the wrong Bill.
The Deputy was told he was on the wrong Bill because he was on the wrong Bill.
May I, to be helpful, suggest to both Deputies and any other Deputies who merely have questions to ask—which is the only thing about which I can be helpful since the Bill is already passed—that they send me the questions and I shall give them as full and adequate an answer as I can by letter.
Nevertheless, I am objecting to things being done in this way. I am not that deaf.
Neither am I.
I cannot allow that to pass.
I am not deaf. I said I heard nothing.
That is an implication that there was some underhand work done by the Chair.
It must have been done when there was a hullabaloo in the House and you should have known we would not hear what you were saying.
I waited for the House to readjust itself and then I put the questions: "That the Bill be received for Final Consideration" and "That the Bill do now pass".
The sooner we get the amplifiers the better.
The Deputies are trying to pass on their difficulties to the Chair and the Chair will not accept them.
I was sitting here and I should like to bear out what the Ceann Comhairle has said. I heard the question being put.
I am not saying the Ceann Comhairle did not do it, but I was sitting here and I did not hear it being done. We should have been able to hear it.
Question put and agreed to.