asked the Minister for Local Government the number of houses built by Galway Corporation in each of the years from 1954 to 1966, inclusive.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Galway Corporation Housing.
30.
As the reply is in the form of a tabular statement I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to have it circulated with the Official Report.
Following is the statement:
|
Year ended 31st March |
Number of Dwellings built by Galway Corporation |
|
1955 |
22 |
|
1956 |
12 |
|
1957 |
181 |
|
1958 |
70 |
|
1959 |
— |
|
1960 |
— |
|
1961 |
— |
|
1962 |
20 |
|
1963 |
20 |
|
1964 |
24 |
|
1965 |
— |
|
1966 |
— |
|
1967 |
96 |
Will the Minister give the figures or is he ashamed to give them?
I have no objection to reading out the answer. The total was exceeded only once and that was under Fianna Fáil also.
The Minister gives the answer in a form, with the permission of the Chair. If a Deputy asks for the figures to be read seriatim, he is, in your judgment, a Cheann Comhairle, entitled to have them. I submit it is within your jurisdiction to accede to the Deputy's request.
The Minister gives the reply in the form he desires and the Chair has no control over the form in which the Minister replies.
On a point of order, does the Minister not say he "proposes, with your permission"?
And the information will be inserted in the Official Report. This is the insertion in the Official Report.
"With your permission,", and you can withhold your permission.
Will the Deputy sit down, please?
There is no need to call on me to sit down until you rise.
I have no control whatever over the form in which the Minister gives the reply.
Can every reply then, if a Minister wishes, be a written reply?
That is not the point.
It is the point.
I have no control over the form of the reply.
Has the Chair not the power to refuse the Minister the right to insert his answer in that form in the Official Report? Is the Chair not free to say: "I refuse that permission and, if you want it in the Official Report, you must answer it"?
That is assuming an authority in the Chair which I do not believe the Chair holds.
Then a Minister need answer no question.
It has always been the practice to publish figures in the form of a tabular statement to be circulated in the Official Report.
If what the Chair has said is correct, then Question Time could be a joke; it could be over in five minutes.
If the Ceann Comhairle thinks that, then he is wrong, and he ought not to say that.