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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Nov 1969

Vol. 242 No. 1

Estimates for Public Services: Divisions.

I move:

That, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in Standing Orders, the Ceann Comhairle shall, where a division has been demanded on a Vote in Committee on Finance or on Report or on any motion dependent on such Vote or taken in conjunction therewith, postpone the taking of every such division until 10.15 p.m. that day if the House sits until that hour and, if not, to 10.15 p.m. on the next day on which the House shall sit until that hour;

That at 10.15 p.m. any business then under consideration shall be interrupted to take every such division and after the decision has been declared from the Chair, the Ceann Comhairle or the Chairman, as the case may be, shall then proceed to put any remaining question which has already been proposed from the Chair in connection with the debate and in relation to which all proceedings have otherwise been completed;

That, where in accordance with the foregoing, more than one division is to be taken at 10.15 p.m., the divisions shall be taken in the chronological order in which they were demanded; and

That, if at the time appointed for the interruption of business as provided in paragraph (2) of Standing Order 19, proceedings under this Order are in progress, the Ceann Comhairle shall not effect such interruption until the proceedings in connection with all divisions and questions outstanding shall have been completed.

I think the Parliamentary Secretary or somebody should inform the House about this particular motion. It is correct to say it is the same sort of procedure which obtained for the last few years of the last Dáil.

That is so. There was a motion passed by the last Dáil on the 28th April, 1965, to regulate the taking of the divisions on Estimates. It is not a Standing Order and as a result it lapsed with the last Dáil.

It should be made clear it is only for Estimates and not for anything else.

The vote will be taken at 10.15 p.m. on Tuesday or Wednesday, irrespective of the time the division is challenged. It is in exactly the same terms as the order that was inserted in the Standing Orders opposite page 13.

Could the Taoiseach say why this was never made a formal Standing Order? I think this is the third Dáil we have done it in.

I think it is the second. I do not know why. I cannot say why.

In case you should ever go out of Government.

It is all right the way it is anyway.

It is not inhibiting our debates, I think.

Question put and agreed to.
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