It is proposed to take Nos. 3, 25, 26 and 27. If not reached already it is proposed to take No. 27 at 7 p.m. and then to resume the Order.
Order of Business.
On the Order of Business, could I ask the Taoiseach if he would now accept the statement I made here some four weeks ago that the speech by the Northern Ireland Prime Minister calling on British troops to shoot on mere suspicion is at least partly responsible for the death of two young men last week?
Deputy Cluskey should know the procedure better than this, this is disorderly.
Will the Taoiseach further accept that his refusal to comment on that speech places him in the position where he must accept at least partial responsibility for these two murders.
This is a disgraceful abuse of the House and a disgraceful allegation worthy of the Deputy.
His criminal negligence——
Will the Deputy please resume his seat? The Deputy is out of order.
——to comment on that statement has now resulted in the death of two unarmed men. Even at this late stage will the Taoiseach ask the Northern Ireland Prime Minister to withdraw the statement calling on British troops——
Will the Deputy please resume his seat and allow business to continue?
I do not condone a statement like that under any circumstances. The Deputy is completely disorderly making false allegations in any way combining me with the death of these two men.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
We know the Taoiseach is more concerned with his own political future than he is with the welfare of the people.
Would the Deputy please sit down? The Deputy is being disorderly and abusing the procedure of the House.
Will the Taoiseach take any initiative——
I am not going to engage in any other repartee with the Labour Deputies on this question.
The Taoiseach has not engaged in any with either the British or the Northern Ireland Governments. The Taoiseach has done a Pontius Pilate——
It is too serious for this skulduggery.
The Deputy is making unfounded allegations and he intends to be as unhelpful as possible in the situation.
In view of the refusal to hold a public inquiry——
Will Deputy O'Leary please resume his seat? He is being disorderly.
On a point of order——
This is totally out of order.
The Deputy ought to know that his friend, and I even might say his supporter, is now in London. He might have heard on the radio that he proposes to see the British Defence Minister. I do not think the Deputy is being a bit helpful to whatever efforts he is now making in intervening at this stage.
It is a poor reflection on this Government when a Member of the Opposition has to go there instead of proper representation being made by the Taoiseach and the Government.
This is disorderly and disgraceful behaviour——
Five weeks after the statement, one week after two men have been shot dead and the Taoiseach still goes on with this nonsense in the House.
(Interruptions.)
In case this disorderly and disgraceful behaviour gives the impression that the Minister for Foreign Affairs and this Government have been in any way inactive, that is not the case. I would like to suggest to Deputies if they want to be helpful in this case, this is not the manner in which to raise it. The Minister himself will be dealing with this matter next Thursday.
The Taoiseach's speech two years ago about standing idly by was not very helpful.
On a point of order——
There can be no point of order at this stage.
——I put down what I believed to be a most important Private Notice Question about the head of an illegal organisation threatening to usurp the functions of this House and this State and to use the bullet and the bomb——
This is against the Rules of Order in this House.
We can discuss nothing of importance in this House.
The Deputy has been informed why the question was out of order and it may not be debated in this fashion. That has always been the rule of procedure in this House.
This organisation has threatened further bombing——
(Interruptions.)
What is the reason?
Surely this is of the utmost importance; this man has claimed responsibility for the bombings that have taken place and he has claimed that they are going to use the bomb and the bullet inside the next few days——
The Deputy should be aware that he can put down an ordinary question on this matter. The question was ruled out of order because I felt that it was not——
(Interruptions.)
The Deputy may put down a question in the ordinary way; we cannot discuss the matter now.
If it is it will be fully and effectively answered.
Surely the Government are not facing up to their obligations and their responsibilities in dealing with this illegal organisation.
Order, order.
The Government have done nothing to deal with this illegal organisation; there is a complete drift to anarchy——
(Interruptions.)
There is anarchy in this House today and we know who is responsible for it.
You know all about low standards in high places.
On a point of order——
There is no point of order.
How does the Chair know? I am raising a point of order.
There is no point of order; I have called item No. 3.
On a point of order, may I ask the Taoiseach—we are no great example to Northern Ireland, let us try and cool it a bit—if in future where Private Notice Questions are put in, I put down one for today in relation to the current situation in Northern Ireland, in order to enable this kind of scene to be avoided will the Taoiseach accept such questions in future and deal with them as, in effect, he literally had to deal with them?
I accept any question that is permitted by the Chair. It is not for me to disallow a question. I will answer questions within the Rules of Order. The Deputy's question will be answered very adequately and very fully next Thursday.
Does the Taoiseach not think it is urgent? Why allow this organisation to continue as it is today strutting the streets of this country——
That is not the question the Deputy referred to.
Is it any wonder that we have this kind of carry-on in Dáil Éireann?
The question will be allowed as an ordinary question.
May I put it to the Taoiseach——
No, it is a matter for the Chair to allow or disallow questions.
Could we hear the reason?
(Interruptions.)
Public prosecutor.
The Chair was about to give the reason. Could we now hear the reason?
The Deputy should sit down.
I am entitled to know why the question is ruled out of order.
No. 3 on the Order Paper.
Would the Chair state why he changed his mind about telling the House the reason for his ruling?
The question was ruled out of order because in my opinion it was not one of urgent public importance.
Oh, my God.
Fianna Fáil are very poor consolation to the families of these two young men who were shot dead.
The question has been tabled as an ordinary question and is down for Thursday.
How many explosions may take place in the intervening period?
(Cavan): Some of us heard the Minister for Transport and Power advising Deputy FitzGerald to get back to the Star Chamber. Might we know what the Minister for Transport and Power was talking about?
He does not know himself what he is talking about.
Ask Deputy Keating.
He is talking about a Committee of this House. Now we know the Government's attitude to it and why it was set up. The Taoiseach wanted a Star Chamber on the Minister's erstwhile colleagues. A Committee of this House has been called a Star Chamber and the Chair has not called to account the offending member.
(Cavan): On a point of order, a Cheann Comhairle, surely it is not in order for a Minister of this House, as it now transpires, to refer to a most important Committee of this House as a Star Chamber? Is that in order?
I did not hear——
(Cavan): The Minister has admitted it, Sir.
I did not hear the Minister make the statement.
(Cavan): The Minister admitted it. He admitted it more than once.
If the Minister made it, he should not have made it.
(Cavan): Will the Chair ask the Minister to withdraw?
I cannot, because I did not hear the Minister.
(Cavan): Will the Minister deny that he made it? The Minister is treating the thing as a joke, Sir, and then we hear appeals for order and decorum in this House.
Will the Deputy please resume his seat?
We are not in a kindergarten, Deputy.
(Cavan): It is a very serious business.
If the Official Reporter and the Press gallery heard what the rest of this House heard, I wonder would you then call on the Minister to withdraw?
I did not hear it and I was nearer to the Minister.
Or has it come to this, that remarks from one side of the House can be heard if it suits the Chair and not otherwise? Now I suppose the Member is going to be ruled disorderly. He asked Deputy FitzGerald to leave this House and return to the Star Chamber and that is common knowledge on the part of everybody who is in this House or in the public gallery.
If the cap fits.
It is time the nonsense and the fiasco that goes on under the Rules of Order should be stopped.
Am I in order in commencing the next business?