The Minister reported progress.
Committee on Finance. - Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 1973: Committee Stage (Resumed).
Question again proposed: "That section 2 stand part of the Bill".
I have explained my position. I have nothing further to say.
Section 2 is the important section that allows for an increase in the number of Deputies to be elected to this House. We have stated that, as a general principle, we do not object to increasing the number of Deputies by four but naturally we would only agree to that on certain conditions. We would expect the distribution of the four seats to be carried out in a fair and just manner.
We do not accept this has been done. In the remainder of the Bill and in the Schedule it is clear that fair and just principles have not been applied in the distribution of the four additional seats. This is disappointing and is a cause of much concern to the people. The Minister has been reasonable to a certain extent in the debate on the Motorways Bill which we have just concluded. He listened to reasoned argument, he has conceded that the Opposition made valid points; in one case he accepted our amendment as it stood and in other instances he brought forward amendments when he agreed with the points we made. Deputy Haughey complimented him. We had hoped that spirit would emanate through all discussions on Bills in this House but I am afraid in the discussion so far on section 2 we could not agree the matter has been dealt with in a reasonable fashion.
We have asked the Minister to explain his reasons for increasing the number of Deputies by four. One would reasonably expect that any Minister coming before the House with such an important request would have cogent and valid arguments in favour of it. There has been debate among the community since the foundation of the State in connection with this matter; there are those in favour of increasing the number of Deputies and those who are not in favour, and there is also a substantial lobby who sincerely believe there are too many Deputies elected to this House.
It was unusual, to say the least, that the Minister gave no reasons, except a few words that were included in his introductory speech on Second Stage. Apart from that, when he made a brief reference to EEC additional work, when we came to deal with the section on Committee Stage the Minister merely said that the Government had decided to increase the number of Deputies by four. He said the Government had sufficient votes to put the amendment through and he indicated to this side of the House that was sufficient argument for his asking the House to increase the number of Deputies by four.
I listened and contributed to the debate last night. The only conclusion I could come to at the end of the discussion was that the only arguments being advanced, either for or against this section, were from the Opposition. There was no real contribution in favour of this section from the Government who brought the Bill before Dáil Éireann. There was complete silence from the Deputies on the Government benches. The only contribution came from the Minister but there was no support for the Bill from the Deputies sitting behind the Minister—in fact, very few Deputies thought it worth their while to come in and listen to the debate. We suspect that there are quite a substantial number of Deputies in the Fine Gael and the Labour Party who disagree with the provisions of this Bill.
The proof of that is that there are no amendments from our side.
Progress reported; Committee to sit again.