It is proposed to take business in the following order: Nos. 5 and 15, Vote 41; Private Members' Business from 7 p.m. to 8.30 p.m., No. 28 (resumed). It is proposed that the Dáil will meet at 11.30 a.m. tomorrow.
Order of Business.
May I ask on the Order of Business whether or not there is a request from the Government to this side of the House that either No. 5 or No. 15 be completed today because of a certain urgency involved? We would like to know where we stand before the debate starts.
There is. I understand that the Department need the Estimate before the end of this week. I made that request to the Opposition Whip but I have not finished discussing the matter with him.
It is very unsatisfactory that the Government order their business in such a way that they impose deadlines on debates on important matters. We need only refer back to the Finance Bill. It is difficult for us to comply with the request. On the other hand it is most difficult not to comply when you are up against statutory deadlines and financial stringency deadlines. However, I hope the matter will be threshed out amicably between the Whips. It is not fair that these things should be thrown at us at the last minute on occasions like this.
Of course I accept that it would be unreasonable to ask the Opposition to keep a debate within a certain number of hours. The request I made was accompanied by the proposal that the debate itself would be continued on a token Estimate or under a Redundancy Payments order which is due to be discussed shortly. There was no intention of curtailing debate; it is just the money we want.
I only suggest that the Government ought to be able to order their business in more disciplined fashion.
We would all like to be able to foresee how business will go, but it requires co-operation from both sides. That is usually forthcoming; but the reference the Leader of the Opposition made to the Finance Bill last week was to some extent unjustified. Six days, by agreement, were spent on the Committee and remaining Stages of that Bill. That is more than had been spent on it at any time in the last six or seven years, or as far back as I was able to look. In one of the last years of Fianna Fáil Government only one day was spent on those Stages of the Finance Bill. Six days was plenty of time.
We always introduced our Finance Bills in time and it was a matter for the Opposition to debate them for as long or as short as they liked.
It would be more conducive to better business all round if the Government and the Opposition could mutually agree before business is taken roughly how long it will take. I do not mean that it should be a rigid timetable, but a flexible one would be of great advantage to all sides.