It is proposed to take business in the following order: Nos. 1, 2, 14, 15 and 16 (Resumed). The Second Stage of the Friendly Societies (Amendment) Bill will be taken at the conclusion of No. 15. There will be no interruption today for Private Members' Business.
Order of Business.
May I ask the Taoiseach why the motion in my name deploring the Government's inactivity and total mishandling of the economic situation is not being taken today and tomorrow in Government time as requested by us?
The Government Whip has informed the Opposition Whip that time will be allocated on Tuesday, 2nd and Wednesday, 3rd November for a debate on that motion.
Does the Taoiseach not agree that there is a real emergency in the economic situation that should be debated now at the time of the ordinary recall of the Dáil and that this is the least that the urgency of the situation might have required of the Taoiseach in all the circumstances?
No. There was a debate on the economic situation before the Dáil adjourned.
The economic situation has deteriorated disastrously since then and the country is calling out for such a debate. May I ask why the urgency of the Bills that are now being debated, important though they may be, should be given priority in preference to the motion I have suggested should be debated today?
As the Deputy knows, he could have that motion in Private Members' Time if he so desired.
This is far more important than Private Members' Time and the Taoiseach knows that very well. This is typical of the maladministration of this Government. We are now about to debate on Second Stage a Bill which was introduced before the Summer Recess, which it was promised would be circulated during the Summer Recess and was circulated only last weekend. There came to my house on the afternoon of last Saturday a man who, I presume, was a member of the Government staff in some capacity with an envelope full of these Bills and explanatory memoranda and I was expected to act as postman for the Government and distribute these copies among my colleagues.
No matter what way it is done, the Deputy complains. When the Deputy does not get them——
(Interruptions.)
Order.
The revised procedure for circulating Bills arose from a committee of which Deputy O'Malley, who was then Minister for Justice, was a member. The only changes that have been made are ones that facilitate the Opposition.
There was no change that prevented this Bill being circulated a week or two before it was debated in this House.
I am afraid we cannot debate the matter now.