It is proposed to take business in the following order: Nos. 1 and 2 (resumed). Private Members' Business, No. 26 (resumed) by agreement, will be taken between 7.00 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.
Order of Business.
On the Order of Business yesterday, I asked your permission Sir, to raise a matter of public and urgent importance, the question of the insertion of an advertisement personalising the Minister for Labour in the offer of public funds to certain employers who would give employment under certain conditions. You ruled the questions I submitted as Private Notice Questions out of order on the grounds of either (1) they were not urgent or (2) they were not of sufficient public importance, or perhaps both.
There is no doubt about the public importance of what I alleged to be a gross misuse of public funds. On the question of urgency I argued that it would be possible that a similar advertisement would appear probably today, tomorrow and every day until next Sunday. The advertisement has appeared in all four daily newspapers today, the three Dublin dailies and The Cork Examiner. In the light of that and of the obvious urgency of the situation and of the acknowledged public importance of the matter, would you now admit that these two would be taken in today's Special Notice Questions?
I will consider the matter.