It is proposed to take business in the following order: Nos. 7, 8 (resumed) and 9 (resumed); Private Members' Business, Motion No. 20, from 7 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
Order of Business.
With your permission I would like to raise the question of St. Brendan's Hospital on the Adjournment this evening.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
I would like to raise the question of the recent increase in mortgage interest rates and the action that the Government could take to modify this increase for the consumers.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
Because it was impossible to raise it by Private Notice Question I would like to raise on the Adjournment the question of a statement made in a northern court by Judge Babington which reflected on the integrity of Donegal people in a dangerous and irresponsible way.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
I wish to raise on the adjournment the subject matter of the conditions in St. Brendan's Hospital.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
Could I ask the Minister whether he has seen reports that the British Green Paper on the EMS will be published this week? The Taoiseach said in the House that it was the intention of the Government to publish a document on this matter. When will this document appear? When will the debate take place prior to the decisive meeting of the European Council?
I am not in a position to add anything to what the Taoiseach said in reply to the Deputy last Wednesday. The Taoiseach is, as the Deputy knows, unavoidably absent today because he is undertaking a visit to Paris and Bonn but he will be here next week and I suggest that the Deputy will still be in plenty of time to raise the matter then with the Taoiseach directly.
It will be rather little time. The time left for the publication of such a document as described by the Taoiseach on 11 October and a debate will then be very short indeed. I would prefer to have some assurances in the matter before then. Perhaps I could raise the matter again on the Order of Business tomorrow to give the Minister time to clarify the position for himself.
I will not be in any better position to clarify it further tomorrow than I am today. The position is that it is unlikely that there will be a White Paper before the Summit. The Taoiseach explained fully on the last occasion the Deputy raised this matter what the constraints were.
Would the Minister indicate what constraints operate here which do not operate in the UK?
We have already had a debate on this matter in the House. Both the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach fully explained in the House what the difficulties are about publishing a White Paper before any effective decisions have been made.
But the Minister said that the debate we had was purely of a preliminary character. This point was made by both the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach in the course of that debate and by the Minister's colleague, the Minister for Economic Planning and Development. Would the Minister agree that if there is to be no White Paper it would be all the more important——
I did not say there would be no White Paper.
The Chair would like to say at this stage that this matter has been raised several times now with the same results. The Chair cannot allow this to continue.
Surely the case for discussion in the Dáil before final decisions are made is rendered even more acute if there is no White Paper to be available beforehand.
It is not in order to discuss this now.
The Deputy must understand that I did not say there would be no White Paper. I said it is unlikely there will be one before the Summit.
Would the Minister not agree that when this debate took place originally the Taoiseach referred to it as a preliminary debate to be followed by a substantial debate with a White Paper before the Summit in Brussels.
This matter has been discussed in the House on a number of occasions already. I am calling the next item.