It is proposed to take business in the following order: Nos. 1, 2, 5, 9, 10 (resumed), 11, 12 (resumed) and 13 (resumed). Private Members' Business, No. 22 (resumed), will be taken between 7.00 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.
Order of Business.
May I ask the Tánaiste when the Government intend to implement their stated intention of bringing before the House in this session a Bill to regularise the sale of contraceptives?
The sale of?
Contraceptives. The Tánaiste knows what they are, does he not?
No doubt the Deputy will inform me if I require information. The Deputy is aware that the Government have been dealing with this matter and that a Bill——
Since 1972.
Deputy Kelly cannot afford to open his mouth on this topic. The Deputy may take it that a Bill will be coming before the House in the not too distant future.
The stated intention of the Government is that the Bill would be before the House during this session. There are approximately 12 sitting days left before the recess. Will the Bill be introduced in this session?
I cannot tell the Deputy the precise date on which it will be introduced but it will be quite soon.
Do the Government intend to carry out their stated promise?
If the Deputy finds that we do not do that, then it is time to talk.
I should like to raise a matter of the same kind as the Taoiseach frequently raised in the last Dáil on the Order of Business. The quarterly industrial inquiry was published in the newspapers this morning. I understand that it reached the newspaper offices late yesterday afternoon. It has not yet reached me either in the post at my own house or in the post at Leinster House. I would regard that as something requiring explanation. Yesterday afternoon the House resumed debate on the Industrial Development Bill. As I still had the major part of my speech to make, I especially inquired last week and again yesterday whether this survey would be available in time for the debate. I was told first by the Statistics Office that it would be ready on Tuesday but when I inquired on Monday I was told that it would be ready on Friday, not before Friday, and even that could not be guaranteed. I hope I will not be thought self-important in raising this matter. That situation in which an Opposition spokesman on an important Bill especially inquires about a statistical document from the responsible office several days before it appears and is then given a run-around of that kind is disgraceful. Unless I can get some proper explanation from the Government—I know I am taking the Tánaiste short by raising this matter now—I am going to ask my party to put down a special motion on this matter.
As the Deputy indicated, he appreciates that I have no notice of this matter and therefore cannot respond immediately. I will have inquiries made into the matter. Until it is proved otherwise, I will assume that the procedure followed is the procedure that is normally followed. Even though the Deputy did not get a copy of the document I am sure that he was glad to note the good news contained in it from his newspaper reading.
The news it contains is that Fianna Fáil have created nearly three times as many desk jobs as working jobs. The point is that, at a moment when that printed survey was in the hands of the newspapers, Deputies in this House were debating a Bill involving £350 million in industrial grants and did not have that survey.
I appreciate the Deputy's point.
I wish to attempt to raise on the adjournment for the third time the question of the third-level status of the art department of Dún Laoghaire technical school.
The Chair will communicate with the Deputy.