It is proposed to take No. 6 (Resumed) only. Private Members' Business, No. 16 (Resumed), will be taken between 7 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.
Order of Business.
May I put three questions to the Taoiseach on the one subject? My motion, No. 8 on the Order Paper, was No. 79 yesterday—it seems to be going backwards. Will the Taoiseach, if possible, arrange with the Whips that this motion be taken during Government time, having regard to its importance and urgency? Alternatively, would the Taoiseach arrange to have the terms of the motion accepted in order to save time? Will he admit that a mistake has been made in this case and have this grave injustice——
The Deputy may not make a speech.
Will he arrange for an early discussion of the motion in view of its urgency and importance? The Taoiseach knows how urgent and important it is.
I will discuss the matter with the Whips.
Would you give me two minutes, Sir, to raise a matter of principle? In the last couple of sitting days you have allowed Deputy Bruton to ask questions whose purpose was to unpick items in various Estimates which Deputy Bruton regarded as not credible. I put down a question with the same object, bearing not just on the Estimates but on an item in the Minister's budget speech in which he saved himself an item of £200 million by estimating it as the likely contribution——
I am sorry, Deputy, this is not in order.
You know, Sir, that I am not likely to be disorderly, that I am not a Gene Fitzgerald——
Deputy Fitzgerald, the Minister for Finance, if you please.
This is not a matter for the Order of Business.
If it is in order to ask questions in regard to the Estimates why is it not in order to ask a question about an integral operation in relation to the budget——
This is not in order.
I cannot ask the Minister a question on the budget if he does not choose to answer it.
If the Deputy wants to discuss the matter with me later he can do so.
I know the answer is to go to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges but that Committee may be forgotten in a matter of a couple of months.
Deputy Noel Browne to move his motion.