It is proposed to take Nos. 2, 5 and 6 (Votes 37 and 38).
Order of Business.
On the Order of Business, may I ask the Taoiseach if he would intervene to prevent a Government order which has hitherto been placed with the Irish Dunlop Company from being placed elsewhere for political reasons?
That does not arise on the Order of Business and I am so ruling. I would ask the Deputy to accept that.
Yes. I accept that. But may I ask the Taoiseach, because of the seriousness and delicacy of the situation facing the Irish Dunlop Company at the moment——
The Deputy will have to find another way of raising the matter.
Could the Chair bear with me for a moment? The fact that a Government order is being placed with another company could have very serious repercussions.
The Deputy knows perfectly well that it is not in order.
I ask the Taoiseach to intervene to prevent that order, which was heretofore placed with the Irish Dunlop Company, from being placed elsewhere, as there is still time, but the position is urgent.
I am ruling Deputy Fitzgerald out of order.
Could I get the Chair's guidance as to when I might raise this matter today?
No. Deputy Fitzgerald is an experienced parliamentarian. I call Deputy Gallagher.
I am sure with hindsight the Ceann Comhairle regrets having put me out of the House yesterday. I would like to ask the Taoiseach, in view of the fact that the L.E. Fola allegedly fired at a small fishing boat in Donegal, if he would perhaps make a statement on the matter?
Please, Deputy.
The report being requested by the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry is only for the optics.
I am ruling firmly now that Deputy Gallagher cannot raise this matter in the manner in which he is raising it at this time. I am going to enforce the Standing Order.
May I ask the Taoiseach——
Order, please.
May I ask the Taoiseach, on the Order of Business, if he will give time to the Minister for Defence or the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry to make a statement? On Tuesday last I was told by the office of the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry that it was a matter for the Department of Defence. They are passing the buck.
If Deputy Gallagher wants to be put out of the House again today I will oblige.
I resent the remark that I want to be put out of the House. I have no intention of leaving this House.
I am ruling Deputy Gallagher out of order for the last time.
I think that the Ceann Comhairle is a big enough man to retract that statement that I want to be put out of this House.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
I have been elected to this House and do not intend being put out of it. The Ceann Comhairle is big enough to retract that statement and I would ask him to do so.
I am ruling Deputy Gallagher out of order. If he stands up again, I will enforce the Standing Order.
Will the Ceann Comhairle not retract that statement? It is wrong of the Ceann Comhairle to suggest that I wanted to be put out.
Deputy Gallagher will resume his seat.
I am resuming my seat, but it is wrong of the Ceann Comhairle to make that statement.
On a point of order, I ask the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry would he request an independent report——
Deputy McGinley is out of order. I ask him to resume his seat and co-operate with the Chair.
I seldom tax the patience of the Chair.
I am telling Deputy McGinley to resume his seat. I have ruled Deputy Gallagher out of order and there are no exceptions.
This is a new departure, where armed officers of the State——
Would Deputy McGinley please resume his seat? He will have to find another way of raising this matter.
On a point of order, I want, for my own information, to be sure of the Chair's ruling. I understood that the Order of Business was the time which allowed both the Government to announce their business and the Opposition to query the timing of particular business and the possibility of raising new business. I understood Deputy Gallagher to be asking if the Taoiseach would make time available today to discuss the serious matter which developed yesterday on the north-west coast of Donegal. In all seriousness, I think that that question was in order and should have been replied to.
At the beginning of this 24th Dáil I repeated a statement made by one of my distinguished predecessors setting out what is in order and what is not in order on the Order of Business. The raising of this matter on the Order of Business in the way that Deputy Gallagher is seeking to do is not in order. There are other ways of doing it, or exploring the possibility of doing it.
On a point of order, do I understand the Chair to say that no Deputy is entitled to ask the Taoiseach any day on the Order of Business whether the Government will make time available to discuss a particular topic?
That is so.
That has not been the position in my 14 years as a Deputy. When the Chair was on this side of the House, on occasions he departed from that ruling.
Hear, hear.
What I did on that side of the House, or tried to do, does not establish a precedent.
We all remember it.
I would ask the Chair for the same facility which he is giving other Members of this House to allow me to raise this matter by way of Private Notice Question. The Chair has done this in the past.
I will certainly consider any application that I receive from Deputy Gallagher.
The Chair would consider it from anyone of 167. The Chair gave an assurance to one Member——
I did not.
I consider myself as important as that Deputy.
I will consider any application I receive from Deputy Gallagher.
This House seems to be completely irrelevant.
Deputy Gallagher is a member of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. If he thinks the procedure of order on the Order of Business should be changed, he should initiate that at the committee meeting.
The Chair did not say that to Deputy Tony Gregory.
Deputy Gregory is not a member of the committee.
The Chair told him he could raise it.
Does not a discussion such as this make an absolute mockery of the bluff we hear from the other side about Dáil reform.
Deputy Fitzgerald is not in order.
They are not sincere. I accept I am not in order but I am merely asking the Ceann Comhairle a question.
I sought permission yesterday to raise on the Adjournment a matter concerning the serious situation in Dublin where 90 per cent of entertainment premises are not complying with safety regulations. The Chair ruled my request out of order on the basis——
I will not have decisions I made yesterday questioned. I appeal to Deputies to co-operate with the Chair.
I am asking a question.
If Deputy Brady or any other Member of the House is seriously dissatisfied with my rulings he has a way of challenging those rulings.
Why is the Minister not responsible? Surely he must be.
I will not argue with Deputy Brady.
I again seek permission to raise this matter on the Adjournment.
The Chair will communicate with the Deputy.
On the Order of Business yesterday the Chair was kind enough to allow me to seek permission to raise on the Adjournment the question of how a sum of money provided for in the Fianna Fáil Estimates for national sporting organisations has been allocated.
Is the Deputy requesting permission to raise this matter on the Adjournment?
The Chair subsequently told me the matter could not be raised. I have no wish to argue with the Chair.
I am glad to hear that.
I now hope that the Chair will reconsider the matter and allow me to raise it on the Adjournment.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
This House and sporting organisations would like to know what happened to the money.
Deputy Lyons, please sit down.
Will the Taoiseach allow the Minister for Defence time to make a statement in relation to yesterday's incident?
I have already ruled that out of order.
What are we to do? Are we to become more irrelevant? We hear a lot of mockery about Dáil reform.
If it was in the east there would be time, but because it happened in Donegal it is not relevant.