It is proposed to take Item No. 7.
Order of Business.
What is the position in regard to the Book of Estimates for 1985?
It is in preparation at present and it will be published in due course. I cannot give the Deputy a date at the moment but I will check it for him and let him know.
Could the Taoiseach indicate whether the Estimates have yet been cleared by the Government? He will recall that there is a specific undertaking by this Government that the Book of Estimates will be published each year in September so that it can be debated by the House during this term. Perhaps the Taoiseach could indicate what exactly is the state of preparation of the Book of Estimates at present.
The national plan is completed and there are clear guidelines for Estimates for the next three years. Therefore, the work of preparing the 1985 Estimates is relatively straightforward based on that. However, the national plan took precedence over the Estimates and the actual Estimates will go to the Government in the near future for approval.
I am not clear on this——
You cannot ask another question.
What business have we here if we cannot ask questions?
The Book of Estimates——
I suggest that, out of courtesy to the Chair, he should be addressed by one Deputy at a time.
The Book of Estimates is probably the single most important document produced by the Government every year.
A discussion on its present state is not in order.
I asked about the Estimates and the Taoiseach gave me an answer regarding the national plan. I think I am entitled to ask the Taoiseach specifically what is the present state of the Book of Estimates.
The Deputy asked that question and the Taoiseach answered it.
I wish to reiterate my question in order, if possible, to get an answer. The Taoiseach knows — so do you — that the Government specifically promised that the Book of Estimates would be brought out in September every year so that the House could debate it during this session.
The Deputy can put down a question; I am not going to have a discussion on it now.
I am not having a discussion, I am asking a specific question. Is the Book of Estimates ready for presentation? Is it before the Government or has the Taoiseach now to acknowledge to the House that it is another promise, another commitment, that has not been kept?
The Taoiseach answered your question.
I endeavoured to enlighten the Deputy but it is not easy to enlighten him. The national plan is the more important document because it sets out the framework——
It has nothing to do with the Book of Estimates.
——for spending, capital and current, for each Department for three years ahead, something which no previous Government attempted to do. As the framework exists for 1985, the work of translating this into the precise details of the Book of Estimates is virtually complete and will be going to the Government shortly.
There was an item in the national plan referring to a £5,000 grant available for transferring from local authority houses to purchase houses. The plan has been published for two weeks——
We will be discussing the plan all day today and tomorrow.
I should just like to ask the Minister for the Environment when details of that scheme will be published.
In about two weeks' time.
Would the Taoiseach request the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Labour to intervene in the very serious situation which has arisen in the bacon curing industry——
I am sorry, that does not arise on the Order of Business.
Our bacon curers——
The Deputy is out of order.
I should like to raise on the Adjournment the strike action at Dunnes Store and the issue of the sale of South African goods.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
Is the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism drafting legislation at present as a result of the report submitted to his Department in 1982 by the Restrictive Practices Commission in relation to the monopoly enjoyed in legal conveyancing of house purchases?
I expect to be presenting recommendations to the Government regarding this matter in the very near future.
I should like to raise on the Adjournment the subject matter of Question No. 731 of Wednesday, 10 October 1984.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
I have raised a matter of great national importance——
Deputy O'Keeffe will have to find another way of raising this matter.
May I raise it on the Adjournment?
I will communicate with the Deputy.
(Interruptions.)
Order, please, Deputy Skelly on the Order of Business.
I should like to raise on the Adjournment a proposal to site a refuse dump for Dublin city and county in the Liffey valley.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
Reference was made on the Government side to jobs and employment——
That is not a point of order.
(Interruptions.)