As fewer than ten Members have risen, I declare the question carried. The amendment is lost.
The names of Members dissenting will be recorded in the Journal of Proceedings of the Dáil.
Yesterday in the course of the Order of Business and in response to queries from a number of Members I undertook to make a statement in relation to promised legislation.
Standing Order No. 25 provides, inter alia, that the Taoiseach announces the order in which Government business is taken each day. There is no motion before the House and no room for debate. My predecessors have ruled that on the Order of Business the only questions which may be permitted must relate first to the business of the day, secondly, to the taking of other business on the Order Paper, thirdly, the taking of business which has been promised and which therefore can be anticipated and, fourthly arrangements for sittings. The Chair has consistently ruled that he cannot and will not accept matters being raised on the Order of Business which are not relevant.
Deputy Seán Barrett asked when it was proposed to introduce promised legislation in relation to the establishment of a new civil court of appeal. The proposed legislation is referred to in the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Programme for Government 1989-1993 In The National Interest. I have consulted the ruling of my predecessors in this matter of promised legislation and I find that on 30 November 1983 the then Ceann Comhairle ruled as follows:
It is in order to ask about proposals for legislation on the Order Paper. It is also in order to ask about legislation that has been promised in the House by the Government but not beyond that.
I intend to uphold that ruling. In so far as I am concerned the legislation must be promised in the House. I may say, however, that parliamentary questions and indeed motions in relation to specific proposals for legislation can be tabled by Members irrespective of whether such proposals were made inside or outside the House.
