I move:
That, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, with effect from Tuesday, 14th November, 1989, and until the adjournment of the Dáil for the Easter Recess, 1990
(1) Questions nominated for priority shall be placed on the Order Paper before other Questions to members of the Government, other than the Taoiseach, to be asked on the same day;
(2) the sequence in which Questions nominated for priority are placed on the Order Paper shall be decided by lottery; and the number of such Questions which each group may nominate for answer on any one day shall be determined with reference to the following rota—
An Grúpa |
An Líon Ceisteanna |
Group |
No. of Questions |
||
Lá 1: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Day 1: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Páirtí na nOibrí |
1 |
The Workers' Party |
1 |
||
Lá 2: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Day 2: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Lá 3: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Day 3: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Páirtí na nOibrí |
1 |
The Workers' Party |
1 |
||
Lá 4: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Day 4: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Lá 5: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Day 5: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Páirtí na nOibrí |
1 |
The Workers' Party |
1 |
||
Lá 6: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Day 6: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Lá 7: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Day 7: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Páirtí na nOibrí |
1 |
The Workers' Party |
1 |
||
Lá 8: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Day 8: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Lá 9: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Day 9: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Páirtí na nOibrí |
1 |
The Workers' Party |
1 |
||
Lá 10: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Day 10: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Lá 11: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Day 11: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Páirtí na nOibrí |
1 |
The Workers' Party |
1 |
||
Lá 12: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Day 12: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Lá 13: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Day 13: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Páirtí na nOibrí |
1 |
The Workers' Party |
1 |
||
Lá 14: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Day 14: |
Fine Gael |
4 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Lá 15: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Day 15: |
Fine Gael |
3 |
Páirtí an Lucht Oibre |
1 |
The Labour Party |
1 |
||
Páirtí na nOibrí |
1 |
The Workers' Party |
1 |
||
Lá 16: |
Tosóidh an róta arís. |
Day 16: |
Rota to recommence.”. |
The motions before the House today arise from proposals which were agreed recently by the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. While these proposals are primarily the concern of the Opposition parties, the Government nevertheless support them on the basis that they are fair to all sides of the House and have the support of the vast majority of its Members.
The purpose of the motions is to allocate Priority Questions and Private Members' Time between the various Opposition parties on the basis of their numerical strength in the Dáil. They were designed by CPP to reflect the fact that Fine Gael have 55 Deputies, while Labour and The Workers' Party have 15 and seven Deputies, respectively.
The motion on Priority Questions provides that out of every ten questions put down, Fine Gael will be able to nominate seven, Labour two and The Workers' Party one. The rota is arranged over a 15-day cycle so as to ensure that The Workers' Party will have an opportunity of putting down a Priority Question to each member of the Government over a period of time. The motion also proposes that the sequence in which the questions will appear on the Order Paper will be decided by lottery and that Priority Questions will be taken before lottery questions, but after questions addressed to the Taoiseach.
The motion on Private Members' Business provides that over a period of 11 weeks, Fine Gael will nominate the business on eight occasions, Labour twice and The Workers' Party once. It is proposed that these new arrangements will remain in force initially up to the 1990 Easter recess.
As I have already mentioned, CPP agreed on these allocations strictly on the basis of the number of seats which each party hold in the Dáil. While Private Members' Time and Priority Questions were only allocated on a proportional basis for the first time in the last Dáil, this is not a new concept to the House. The committees have always been constituted so as to reflect the relative strengths of the parties participating in them, while Members are elected to the Dáil in the first place on a system of proportional representation.
I would like to emphasise at this point that these proposals do not reduce in any way the amount of time being allocated either to Private Members' Time or to Question Time. Opposition Deputies will continue to have available to them the same amount of time which they always had. What the motions seek to do is simply to organise that time in a reasonable manner.
I would like to stress again that the Government have no direct input into the matter. Our position is that we are prepared to support the proposals which are fairest to all sides and in deciding our stance we have taken account of the wishes of the vast majority of Deputies in the House, as well as the deliberations of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges.
Since the Dáil resumed on 24 October last, the Government have introduced a number of procedural reforms, all of which will improve the workings of the House generally, but some of which I am sure will be of particular benefit to individual Deputies. The Dáil has already formally requested CPP to recommence their work in preparing proposals for televising proceedings. The working group, which was established for this purpose, are also examining Dáil procedures and will be proposing reforms, where they are considered necessary. Already, arising from a suggestion which I put to the working group, a new Adjournment Debate procedure has been introduced which, in my opinion, makes that debate more relevant. In the past, the half-hour period set aside for the debate was not often fully utilised. I am sure Deputies will agree that the two 15-minute debates which we now have every day is a far more productive arrangement.
I am sure that over the next few months, the working group will be bringing forward other procedural reforms which will benefit Members on all sides of the House.
The Government accept CPP's opinion that the present proposals represent the fairest way of distributing Private Members' Time and Priority Questions among the Opposition parties. In view of this, I recommend the motions to the House.