Today the Select Committee on Enterprise and Economic Strategy shall continue its consideration of the Committee Stage of the Consumer Credit Bill, 1994.
Order of Business.
There is nothing to put to the House.
The Government has consistently refused a further debate in this House on the revised National Plan. We have to read the newspapers to find out what has been dropped from the plan. Can the Taoiseach confirm a story in today's newspapers that the light rail system for Dublin is being dropped or grossly modified, or does he intend to allow his chosen Fianna Fáil candidate for the European Parliament to announce the project some days before the European elections?
That matter is not in order now.
We need to have a debate to find out what is in the National Plan. All we can get are leaks.
I suggest it is slightly out of order that Deputies are trying to make election speeches every morning on the Order of Business.
Under the procedures of this House there can be a debate but not now.
Minor details of the plan are being finalised and it is a matter for Brussels to put the Community Support Framework together and have it published at the earliest possible time. There are no plans to drop any major elements of the plan and I have said that on a number of occasions.
Does the Taoiseach——
I cannot allow a debate to develop now.
——intend to announce the details of the revised modified National Plan before 9 June or, if it is not to his liking, does he intend to wait until after 9 June?
Publication is a matter for Brussels whenever they are ready. No major elements of the plan have been dropped.
The Taoiseach is passing the buck.
I am sorry to disappoint the Deputy but that is the reality.
If there is good news, there will be an announcement.
It had better be announced or the news will be leaked.
Order, please.
In the light of four brutal murders in the west in the past two weeks, I invite the Taoiseach to assure the House that every resource is being given to the Garda for the investigation of these crimes. Will the Taoiseach not agree that in the public interest it is time the Minister for Justice intervened in the dispute in the GRA to sustain the morale of the force, which is just as important as resources?
I hesitate to inform the Deputy that the matter is not in order now. I feel sure the Deputy will pursue that matter in the ordinary way.
It is in the public interest that the Minister assure the House that matters are in hand in relation to the morale of the Garda Síochána.
Please, Deputy O'Donnell. The Deputy knows full well that the matter to which she is adverting is not in order now.
Last night I read a letter into the record of the House from free legal aid centres, FLAC, confirming that they were required by the Department of Social Welfare to impose conditions of confidentiality on the settlement with 1,800 women on social welfare arrears. The previous evening the Minister for Social Welfare denied it to the House. It is clear——
We had a full debate on that subject and it was decided by the House last evening. The Deputy is not in order in raising it again this morning.
Will the Minister for Social Welfare make a statement to the House since he blatantly misled the House the night before last, when he denied——
The Deputy must be careful in attributing an aspect of that matter to any Member of this House.
I assure you I am being careful. I have studied the record. Deputy Bernard Allen, who is not in the House, agrees with this.
The Deputy will find another time to raise the matter.
Is it permissible for a Minister to blatantly mislead the House on a decision that affects 70,000 women?
Deputy Rabbitte, please desist. We had a long debate on the matter during the past two days and a vote on it in the House. If the Deputy wishes to raise it again, he will have an opportunity, but not now.
I appreciate that, Sir, but is it acceptable for a Minister——
This is not Question Time.
——to mislead the House?
The Deputy can raise that pertinent question in the normal way in accordance with the procedures of this House.
On a point of order, on 27 April, in reply to a parliamentary question, the Minister for Justice informed the House that on the basis of her own detailed knowledge of the particular area in question — that is the County Galway region — under the powers conferred on her by section 6 (1) of the Garda Síochána Act, 1924, she directed the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána to switch district headquarters from Oughterard to Salthill. Yesterday, I tried to raise this matter here — this is the point of order——
No, it is not a point of order. The Chair decides that. The Deputy is embarking on a speech.
I am not embarking on a speech, the Chair heard my first sentence and I will be happy to sit down after he hears my second sentence. The Minister for Justice sat silently in this House yesterday but admitted in the Seanad last night that she does interfere in the prison system in the same way, based on her personal knowledge. How long will prisoners and the Garda Síochána have to suffer the trauma of political corruption? What has happened to the spirit of public service? Instead the Minister, in self interest is using the prison system and the Garda Síochána to buttress herself in her constitutency.
Deputy Mitchell must desist. The Deputy will now resume his seat.
Has the Minister no shame? Where is Deputy Costello? The prison system is being abused and used to the Minister's advantage. It is a disgrace that the Minister in the Seanad replied to a question raised in this House and admitted her offence. Where is the Minister's sense of justice?
I will not be ignored in this fashion, the Deputy will resume his seat and desist forthwith.
Perhaps there will be a clause in the ethics in Government Bill that will put an end to this.
The Minister is afraid to answer questions in this House. I have a copy of the speech she made in the Seanad last night and a copy of the parliamentary question tabled on 27 April. Has the Minister no shame in using the prison and the Garda systems for personal advantage and admitting to it in the Seanad?
This is no way to conduct the business of the House.
A charge of serious political corruption was made against the Minister for Justice and it should be withdrawn in the interest of justice in this House.
Order. A political charge is quite in order. If the charge is directed personally at a Member of the House it is clearly not in order.
May I bring it to your notice Sir that it was directed at the Minister for Justice?
In her political capacity as Minister for Justice.
The Chair takes the view that the Deputy made a political charge. He should raise it at an appropriate time.
It is accurate. Thank God you cannot walk over the Ceann Comhairle as you can over the prison system and the Garda Commissioner. The Minister will be hearing more about this matter. Has she no shame to sit there justifying that?
(Interruptions.)
The Minister is trying to do down this House because of the Government's 35 seat majority.
Sitting suspended at 10.45 a.m. and resumed at 4.30 p.m.