It is proposed to take: No. 10, motion re. referral of NESC report to committees; No. 1, Criminal Law Bill, 1996 — amendments from the Seanad; Statements on UHF television licensing scheme; No. 2, Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Bill, 1997, Second Stage. It is also proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that: (1) the Dáil shall sit later than 8.30 p.m. tonight and Business shall be interrupted not later than 10.30 p.m.; (2) No. 10 shall be decided without debate; (3) the amendments from the Seanad to No. 1 shall be taken together and decided without debate by one question which shall be put from the Chair; (4) statements on the UHF television licensing scheme shall be taken at the conclusion of the proceedings on No. 1 and the following arrangements shall apply: (i) statements shall be confined to the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications and to the main spokespersons for the Fianna Fáil Party and the Progressive Democrats Party and shall not exceed 30 minutes in each case; and (ii) at the conclusion of the statements, the Minister shall take questions, such questions, if not previously concluded, shall be brought to a conclusion after 30 minutes; and (5) The Second Stage of No. 2 shall be taken today and the proceedings thereon, if not previously concluded, shall be brought to a conclusion at 10.15 p.m. Private Members' Business shall be No. 61 — motion No. 21 re. farm incomes.
Order of Business.
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle
There are five matters to put to the House. Is the late sitting agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with item No. 10 agreed to? Agreed. Are the proposals for dealing with item No. 1 agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with statements on the UHF television licensing scheme agreed to?
It was brought to the attention of our Whip just a few hours ago that the Government wished to deal with this matter this afternoon. In the normal course of events we would not agree to that but, as this is an issue which other Members of the House are anxious to see debated and brought to a conclusion, I asked our spokesperson to seek a briefing, as is the age old practice in the House in respect of something the Government wishes to do. We were refused a briefing on the basis that this is not legislation. If it was legislation, I would be happy to get on with it. We do not have legislation, but in half an hour we are being asked to respond to and debate a proposal about which we have no knowledge, and this is unsatisfactory. We would be quite glad to deal with this matter during the course of the week, but we should not be expected to deal comprehensively and intelligently this afternoon with proposals which, presumably, were cleared at Cabinet today and about which we know nothing. If legislation is to be published we will deal with it then, but if legislation is to be published why do we need a debate now. I know of no precedent for this approach.
During the afternoon we asked if we could have the Attorney General's advice on this matter and copies of the licences given to the MMDS operators, which we have not got. We have also asked on numerous occasions for the consultants' report. If the Minister wishes to deal with this issue, a more satisfactory way of structuring a debate should be found. If the Minister wishes to make a statement and give time later for questions and answers on it, that is fair enough. I have no wish to prevent the Minister from making a statement. Everybody is interested in these proposals, particularly my rural colleagues. The Taoiseach's proposals seem an unfair way to treat the Opposition. I would ask him, therefore, to amend his proposals and work out something more satisfactory.
I am not sure what the Deputy is proposing. The Government made decisions this morning on proposals brought to it by the Minister. At the earliest opportunity subsequent to those proposals being approved by the Government, we are bringing them before the Dáil so that the Dáil and the people will be aware of what we are proposing. We do not expect people in the House to be able to react definitively on hearing these proposals for the first time. To assist in that respect we are providing for a period of questions and answers at the end of the debate. Furthermore, to the extent that any proposals to be announced by the Minister refer to or require further action of a legislative or non-legislative kind requiring the approval of this House, those proposals will be brought before the House for debate in the normal way at the appropriate time, and the Deputy's party will be able to comment on them at that stage. Furthermore, the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications will take questions in the Dáil next week. This gives time for Deputies from the Deputy's party who have heard the Minister's statement and who have asked questions during the 30 minute question period but who still require further information or clarification to put down questions for answer next week when the Minister will answer questions for more than an hour on the subject. It is important that we should allow the Minister to brief the House and the people at the earliest opportunity after decisions have been taken. That is why the debate is being scheduled to be taken immediately.
What exactly has the Government decided? Has it decided to have a debate or to introduce legislation? Will the debate merely lead to the formulation of heads of a Bill and subsequently to legislation? This is not the practice that has been followed up to now.
No. Fianna Fáil always made its announcements outside the House. I am doing it in parliamentary time.
The Minister has absolute privilege inside the House.
Notwithstanding anything the Minister may say — and I am glad he is going to say something — the suggested procedure is one we normally have in relation to a European Summit or a meeting between the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister. We do not usually have statements about Cabinet decisions. Will the proposed statements lead to the formulation of heads of a Bill and then to legislation? The Cabinet has decided, for whatever reason, to deal with this in the House. It has probably been advised by the Attorney General, because of the legal complexities of this issue, that it would be better to deal with it inside rather than outside the House. Since we have no knowledge of what the Minister intends to say, would the Taoiseach agree that we should reply briefly today and hold a question and answer session tomorrow?
We will have questions next week.
The Minister will make announcements in a few minutes, if the Deputy will allow him to do so. It would be inappropriate for me to indicate what those announcements will be. It is important to make the point that there is frequent criticism of Governments for announcing outside the House matters that affect the House. In this matter the Minister and the Government are anxious that the announcement should be made in the House as quickly as possible after decisions have been taken, and that is what we are doing.
When I asked about the matter I was told there would be no briefing.
Questions and answers on the matter will take place immediately after the statements have been made so that it will be fresh in the minds of all the participants. In the event that the parties opposite have further questions to be answered, they will have the opportunity of putting them in the form of parliamentary questions which will be taken by the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications next week. If the parties opposite are anxious to get answers to their questions in this matter I urge them to allow us to proceed with the matter so that the Minister can make his statement and the answers can be given.
I agree with Deputy Ahern's comments. The Government agreed around lunch time, after the Government meeting, to proceed by way of statements. Will the Taoiseach confirm the Government is not seeking the approval of the Dáil on the issue the Minister will announce later since no motion has been put down? Is it proposed to introduce legislation in the short-term to deal with this issue or will we be told that no legislation will be brought in?
All will be revealed in due time.
It is not good enough in the dying days of the Government to set such a precedent. Will legislation be introduced in this area?
If the Government decided this morning not to have statements on the matter, Deputy Harney and others would demand a statement today. She would say that there must not be a moment's delay, that we must have statements immediately. Now that the Government is providing for statements, the Deputy is trying to find some other basis for criticism. On requesting the House to approve a proposal, the procedure for making statements does not require a motion or approval by the House. The Deputy knew the answer to that question before she posed it. The approach we are adopting in this matter is a reasonable one. I urge the Deputy and others to devote their attention to what others have to say, and their forensic skills to devising the appropriate questions either immediately after the debate or next week during Question Time.
Will legislation be introduced?
In a few moments the Minister will indicate what exactly he proposes to do and what the Government has agreed to authorise him to do. If the Deputy is not satisfied with any aspect of the detail relating to the legislative or other processing of those proposals, she will have the opportunity in about an hour to put questions to the Minister during a 30-minute question period. If she is not satisfied with the answers she will have another opportunity next week to put questions over a full hour to the Minister. I have no doubt the Deputy, who has a fertile mind in the matter of putting questions, will on this occasion find that every question she can think of will be adequately answered.
There will be no legislation.
As Stanley Baldwin said, wait and see.
That is a good model.
Deputies will not have long to wait.
It is not unreasonable for the Opposition to ask why a totally different procedure is being used in this case. The Taoiseach should not be puffing and panting. This is a new procedure which the Government believes is a very smart ploy, probably because it knows that——
What is the Deputy afraid of?
I am not afraid of anything.
What is the Minister afraid of?
All I want to do is give the facts.
An attempt is being made to deal with the matter by way of statements because the Government knows it will not have legislation through and it wants to be able to say it did its best.
The Deputy is obstructing us.
The real reason the matter is being dealt with in this way is that the Government has been advised by the Attorney General that that will protect it from action of a legal nature. On a similar matter, I understand that the Government this morning accepted proposals to put the hepatitis C tribunal on a statutory basis. At the end of the debate which we are about to take, will the Taoiseach deal with the hepatitis C issue in exactly the same way?
On the procedure for dealing with the issue of UHF transmissions, the Deputy is plainly not anxious to hear the Minister's proposals——
Rubbish.
——because he is exhausting himself with procedural complaints of no substance in this matter. I urge the Deputy, in the interests of this genuinely serious issue, to allow the Minister to announce his proposals, which have been approved by the Government, and to put his questions on the matter.
What about the hepatitis C issue? Is that not more serious?
If he is not satisfied with every answer he gets he should avail of the opportunity next week to put further questions on the matter. Nothing could be more reasonable. As regards the legislative action that is required to give effect to the Minister's proposals, that legislation will be introduced as promptly as necessary by the Government and the Deputy will then have full opportunity to comment on the matter. On the other issue, the Government will bring forward its proposals on that matter shortly.
The Taoiseach is playing games.
I wish to amend item No. 4 by asking that at the end of the debate on the MMDS system we proceed to the order on the hepatitis C legislation which, according to the media, the Government cleared this morning.
It is the same principle.
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle
The Order of Business is the prerogative of the Taoiseach.
On a point of order, in the proposal made by our party leader he endeavoured to show that this side of the House has some sense of priority in regard to the issues that are important. The Government made noises outside the House on the hepatitis C issue and promised to carry out what is in effect a cosmetic procedure, to issue heads of a Bill next Wednesday. We are willing — I have no doubt the Progressive Democrats are also — to agree to amend the Order of Business at any time this week to take the hepatitis C legislation, which is of greater urgency than the matter we will deal with today, and get it through all Stages this week. As a Whip, I received two hours' notice of this issue. I asked for a briefing for our spokesperson but that request was refused. I protest in the strongest possible terms at the way this matter is being dealt with.
The substance of the proposals that will be put by the Minister was decided upon by the Government at 1 p.m. today and it was not possible for us to brief the Opposition before the decision were taken. We are providing for a full debate and questions on this matter at the earliest possible opportunity on the same day the decisions were taken.
We could have been briefed at 2 p.m.
Nothing could be more reasonable and more respectful of the prerogative of the House in this matter than the way in which the Government is proceeding on this occasion.
That is nonsense.
The Deputy's party is wasting its limited energies in a reckless fashion.
The Taoiseach makes up the rules as he goes along.
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle
Are the proposals for dealing with No. 2 agreed?
No. 2 is not agreed.
Will the Government agree to take the legislation dealing with hepatitis C this week?
I told the House we will take that legislation when it is ready. The matter is engaging the close and careful attention of the Minister for Health, the Government and its advisers who are anxious to put in place a just and effective procedure in this area. We are consulting the relevant interests to make sure they understand what the Government is doing. We will bring our proposals to the House at the earliest possible opportunity. I appreciate the Deputy's offer of co-operation on time. We may or may not have to avail of it.
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle
Are the proposals for dealing with No. 2 agreed? Agreed.
When will the legislation on the newspaper industry be brought before the House? The Taoiseach promised to introduce this legislation before Christmas. he also promised to introduce it before Easter and in the first week after the recess.
A number of legal drafting difficulties have arisen in regard to that legislation. I expect to present it to the House in the second half of the year.
We may say goodbye to it.
When will legislation to provide for holding a referendum on Cabinet confidentiality be introduced?
In the next week or two.
When will the hepatitis C tribunal be placed on a statutory footing? It is supposed to be a priority in the Government's programme. It was indicated over the weekend that the Minister proposed to meet members of Positive Action to update them on matters, but I understand that may not happen. Will the Taoiseach arrange for the Minister to confirm with those members that he will meet them tomorrow? They are waiting to hear from him.
I understand the Minister will arrange to meet members of Positive Action tomorrow to update them on the issue.
He should tell them that.
The legislation on hepatitis C is receiving close attention and we are anxious to introduce it in a robust and effective manner as soon as possible.
Will it be introduced next week, next month or in six months' time?
I do not want to give a specific date, but I hope it will be introduced in the next couple of weeks.
There have been reports and leaks, inspired and otherwise, that the Government intends to amend the licensing Acts to tackle the illegal sale of drugs on licensed premises. Will it follow line by line the proposals in this regard outlined at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in 1995 and in our recent policy paper on crime?
The Minister for Justice has a wide reading list.
I know that.
She will include the Deputy's publications in her reading list, but I will not tell him whether she will categorise them under fact or fiction.
She shreds extradition warrants.
The Deputy should not interrupt me in this manner.
We should sit mutely.
I am pleased to be able to inform Deputy O'Donoghue that the Minister's proposals were approved at Cabinet today and will be published very soon.
Do they include Deputy O'Donoghue's proposals?
I am sure the Taoiseach is concerned about the developments in Albania. What action is the Government taking to co-ordinate the EU humanitarian assistance? Reports suggest chaos and confusion on that issue.
That matter would be more appropriately dealt with by way of a parliamentary question to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. As the military power closest to Albania, the Italian Government is taking the lead in this matter, but the Irish authorities are giving appropriate support.
I am pleased you, Sir, are back with us this week. The greyhound industry is panting with bated breath to know when the legislation on that industry will be introduced. It was promised last year, before Easter and after Easter. Will the Taoiseach pull out of the traps and introduce it as soon as possible?
That legislation is on the inside track, it has been drawn in trap one. I have also arranged to give the dog notice of the timing of the mechanical hare's movements on this occasion.
There are significant legal problems in the drafting of this legislation, but the heads of a Bill have been approved. I am anxious that this legislation, which is necessary to put an important industry on a modern statutory footing, is introduced as soon as possible. I will do everything possible to advance it.
I have been given an indication of business for the next two weeks, but much of the legislation the Taoiseach said is being treated with priority does not appear on that list. When will legislation on an adoption contact register be introduced? I spoke to a person yesterday who was given false information when trying to get details about his adoption. Does the Government intend to introduce this legislation soon?
I will not answer the question in the form put by the Deputy because a decision has not been made on that matter. The relevant legislation will be introduced later in the year.
In view of the disastrous decision taken in Brussels regarding the fishing industry——
The Deputy must not have been listening to Joey Murrin.
——and the impact it will have on the fishing fleet and the quota, will the Taoiseach seek support from his counterparts in Europe to safeguard our industry which will be on its knees if these decisions are implemented. Even though we are not the cause of the problem we are expected to carry a disproportionate part of the quota cuts.
That matter should be raised at a more appropriate time.
What is the current position in regard to legislation on mental health? A charter of rights has been promised for psychiatric patients.
We hope to introduce that legislation before the summer recess.
Will the Taoiseach ask his brother to get involved in the dispute at Irish Life where more than 300 workers have been suspended and are receiving £30 per week.
The Deputy should not personalise matters in this way. I call item No. 10.
More than 300 workers have been suspended. This is a serious matter, of which the Taoiseach has tried to wash his hands.
I will not be dictated to by Deputy Power. I have allowed him the opportunity to raise an appropriate matter. What is it all about?
More than 300 workers in Irish Life have been suspended and 40 more joined those workers yesterday.
The Deputy can raise that matter at a more appropriate time.
The pennies are running out. Those workers are only receiving £30 a week.
We have a centre left Government.
It has never heard of workers.
It should bring the workers on its left in from the cold.
It has burnt its principles in the back garden.