I move for leave to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to continue the Shop Hours (Drapery Trades, Dublin and Districts) Act, 1926. The House will probably remember that in 1925 a Bill limiting the hours that shops should be opened was introduced in this House and afterwards passed in the Dáil. In 1926 a new Bill was introduced into the Dáil which amended the previous Act and extended the time at which shops were to remain open, particularly on Saturdays, to 8.30 p.m. That Act expires in July next. The Act which it is now proposed to extend is not the original Act, which was repealed, but the Act introduced in the Dáil and passed here after a compromise. My reason for extending it for approximately three years is that I believe the whole question of the closing of shops generally will in the meantime be considered by a commission or committee.
Leave to introduce granted.