Might I inquire whether we are expected to deal with the Health Bill before we rise this summer?
Business of Seanad.
We have no information on the point, but we will have inquiries made and let the House know later on.
May I put it that a Bill like the Health Bill, which is not controversial in its principles but on which this House might very usefully suggest certain amendments, is the kind of Bill we ought not to get at the end of a session. If a Bill is one to which people have radical objecttions, one might be cynical about its being rushed through, but it is debatable if a Bill in which everybody is interested, about which there ought to be considerable consultation with outside people and to which amendments would be proposed in a helpful manner and for a good purpose, should be put to us at the very end of a session. I do not object to work, as everybody knows, but I think that this kind of Bill is one which we ought not to get at this stage of the proceedings, if it could be possibly avoided. Perhaps some information might be got through the usual channels on that basis.
Mr. Hawkins
I understand that the Minister for Health is anxious to get the Bill through this House as soon as possible with a view to its enactment.
Might I suggest that there never was a Minister in charge of a measure who was not anxious to get it through at the earliest possible moment?
I was about to say that that is the uniform position of all Ministers of all Parties and apparently of all ages and of all types, but is this not the kind of Bill that ought to be got through rather slowly? It is, I understand, an enabling Bill, in the main.
If that is conveyed in the proper spirit, the Minister will have no objection.
Perhaps Senator Hawkins will be good enough to make representations in the course of the evening, in the light of these remarks.
Intimating that we would require some time.
Yes, Senator.