It is proposed to take No. 2 and No. 1.
Order of Business.
I should like to ask the Leader of the Seanad what business it is proposed to take before the Christmas Recess and I should like to urge him in particular to arrange, if at all possible, for the discussion of motion No. 3.
Motion No. 3 has been on the Order Paper of the Seanad for more than a year. It was originally part of a longer motion and it was removed from that motion in order to facilitate the Minister for Education who, at that time, did not wish to discuss university education. It was indicated at the time that the Minister would be willing to come in when the report of the Commission on Higher Education was available. Since then the report has become available and proposals have been made by the Minister and offered for discussion on this question. I would urge the Leader of the House to do everything in his power to have this discussed at an early date.
The Senator is aware, of course, that the deferment of this motion was done in agreement with other sides of the House and that the main idea was to await the publication of the full text of the report of the Commission on Higher Education. I have no doubt that the Minister is anxious to deal with this matter and every effort will be made to commence dealing with the motion on the Order Paper after the Report Stage of this Bill next week.
This was, in fact, deferred certainly because the Minister at that time did not wish to debate university education with the Commission's report coming out and we accepted that. We then thought it would be published in March and it was agreed that the debate would be in April. It did not come out then but it came out in June. We did not press the matter. Since then we have had part of it which covers many matters of substance plus the Minister's announcement which did not wait for the report. I think it would be useful to have a debate at this stage and we would press that it should be as soon as possible.
May we take it that by the time we do reach these motions on the universities there will still be some universities?
The Senator need have no doubt about that. The universities are well able to take care of themselves.