It is proposed to take No. 1 only.
Order of Business.
On this attitude which is seeking to dragoon this measure through the House, I wish to record a protest. We had the Second Stage debate only last week and we are now being rushed into a situation of considering the Committee Stage debate on this highly irrelevant and unworkable Bill at this stage when there are a number of motions on the Order Paper. Concern was expressed by the Leader of the House in regard to these motions some time ago. Despite the concern that was expressed, the motions, a number of them very important, have not been dealt with nor have we got any indication as to when they are to be taken.
There was mention by the Leader of the House of his anxiety to have the motions brought in here in an orderly and regular manner, and we are now in a situation where we are back into the log jam position again where the motions are there undealt with and without any indication as to when they will be taken or what planning there is on the part of the Government as to their being taken.
As I see it, only one in fact has been taken since the Leader of the House announced some months ago that he intended to order a progressive way to take these motions. We have had only one motion debated since that was decided by the Leader of the House. In particular, I should like to mention the motion in Government Senators' names, Motion 34, noting the state of the world economy and commending the policies and actions of the Government dealing with the current difficult economic situation. We should certainly like a debate on that issue, which is very pertinent to our present economic position, one which is causing widespread anxiety, and one does not have to be in public life to realise the very real worry on the part of our people throughout the country as to the whole economic future and where we are going.
There does not appear to be any economic management at the present time on the part of the Government. I picked that motion as an example, but the fact is that we are in a situation where we have five pages of motions and we do not appear to be getting round to tackling them. Instead, we have the Committee Stage of this Bill rushed into the Seanad on a week's notice at the end of Second Stage, in fact less than a week, and it concerns a Bill which is, in the present deplorable economic situation, apart from being irrelevant and unworkable in the sense of the Bill itself, totally irrelevant to the very real economic crisis into which the Government have, quite frankly, landed us, an economic crisis which has been dealt with energetically by every country in the EEC except this country.
I should like to draw attention to Motion 36. It is very pressing and unless something is done now it will be too late when we resume. It is the one which concerns the decision of the Minister for Education to dispense with the services of untrained teachers in the primary school sector. It is far more urgent than the legislation we have here today.
I support what has been said about the taking of this Bill today. The problem is that we are going through a charade and everybody knows that. We know, and the Minister knows, and everybody else knows, that there is not the slightest intention of enacting this Bill and that there is not any intention of putting it through the Dáil. It is a charade that has been gona through for reasons which are not clere, but it is absolutely clear that this Bill will never become law.
Therefore, one can only suggest that it is a complete waste of parliamentary time, particularly a waste of time at a time when there are so many other things that we ought to be dealing with, so many genuine issues that are before us at the present day. I agree with Senator Lenihan that it would be particularly useful to be able to deal with Motion 34. It would be especially interesting to hear Government Senators describing the policies and actions of the Government in dealing with the current difficult economic situation, because whatever about Government Senators no one else knows of any actions or policies that have been taken or made by the Government to deal with the present situation. It would be very interesting to have a debate of this kind. Certainly we cannot see any point in dealing with this utterly irrelevant Bill in present circumstances.
I support those who have spoken on this matter, in particular in relation to Motion 34 and indeed to Motion 36 referred to by Senator Ahern. The Bill is being used as a method of directing attention away from the real issues which we should be discussing here. Those are being pinpointed in those two motions, some of them at any rate. In a situation where we have 103,000 unemployed and where we have suggestions that the road tax will be doubled in the near future and various types of cuts and so on will be made, we should have some information here in the Houses of the Oireachtas concerning these matters. The situation seems to be desperate all over the country, and one has only to observe the few people who are working along our main highways making roads. These works seem to have come to a standstill in many areas. These are important matters.
The Senator is going beyond the question of the Order of Business.
I wish to join other Senators in protesting against the Bill occupying the complete time of the Seanad. The Bill and the Broadcasting Bill appear to be the measures with which the Government can block the House from doing any effective business and discussing the real problems that we find ourselves in. I want to express concern at the lack of consideration of Motion 37. I do so because people employed in the textile industry in my county form half of the total wage earners in County Donegal. I put down the motion when it was apparent that we were going to have a serious situation, and now almost 50 per cent work time in the textile industry in County Donegal has been lost. To save the Government having to pay these people social welfare benefits, to save the workers from the embarrassment of standing in queues, I am asking that we show serious concern for the people who are prepared to work and to show that the Government are not totally disinterested in providing security for them. I ask the Leader of the House to demonstrate that the Government are interested in doing something other than blocking legislation here. Apparently that is what it is.
For the information of the Leader of the House, I am interested in Motion 27. I ask that the time of this House be put towards the furtherance of the needs of the people. As regards Motion 27 we in our county asked the Department of Local Government for £900,000 in local authority allocations. We got £102,000. We were left with the situation where the needs of the people were not met. No progress is being made in water schemes or in sewerage schemes. Arising from that matter, there was provision made in the budget for £16 million for that purpose.
The Senator is now going on to discuss the merits.
Due to the mismanagement of this Government £16 million was taken from the taxpayers to meet the needs of the people but the Government have not done so. I think the two motions could be put together and discussed. The Government are dodging the issue in both Houses of the Oireachtas. I ask the Leader to consider carefully my proposal for Motion 27.
I have not yet been told by the Leader of the House when it is proposed to take Motion 35. This is also an important motion dealing with the White Paper on the National Agricultural Advisory, Education and Research Authority. This is of immense importance to agriculture. We would be far more reasonable as part of the national Parliament if we discussed the needs of the people than to be engaged in discussing a ridiculous, silly Bill that has been bulldozed from the Dáil to this House. I ask the Leader of the House to give a positive indication as to when these motions of national importance will be discussed.
Every day the Seanad meets we have discussions on the Order of Business. The House has been meeting four days a week for the past few weeks and it seems likely that this trend will continue for some time to come. The discussion on the Order of Business today will take at least 20 minutes. Four days a week for four weeks of the month total 5 hours 20 minutes devoted to discussing the Order of Business. It would be possible to have a motion discussed in that length of time. We need less of this blundering political charade on the part of the Opposition and more time to discuss the motions. This ridiculous carry-on impresses nobody.
If the Government ran their business in a sensible way there would be no need to do it.
It must be very disturbing to Government Senators to have to come to the House four days a week. The Leader of the House does not understand the great national importance there is attached to other matters.
Senator O'Higgins to conclude the discussion.
Senator Killilea wants Motion 27, Senator McGowan wants Motion 37, Senator Ahern wants Motion 36, Senator Lenihan wants Motion 34 and as a second choice Senator Killilea wants Motion 35. As soon as the Fianna Fáil group compose their differences in the party-room before they come in here and give us their preference of motions we will see what can be done.
We would like them all.
We made that offer to them. When we got their priority in motions we acceded to them and we could have had the motions discussed. Unfortunately for them, by reason of their blatant obstruction of the Bill, which it was proposed after Second Stage to order for today, they forfeited their opportunity of discussing one of the motions which they have requested and which we had arranged for discussion.
Senator Lenihan says that he would like a debate on various motions. It is time Senator Lenihan and his colleagues became aware of the fact that this House is not constituted solely for the purpose of serving up Senator Lenihan and the Fianna Fáil group what they would like. This House is entitled to take into account the programme of Government business and to see that as far as we can we will meet the needs and the exigencies of Government business. There is no question of this Bill being dragooned, to use Senator Lenihan's word, or bulldozed, to use Senator Killilea's word, in this House. I doubt if there was any Bill, with the possible exception of the Broadcasting Bill, in this session which has had such an extended Second Reading. I am certain that there was no Bill in this session, or to my recollection in any other session, which met the same reception from Fianna Fáil Senators and from the Leader of the Opposition. I am quoting from the Seanad Official Report for 24th April, column 497:
As we see it, this Bill cannot be amended. The basic principles behind it are so bad that there will be no amendment from this side of the House on Committee Stage. We have had to be negative in our criticism because this Bill is unworkable and unamendable. It is contrary to the Convention on Human Rights. It is contrary to the Constitution. There is not one section in this Bill capable of being amended.
That was Senator Lenihan on 24th April. On 10th June, when this Bill is ordered for the Committee Stage, we have 27 Fianna Fáil amendments—the Bill that was unamendable, there was not to be a single Committee Stage amendment. I may be very innocent and I took Senator Lenihan at his word. Last week I announced, in view of the fact that Senator Lenihan, presumably speaking on behalf of his party because I do not think the leadership had fallen on Senator McGlinchey, said there would not be amendments by the Fianna Fáil group, that the Bill should get a Committee Stage reading today. I said that a couple of times last week, and I made the offer that if that was not correct, that if Fianna Fáil wanted an extension of the time I was quite prepared to agree to a fortnight. Instead of that, we have had the continued filibuster and the outrageous and impertinent proposal from Senator Yeats that the Bill should be put off until after the summer recess.
A very sensible proposal.
I do not know whom Fianna Fáil think they are codding. The principle of this Bill has been accepted by the House on the Second Reading. Fianna Fáil are now continuing to try their obstruction tactics. They obstructed us when it was first introduced here. They obstructed us on the Second Reading, and they are trying to obstruct it now even on the Order of Business, as Senator Boland quite rightly pointed out. We have been attacked by speakers from the opposite side more than once for not having enough business and for not sitting more often. All of us can hear the squealing when we ask the House to sit more frequently in order to deal with Government business.
Who is squealing? Name somebody who is squealing inside the House.
I think I am correct in saying that there was a cri de coeur from Senator Killilea last week not to sit on Fridays in future.
There were 21 of yourselves absent.
I was thinking of the Senator's party——
It does not suit any of us to be obstructed in the work in this House, especially the kind of obstruction that is being engaged in by Fianna Fáil.
It might obstruct some of them but it does not obstruct me.
We shall deal with motions in a normal and regular manner. I have not had an opportunity of checking how the question of motions has fared. I do not think it has been too bad. We had a motion last month and our commitment, if it could be called a commitment, was to have a motion once a month. We would have had two motions last month but for the actions of the Fianna Fáil Party.
Let us be sensible about this. We are coming to the stage in this session where business which the Government want to get cleared will have to be cleared. As far as I am concerned Government business will get priority. That is my responsibility. Other Senators may wish to press motions or press private business. That is not my responsibility, it is the responsibility of the Senators who wish to propose these motions. My responsibility is to make proposals in relation to Government business, and priority will have to be given to Government business. If this kind of obstruction continues from Fianna Fáil I see very little likelihood of being able to facilitate them or the House generally with regard to Private Members' motions.
The Leader of the House has taken as much time as all the Fianna Fáil Senators together took, and Senator Boland.
I had to deal with the points made by all of them.
Order of Business agreed to.