It is proposed to take business in the following order and in doing so I am trying to ensure that Government business is completed on time. The Order of Business, as I will outline it, takes into consideration the availability of Ministers and I am also trying to facilitate Members of the House. It is proposed to take Nos. 1, 9, 2, 3, 6, 7, 4, 5 and 8 in that order if possible. With regard to No. 7, if time does not permit that item to be taken before Nos. 4 and 5 then that item will not be taken at the appropriate time, namely, 5 o'clock or before. It depends how the rest of our business proceeds. Agreement has been reached with the Opposition to have a full debate on the substance of the Appropriation Bill on Tuesday, 17 January and Wednesday, 18 January 1984.
Electoral (Amendment) Bill, 1983. - Order of Business.
On the Order of Business, I should like to refer to the moving speeches and tributes made this afternoon in this House and somewhat similar speeches that were made recently on the murder of Edgar Graham and to express the conviction that it is not enough for this House, with increasing frequency on the Order of Business, to express deep, heartfelt and poignant tributes. I recall in particular the moving speech made by Senator Robb on the death of Edgar Graham and this afternoon a very brief but moving speech by Senator Rogers. I ask the Acting Leader of the House if, since the Seanad is going to come back early in January for the debate on the Appropriation Bill and other business it might be possible to have a day when we could have a more structured and adequate opportunity to take stock of and assess the whole situation on this island, with particular reference to Northern Ireland. As I happen to be a member of the body in question, I am well aware there is a Forum debating and discussing Northern Ireland but I think this House can make a unique contribution. It is peculiarly representative in the way Senator Rogers mentioned. So serious and urgent is the situation, it would be desirable that we have an opportunity early in the New Year to come together for a full day to examine and to discuss the kind of issues that are only coming up tangentially and briefly at the moment.
I should like to refer to two matters on the proposed Order of Business. First, I refer to item No. 7 which is the Fine Gael motion on alcohol abuse. I assure the House that we have no objection to that being postponed. I am aware that the Acting Leader of the House might have some difficulty with regard to Ministers and that it may suit him to take it now but in the event of it not suiting him to take it now we have no objection to it being postponed by a further order of this House at a later time during the course of discussions today.
With regard to item No. 8 there is absolutely no possibility of getting a full discussion on that today. It is right to order it but not without recognising that we may have to adjourn it; we might put it through and deny ourselves the opportunity of discussing it at a later date. It is vital that this matter should be discussed and I should like to ask the Acting Leader of the House what his intentions are if the rest of the business takes us up to 8.30 p.m. which is very likely? Is it his intention to sit tomorrow or to postpone discussing it until January?
Senator Robinson raised a very important point which I will communicate to the Leader of the House on his return to see if it is possible to have a properly structured debate on this very important subject. I wish to thank Senator O'Leary for his comments with regard to item No. 7, because I ordered business so as to give preference to legislative matters. If time permits it is our intention to discuss item No. 8 but, if not, I am sure we can reach agreement with the Opposition to decide when we should discuss it. There were complaints that it was not ordered for last week but that was because I felt we would not reach it. I am not too optimistic about reaching it today either but because a Minister is available I have ordered it. We can decide later, by agreement, whether we should sit late to take it or to postpone it until after Christmas. The ordering of this item indicates the importance which the Government place on this report.