It is proposed to take Items Nos. 1 and 2 today. Item No. 2 will be taken at 6.30 p.m.
Order of Business.
Can I suggest that the House puts on record its abhorrence at the murders committed by the IRA in Holland last Sunday? The implications of the widening of the campaign are horrendous and do not require spelling out. Without detaining the House at all, I want to say that expressions of condemnation are frequently described as futile but silence is equally capable of being interpreted as fatalistic acceptance——
Senator Murphy, I do not think you can move that any further.
I want to say it is imperative that we express protest from time to time at the deeds done in our name and which, if they succeed, threaten us next.
If it is appropriate I would like to second the sentiments expressed by Senator Murphy particularly since those who were involved were not just English or British but really European troops, so it constitutes an attack on the European situation. I would like to ask the Leader of the House if, in the light of the legislation being introduced by the Progressive Democrats and tabled in the Dáil, he will consider giving some prominence to Item No. 31 which deals with the serious situation in regard to planning compensation and which has been on the Order Paper for some considerable time, whether he will consider giving some degree of urgency to this, or whether he can give some indication of when the Government will introduce legislation covering the deficiencies in the planning law which, I understand, the Minister has suggested is already in the pipeline?
I would like to ask the Leader of the House if he would consider, in the light of what has happened over the past five months, providing time in this House to debate what is happening in the Middle East. I had the privilege of learning from the victims of racial oppression in the Middle East what is happening there. I make no apologies to this House, or to anybody, for the manner in which I went there or the people I met. I met people who have suffered the ignorance of the world for 40 years, the oppression of what can only be described as a fascist regime and who have suffered in silence and with remarkable bravery for those 40 years. I would like the opportunity to raise the matter in detail and discuss the matter in detail in this House. I offer no apologies to any Member of this House for the fact that I went there.
Senator Ryan, you could put down your own motion and then we could debate it.
I would like to welcome Senator Ryan back to an association with constitutional democracy for a change. I am delighted to see that he got home safely. I did not ask him to apologise. Nobody asked the Senator to apologise.
You could have welcomed him back outside the Chamber, you did not need to come to the floor of the House to welcome him back.
I would like to welcome him back. Nobody asked him to apologise for where he went. He was asked to apologise for who was actually sponsoring it and the nature of the organisation sponsoring it. I should like to ask Senator Lanigan to allow a debate on the Middle East because obviously there are very different opinions in this House about it. Senator Lanigan is associated with that particular issue and perhaps he will tell us when we can have a debate on that.
I would like to ask Senator Lanigan if he is yet in a position to indicate when we may debate Item No. 7 dealing with Anglo-Irish relations and Northern Ireland. In conjunction with that I would like, of course, to express the Fine Gael view of total abhorrence at the actions which took place in the Netherlands and to express sympathy with those who have been bereaved.
Senator Lanigan to reply and conclude.
I will start with the request by Senator Bulbulia about Item No. 7. The time of the Seanad for the next few weeks I will be taken up by Government business which has implications for everybody in the country. We will finish the Companies (No. 2) Bill, the Insurance Bill and the Adoption (No. 2) Bill. Once we get those Bills out of this House, plus certain other urgent small Bills that will come here in the next few weeks, we can discuss Item No. 7.
A debate on the Middle East will take place in the House as soon as we can organise it with the Department of Foreign Affairs. I am not too sure where Senator Ross has been for the past number of years in relation to the Middle East. With regard to the suffering Palestinians I agree totally with Senator Ryan's remarks. I can guarantee that I will not allow anybody to be inhibited in their comments on what happens in the Middle East.
You should apply the same to Northern Ireland.
I am suggesting that we take Items Nos. 1 and 2 today and that Item No. 2 is taken at 6.30 p.m.
I do not believe the Leader of the House has answered my query with regard to Item No. 31, the planning legislation. I would be grateful if he could give us some indication on that.
The Order of Business for today is Items Nos. 1 and 2. If Senator Norris is emphatic about dealing with Item No. 31, it is in his name and he can bring it forward when his group decide that they want it brought forward.
The real point behind my question was to try to elicit some information from the Leader of the House with regard to the Government's legislative proposals and if he has any news for the House on this because it has been very widely stated that the Government intend to introduce a measure that would affect this——
We cannot have a debate on it now. You can take it in your own time, or put it down in your own time and then you will get the Government's views on it, I presume.
I wonder if, in fact, there was any substance behind the statement that legislation is——
It is unfair to ask the Leader of the House about this. Maybe he does not know the Government's views. We cannot have further discussion on it.
I know exactly what the Government's views are. I am proposing that we take Items Nos. 1 and 2 today.
Order of Business agreed to.