Vol. 124 No. 10
I move:
That, pursuant to subsection 2 of section 2 of Article 25 of the Constitution, Seanad Éireann concurs with the Government in a request to the President to sign the B & I Line Bill, 1990, on a date which is earlier than the fifth day after the date on which the Bill shall have been presented to him.
I do not think I am travelling over the specific ground we have covered already. Obviously, this Bill is urgent and I accept the urgency of it. What I do not think we have had is a proper explanation from the Minister and no doubt he did not have to give it on the B & I Line Bill. What we need is a reason this has to be actually done this week. What are the mechanics? Where do B & I need the money? What day is the money due? What day is the interest repayment due which requires this Bill to be passed so urgently? This is important. We understand the principles of the Bill. We know exactly why the Bill is required. What I do not understand is why it needs early signature.
The Chair wants to point out that the Bill is already passed. This is a very narrow motion which is addressed to his Excellency, the President and——
That is what I am trying to address. I am trying to ask the Minister exactly and specifically why it needs an early signature, which I presume is what this Bill is about. Am I correct?
That is quite in order.
I want to know exactly why it needs such an early signature and I want to know what the mechanics are for the £6 million and where it is going to go and on what day. It seems——
The Senator must be fair. I do not think we can go into the actual details of the Bill. We are dealing with the very narrow point of an early signature, earlier than normal.
Yes. I presume that when we are asked for an early signature for a Bill in this House we are entitled to extremely good explicit reasons for the need for an early signature. That is really all I am asking. I asked it in a different form under the Bill but what I am asking here now is where is the money going to go and is there a debt due immediately which needs the early signature.
The purpose of the early signature motion is to have the Bill enacted fully and that requires the Presidential signature because there are scheduled repayments and they are scheduled in a matter of days. Some of them may already be overdue. I do not want to be pinned down to days here, but you can take it I would not ask the President of Ireland to sign a Bill earlier than normal if I did not consider that it was fairly urgent to do so.
Thank you.
I ask the Leader of the House to indicate when it is proposed to sit again?
It is proposed to sit at 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 28 March 1990.
