This report has been circulated to Deputies.
PRIVATE BILL PROCEDURE.—REPORT OF JOINT COMMITTEE.
A Chinn Comhairle, Isé mo thuairim go mb'fearr an tuarasgabháil seo a chur ar ath-ló—go dti Dia hAoine—i dtreo go m'beidh faill ag na Teachtai leas-rúin a thabhairt os comhair na Dála, ma tá gádh leo. Ba mhaith liom-sa leasrún a chur isteach chun go m-beidh sé ceadach d'aoinne fógra a thabhairt 'san seisiúin seo i mi na Nodlag agus i mi an Eanair in ionad Deireadh Foghmhair agus Samhain mar tá sé ins an tuarasgabhail fa lathair. B'feidir go mbeidh gádh le athruighthe eile annso agus annsud acht ba mhaith liom-sa an t-athrú sin a dheanamh ar a laighead.
I think it would be better if the in-production of this report were postponed until Friday next, so that Deputies would have an opportunity of bringing forward amendments. There is one necessary amendment which I would like to propose to the Standing Orders relating to Private Bills—that is, that during the current Session the promoters óf any Private Bill may publish the notices of intention required by Standing Orders during the months of December and January, instead of October and November, and that the dates for deposits of plans and documents, notice of the deposit of copies of the Bill, and objections against the Bill shall be correspondingly altered. It is necessary to make those changes in order that promoters of Bills may have an opportunity of having their Bills dealt with in the present Session. It may also be necessary to have the Orders amended, so that Private Bills can be initiated in the Dáil as well as in the Seanad. Therefore, I think it would be well if the introduction of this report were left over until Friday next. I propose that this be done.
I beg to second that.
There is only one matter of order which I desire to ask you about, a Chinn Comhairle. According to the papers that have been distributed to us, it would appear that a draft identical with this draft of the proposed standing Orders, is before the Seanad, and that certain amendments are to be moved in the Seanad. If the same draft is before the two Houses of the Oireachtas at the same time, and if different amendments are moved, it may lead to a little complexity later on. But what I was going to suggest was that some consultation should take place with a view to arranging that the draft should be initiated in one House and sent up to the other. Otherwise, we will have reached a stage when we perhaps will be submitting amendments to the Seanad at the very moment that we may be considering amendments which the Seanad have passed and sent on to us.
Is it not the case that the Seanad are taking up these draft Standing Orders this afternoon? I gather that they expect to dispose of them this afternoon, and I suggest that if we adopt the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's suggestion and postpone consideration of this matter until Friday, we would have the Seanad amendments before us and could accommodate our draft to them.
That is more or less what I was trying to achieve—that when we do consider this matter on Friday we will have the present draft before us, with the amendments and the full consideration of the Seanad.
That might be a good method but it struck me that, possibly, we would send back the Report to the Joint Committee and ask them to reconsider certain orders, in the light of particular amendments desired by the Dáil. If the same procedure were adopted in the Seanad, then the Joint Committee would have before it amendments from both Houses and would be able to submit a joint report which would possibly bring us an agreed set of Standing Orders more readily than if we were to treat this report as a Bill and send it backwards and forward.
I agree.
Consideration of Report ordered for Friday, 16th November.