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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 27 Mar 1924

Vol. 6 No. 32

COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. - LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMME.

I wish to ask the President if he is here—or perhaps the Minister for Finance could answer now or at a later stage—to give the Dáil some indication as to what is the Government's intention as regards legislation and Estimates.

We have a long list of Bills, some of them of very great importance, and no doubt of very great length, suggested to us as requisite to be passed. Since that time we have had quite a number of suggestions of new Bills. I believe it will be convenient to the Dáil to know whether we are expected to sit right through the year, month after month, without any relaxation or interval, or whether it is intended that there shall be some adjournments. Deputies would like to know a month or two ahead. I think, and as far as one can see, the prospect is to sit week after week and year after year until the year 1953, according to the legislative programme, if we are to give any reasonable consideration to these projects. There is, undoubtedly, a very big programme before the Dáil. If the Government intends to press forward this long string of legislative proposals, and I hope they are considering their budget of time as well as their money Budget, then the Dáil should be informed as to what their wishes and intentions are regarding the legislative year.

I would like to support Deputy Johnson, and to remind the Dáil of some of the Bills of the Government. There will be a Railways Bill; that will be a large and complicated measure. There is to be a Local Government Bill; that will not be very simple or very brief. There is to be a Defence Forces Bill; that might reasonably be postponed for a time for the convenience of the new Minister; but still it might call for careful and mature consideration. There is a Bill dealing with the regulation of prices; that will be an extraordinarily difficult matter. There is a Bill dealing with patents, trade marks, and copyright; the Attorney-General was good enough some time ago to show me a draft of it, and I can only say the Bill was so bulky it concealed the Attorney-General from view. We shall have to give that full consideration. There are to be various Bills from the Ministry of Agriculture, a Bill of very great importance, dealing with the grading of butter, eggs, and such matters. There are all these things, the Budget and the Estimates. How much time does the Government intend us to devote to these things? I agree with Deputy Johnson, unless the programme is lightened somewhat, we shall have to sit until 1953, or thereabouts, dealing with this comprehensive programme.

I, too, am anxious as to the procedure that will be taken by the Government with regard to their legislative programme. Probably the Government, and the Government Party, would know beforehand what the intentions are, the same as in the case of the Army situation. But other members of the Dáil should know also. I support Deputy Johnson that we should have some information as to the Government's intentions.

I can assure the Deputy that the Government Party has no information about the matter he mentions.

I think I heard the President say optimistically one day that he hoped to have all these measures passed early in July, and then to let the Dail adjourn for two or two-and-a-half months. Personally, I do not think we can get all these things done, and we may have to postpone some of our programme if we are to have any Summer recess.

I will ask the President to make a statement on the subject as soon as possible. The Cabinet Secretariat have been endeavouring to draw a time-table of legislation, but the work before us is so heavy it has not been possible to do so yet. We have, for instance, the Railways Bill and the Patents Bill to deal with. We are up against the appointment of a new Minister for Industry and Commerce, and probably one of those Bills could not, at any rate, be taken into account. As Deputy Cooper has suggested, the Army Act will again have to be postponed for some length of time. There is no definite time-table prepared at the moment.

I would like to press the importance of letting the Dáil know within a week or two when the Recess will begin and how long is it likely to last. Unless there is absolute necessity to the contrary, I suggest that we ought to bind ourselves to that date whenever it is fixed.

There is a point that I am interested in. The business of preparing matter for the Dáil is of a somewhat complicated nature, involving a staff which has had no holidays beyond seven working days since the Dáil first met in September, 1922. If we cannot get any indication of how we shall stand in regard to a summer Recess, I am afraid that if the Dáil wants to meet in July or August its present staff will then collapse. I do not know how the Dáil will get on without the staff which it does not see, but which, nevertheless, has to do the work.

It is very good of the Ceann Comhairle to think about the Dáil staff, but what about ourselves?

Can the Minister give us any indication when the report on the Housing of the Oireachtas is to be taken? The Committee worked under a time limit, and it is rather unfair in the circumstances if we are now to be told that the report is to be postponed from week to week as a matter of trivial importance.

Might I ask the Deputies to allow a few days? I think there has been great pressure, which is the reason the Report has not come up for discussion before this. I think it is desirable that that report should receive very full and careful discussion in the Dáil. Probably there would not be a suitable opportunity for discussion before Wednesday or Thursday next, and if the Government in making their arrangements could fix some day before the end of next week, I think it would be a good time for discussion when that Report comes before us. I do not want to argue the matter in any way now, but I am expressing my own attitude in that connection and I am trying to get as much information as I can in order that I may be in a position to urge that the Committee did not take into consideration all the possible alternative sites that might be available.

Consideration of the Report of the Joint Committee on the temporary accommodation of the Oireachtas fixed for Wednesday, 2nd April.

There was one point I wanted to raise in regard to the matter Deputy Johnson brought forward earlier. I know it has been in the minds of one or two Deputies, and it is in relation to what the Dáil has to consider with regard to Private Bill Legislation. It is that when the Recess is taken for the Summer, if there be a Recess, we have to consider whether that means the end of the session, and what the definition of a session would be. I think that that ought to be considered in connection with the possibility of a Recess for the Summer.

If we have a Recess we will solve that problem easily.

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