I move the adjournment until Wednesday at 3 o'clock.
DAIL IN COMMITTEE. - BUSINESS OF THE DAIL.
Is the President prepared to make any statement to-day as regards the business for the rest of the Session until Easter?
The President has asked me to make the following statement to the Dáil. At present before the Oireachtas there are the following Bills:— The Local Government Bill, which is in the Seanad (Report Stage), the Live Stock Breeding Bill in the Seanad (Report Stage), the Police Forces Amalgamation Bill, Final Stage in the Dáil; the Local Authorities Combined Purchasing Bill, Committee Stage in the Dáil; Dáil Eireann Courts (Winding Up) Bill, Third Stage; Defence Forces Bill, Second Stage; Sedition and Treason Bill, Second Stage; Prisons Visiting Bill, Second Stage; and Pensions of Judges (Dáil Eireann Supreme Court) Bill, Second Stage. The shortage of work in the Dáil at present is due to the fact that we have not as yet reached the Committee Stage of Bills introduced since the opening of the Session. When we get to this Stage we will probably find that there will be full business. The only way to prevent a recurrence of this in the future is to have Bills passed through their Second Readings before the adjournment of the Dáil, so that these Bills may come up on Committee immediately the House reassembles. We have this object in view for future adjournments. It is probable that the Dáil will have completed the consideration of all the above Bills by the end of March.
In addition to these there are four Bills of an urgent nature which have not yet been introduced, but which it is very desirable should become law before that date. They are:—The Central Fund Bill, which is essential, but which will not be ready for introduction until about the 20th March; The Firearms Bill, the urgency of which is due to the fact that the temporary Bill expires on the 5th April; the Summer Time Bill, and the Land Bonds Guarantee Bill. We cannot at the moment specify the exact date of the introduction of the three last named measures, but it will probably be next week. We have also in various stages of progress a number of Bills which will probably be ready for introduction about the 31st March, but which it is not anticipated can be completed in the Dáil at that date. They are as follows:—The Army Pensions (Amendment) Bill, the draft of which is now being considered by the Finance Department; the Documentary Evidence Bill, the Statutory Rules and Orders (Publication) Bill, the Censorship of Films Bill, the Civil Service Regulation (Amendment) Bill, the Cork Reconstruction Bill, the Dublin Emergency Provisions (Amendment) Bill, the Street Trading Bill, the Fisheries Bill, the Industrial and Commercial Property Protection Bill, the Barrow and Owenmore Drainage Bill, and the School Attendance Bill. A number of these will be introduced shortly, and only require final touching up before their introduction.
It is the intention in future so far as possible to devote the Summer Session almost entirely to financial business. We will not be able to follow this course altogether in the present year. The three finance matters that will be before the Dáil after the 1st April will be (a) Budget Resolutions, which we hope to introduce immediately after the Easter Recess; (b) the Finance Bill, and (c) the Estimates and the Appropriation Bill. The proposal regarding Estimates would be to allocate two days a week for them, which would give about ninety hours. We will ask the Dáil to indicate in what order they desire the Estimates to be taken, and we will ask them to agree that when the time allowed for the Estimates has been used up any remaining Estimates will be put from the Chair. The Budget Resolutions and the Finance Bill, judging from previous experience, will take about thirty-five hours of Parliamentary time.
The Minister has apparently omitted to realise the necessity for another Bill to be passed before the end of March dealing with Unemployment Insurance. I think that the Minister for Industry and Commerce will realise that such a Bill will be essential and I would hope that it would be ready for introduction almost at once.
I cannot by my silence allow it to be assumed that there will be such a Bill, but I can say that such a Bill takes very little time to prepare, and is ordinarily got through this House with great speed. I have no fears on either of these two points if the necessity arises.
But it is not in the Minister's list, and I think we should realise that such a Bill will be necessary, unless by some magic wand the Minister is able to ensure pretty general employment for the present unemployed between now and the middle of March.
With regard to adjournments, I should add that the intention is to adjourn from the 3rd of April to the 21st for the Easter Recess, and to conclude the summer sitting, if possible, in the last week of June.
There is just one point arising out of the statement made by the Minister for Justice. He indicated that it was the intention of the Executive Council to introduce a Bill dealing with the Barrow and Owenmore Drainage. I take it from what he has read that it will not be possible to introduce that Bill before the 31st March, and from the 3rd April to the 21st there will be an adjournment. If the Bill is not dealt with before the 21st April, there will be very little time to do the work, which must be done at a time when these rivers are not flooded. Do I take it, therefore, that it is the intention of the Executive Council to proceed in any serious way to deal with that question during the coming year? That is not what I take from the statement read by the Minister, and I would like that to be contradicted if I am wrong.
The Deputy is wrong.
I take it I am correct in assuming that the Bill will not be introduced before the 31st March?
I cannot say that for certain.
That is the purport of the statement read by the Minister for Justice, and we will have an adjournment from the 3rd to the 21st April.
I read it out amongst a series of Bills, regarding which the remark was that these Bills would probably be ready for introduction before the 31st March.
I put it to the Minister definitely: does he propose to pass that Bill in sufficient time to get the drainage works started before the early summer?
I hope so, with the assistance of the Deputy.
The Minister can have a guarantee from the Deputy that there will not be very much obstruction to it.
That is very gratifying.