When will you take the Report Stage?
DAIL IN COMMITTEE. - DAIL RESUMES.
Bill reported without amendment.
You have not a House now, sir.
I am proposing to move a motion, which is item 3 on the Orders of the Day, to permit of the remaining Stages of the Bill being taken to-day with a view to having it passed through the Seanad before the adjournment for the Easter recess. I think there is simply one principle in the Bill, and when that is accepted the rest of the Bill gives very little scope for discussion or criticism.
I do not want to interrupt, but I put it that there is not a House present and we are not in order in going ahead with the business until such time as we have a House.
I submit that we are still in Committee and that you raised the question when the Report Stage would be taken.
I think you drew attention to the fact that we had now reported the Bill to the House, and then the question for the House is, when we would have the next Stage.
The Minister was moving the motion on the Orders for the Day under item 3.
No; I was stating my intention to move it.
We have a House now.
I am asking the Dáil to agree that the remaining Stages of the Summer Time Bill, 1925, be taken now to permit of the Bill being considered by the Seanad before the Easter Recess, and to that end I move the motion, which stands on the paper in my name under item 3:—
That the provisions of Standing Orders 86 and 88 as to the giving of notice for the taking of the Fourth and Fifth Stages of a Bill be suspended to permit of the Fourth and Fifth Stages of the Summer Time Bill, 1925, being taken to-day.
Before accepting the motion, would the Minister state the urgency there is for it?
The urgency is that the Bill must be considered by the Seanad and thereafter it would not, in the ordinary course, receive the necessary signature for seven days. If the ordinary period were insisted on between Committee Stage and Report Stage, and between that and the Final Stage, the probability is that the Bill would not be through the Seanad before the Easter Recess. In view of the fact that the time fixed for the beginning of Summer Time is the third Saturday in April, it would be highly advisable, if not absolutely necessary, to have that Bill law before the Easter Recess.
I accept the motion.
I think we are precluded from taking this motion. This is a motion dealing with legislation. We have not had the required notice. The notice was only submitted to the Deputies this morning. Otherwise than by notice, the House, as a majority, will have to pass it. I would ask the Minister to consider the undesirability, in a matter of such small moment as this, of trying to test the view of the House on such a matter, which is really of very great importance when dealing with legislation without notice. There is surely time between now and Tuesday to get a motion for the suspension of the Standing Orders and give due notice. Then it could be passed by general assent, and I am sure it would be, and the Seanad could pass the Bill in due time also. As a matter of strict order, I submit that we have not had the requisite notice as set forth in the Standing Orders, and as a matter of convenience and accommodation there is no necessity for pressing the matter at this stage.
I do not know whether I am in order in retailing here things that I overheard in the other House, but I was in the Seanad to-day and I heard a suggestion of rather a long adjournment after to-morrow's meeting, which would certainly leave me in difficulties with regard to this particular Bill. If the facts were otherwise, I would certainly be very glad to meet Deputy Johnson in his objection, but, circumstanced as I am, I have really no practical alternative to asking the Dáil to agree with the motion on the Paper.
The Minister moves this motion as a matter of urgent public business.
No.
Due notice was given of this motion on the 13th March.
The Dáil have not that notice.
It was on the Order Paper on Friday last.
In that case I am undone.
While I have previously voted for this Bill and will do so on this occasion again, I am aware of the fact that there is a great difference of opinion in the rural constituencies as to whether it is right or not. What prompts me to rise at this moment is the remark made by the Minister for Justice in reference to the long adjournment which the Seanad proposes to make. I think that is a most undesirable thing. If the Seanad is part of the Parliamentary institutions of this country surely they will agree, if this is an urgent matter, so urgent as the Minister represents it to be, to come back and deal with this Bill or any other Bill that may be required of them and deal with it in a proper way before they adjourn for a long period. This House is doing about five times the amount of work done in the other House.
It would be well if the Deputy did not institute comparison between the two Houses.
May I say that I withdraw anything I have said about notice. I am informed that the notice regarding this motion was on the Order Paper on Friday, a fact which I had overlooked, so that my requirements in the matter have been fully conceded, and I have no objection to the motion being taken.
I object to the motion being taken. This is a Bill making Summer Time permanent, and this is the last occasion on which we will have an opportunity of voicing the views of people in the rural districts against Summer Time. We opposed Summer Time originally; we opposed it last year and we oppose it now. We oppose it all the more from the fact that it is at the dictation of Gt. Britain that Summer Time will be fixed in the future. The arguments against putting Summer Time in operation in this country have been stated so often that I will not repeat them. This is an agricultural country, and our fundamental economic position is based upon agriculture. If we are interfered with in the management of our crops by bringing in a new time, which will probably upset the harvest and inconvenience the people in the rural areas, a great injustice will be done.
Motion declared carried.