It is proposed to take the business as on the Order Paper from No. 5 to No. 18—omitting Nos. 9, 10 and 11—and No. 22. Public Business will not be interrupted to take Private Deputies' time.
Order of Business.
A week ago, Sir, I raised the question of the propriety of the Government's introducing 16 New Bills at this stage of the Session, and I want to repeat that objection now. It is perfectly true that the Ministry can force 16 Bills through Dáil Eireann by announcing their intention of sitting continuously until those Bills are disposed of; but it is equally true that this House, having sat continually since January practically, should not be asked to discuss and to consider 16 measures, some of which are of considerable importance and many of which are of great complexity. If the House is forced to do it, it is only right that the country should know that those Bills will not receive the consideration to which they are entitled, because the members of the House, having devoted the length of time which they have devoted this year already to the consideration of legislation, should have a holiday before they are asked to undertake another large legislative programme.
There were times when the House was ready to deal with business and the Government was not in a position to bring it forth. We are now, as I say, asked to undertake this enormous programme. There are two alternatives open to us. One is to postpone some of those Bills until after the recess. The other is to give them all inadequate consideration. I want to urge most strongly on the Government that they should pick out of this mass of proposed legislation such measures as they consider to be absolutely necessary and urgent and let us dispose of them and then go into recess and take up the remainder of the legislation on our return.
As has been pointed out already, all those Bills have been considered to be necessary by the respective Departments concerned and some of them to be urgent. The Government is prepared to give every facility to enable adequate discussion to be given to those Bills. Certain Deputies may feel tired—it may be the exception to the rule—but there is no reason whatever, so far as the Government is concerned, for not giving adequate discussion and it certainly is not going to put any obstacle in the way of allowing adequate or the fullest possible discussion on them all before they are put into effect.
That form of reply was already vouchsafed to the House by the President, and the implication contained in the proposal is that the Government are prepared to sit here till Christmas if the Opposition desire it. That is an old trick for applying the Closure and it amounts to exactly the same thing. I respectfully submit that commonsense suggests to everybody that the House should not be asked to consider important legislation under conditions such as those. If we are required to sit here until those Bills go through, the net result will be that the measures will pass through this House without the consideration that they ought to have, and the Ministers know that. They, with their automatic majority, can regulate the business and can regulate the time. I am simply asking that arrangements should be made whereunder the Opposition could give the Government such co-operation as the Government is entitled to, and that is the careful consideration of any legislation they bring before the House. With the best will in the world we are satisfied that if this programme is adhered to, the Government cannot expect the co-operation to which they ought to be entitled, and that is the full and careful consideration of the measures by every Deputy in this House.
I should like to join with Deputy Dillon in his remarks on this matter. I consider that it is absolutely unfair that the Minister for Justice should pick out and select such an expression about some members of the House being tired. It is not a matter of being tired. It is not a matter of any individual Deputy being tired. After all, what really matters is that the people of this House are business people and have a lot of things to do. The majority of them are engaged in farming pursuits, and this is the busy time of the year and has generally been recognised as such. In fairness to the people, who are courted by every political party at election times, we ought to be able to give them an opportunity of attending to their business. In that way, if some of those Bills are left over—the Minister said that some of them are urgent—well, let the urgent ones be taken out as such and dealt with. They could be adequately dealt with and our own business will not suffer as a result. I think that at least the members of the House who are engaged in farming pursuits are entitled to that consideration by the Government. They have always got that consideration.
An indication was given already that the Government proposed introducing additional Bills and I think that the House understood they would see the First Readings of those Bills on the Order Paper to-day. I would ask the Minister for Justice to say what additional Bills are going to be put before the House and when he expects to be able to ask for leave to introduce them.
It is proposed to introduce four other Bills, the Cattle Bill, the Bacon Bill, the Cereals Bill, and the Industrial Alcohol Bill. The First Readings of these four Bills may be taken to-morrow.
Does the Government hope then that the House will be so depleted that those Bills will go through without discussion?
That is certainly not the idea of the Government.
I think that this is deserving of more adequate explanation by the Minister. Deputy Brennan has pointed out that most of the members of this House have to earn their living as well as to attend this House. A great many of the members make considerable sacrifices of their business, whether farming or otherwise, and there ought to be some show of reason for this procedure. Most of us who live in the country have a great deal of work to do in connection with crops at the present time, and if the work is not done we will all be involved in very heavy losses. If 16 Bills are to be adequately considered we ought to be here for at least 16 weeks from this date. That will bring us down to October or November. Surely the Government are not going to submit that such a proposal is reasonable.
Certain of those Bills, particularly those connected with the Department of Agriculture, are considered to be very urgent, but it is not the intention of the Government to take any Bill in this session which is not considered absolutely urgent. If the Minister for Agriculture were here he might be able to indicate the grounds for the urgency of certain of those measures. I understand, however, that the Cattle Bill and the Cereals Bill and some others are urgent and I think that Deputies on the other side of the House who know something about the matter will agree as to their urgency.
Perhaps the matter could be left over and looked into further with a view to seeing if any of those Bills are not urgent.
Quite so.
Order of business to be Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 12 to 18, inclusive, and No. 22. Public business not to be interrupted at 9 o'clock.