Of course I am agreeing with the Bill, but I should like to say that we have been dealing in a piecemeal way in the past couple of years with cases such as this and I would much prefer if the Government, even with the assistance of a committee from all sides of the House, would consider the question of an all-embracing Bill which would give power to deal with special cases such as these. There are children of leaders and signatories of the Proclamation of 1916 who I think ought to be brought within legislation of this kind. There would be no difficulty whatsoever about it. While I know it cannot be brought within this Bill which is limited in its scope, I ask the Minister to consider the introduction of a Bill which would enable gratuities or pensions to be paid to people such as I have mentioned.
During the period of office of the last Government, I asked the then Taoiseach if the question of a civil list might be considered. I understood from his reply that the matter was under consideration. I see that the same question was raised in the Seanad recently and I think the reply given was that it was under consideration. I avail of this opportunity to say that the Minister might consider the introduction of legislation at a very early date to deal in an all-embracing way with the persons I have mentioned. It is unsatisfactory to be bringing in Bills dealing with named persons. If we could have a Bill passed that would govern the matter in principle, I think it would be a much more satisfactory way of dealing with it.