Before resuming the order of business I want to say that I omitted to mention this morning that the Dáil will sit on Tuesday next.
Business of Dáil.
May I ask the Taoiseach if it is intended to take Private Members' Time next week?
Yes, on Wednesday.
May I take it that the Dáil will sit on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday?
Yes.
And that we will have the adjournment debate on Thursday?
Not necessarily. If Government business is not completed before Thursday, we may possibly have to meet on Friday or we may have to go over to the following week.
If we finish Government business on Tuesday it is then likely that the adjournment debate will take place on Wednesday?
Yes, if Government business is completed. If Government business does not finish until Thursday we can discuss amongst ourselves whether we should sit on Friday or go over until the following week.
The aim would be to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday for the discussion of Government business and to meet on Thursday at 10.30 o'clock for the adjournment debate.
Is it intended to take the Mental Treatment Bill before the recess?
No.
Will the Taoiseach allow Government time for the discussion on the motions on the Order Paper, particularly No. 30?
It is quite obvious that I should decline to answer questions of that kind of which I have had no previous notice.
Will the Taoiseach say if No. 16 on the Order Paper will be proceeded with?
Not until after the Recess.
I hope it will not be forgotten.
No. I hope to be able to announce next week when we shall resume after Christmas.
Is it agreed that the Minister for Health should only make his Second Reading speech on the Mental Treatment Bill?
I was prepared to do so but a request was made to me that I should allow the Bill as a whole to stand over until after the Recess and I reluctantly agreed to do that.
Very few people have been able to understand the Bill from the reading of it and very few will understand it unless they hear the Minister's Second Reading speech. Will the Minister give sympathetic consideration to making his Second Reading speech before the Recess and thus giving a lot of information to Deputies?
I was hoping that I could take the Second Reading and have it disposed of before the Recess in order that we could get down to the Committee Stage afterwards. A request was put to me from some of the Deputy's colleagues, I understand, that I should not proceed with the Second Reading this side of Christmas and that I should allow it to stand over as Deputies wanted to study the Bill. With reluctance I agreed to do that.
I am glad the Minister was so understanding.
If representations are made to me through the proper quarter that I should open the debate with my Second Reading speech and that the debate should be then adjourned until after Christmas I am quite prepared to do that.
That is all we want.
I indicated that I would be prepared to accede to that request.
Will the Minister give time for a debate on Motion No. 30?
I cannot allow the discussion of this morning to be reopened.
Sitting here for the past hour listening to the questions asked and the answers given, I am very surprised —as a matter of fact, it is very strange—that the Taoiseach——
The Deputy may not make a speech.
——should spend such a lot of time answering questions about the Congo when he did not allow me, as one of the Deputies from Clare, even five minutes to speak for the dissenting voice of the people of Clare on the question of the closing of the West Clare Railway which is certainly more important than anything happening in the Congo.
The Deputy may not continue——
Is it not a fact that certain steps are in contemplation to review the general question that was raised in regard to that matter this morning?
Yes.
I am glad to hear that.