It is proposed to take business in the following order : Nos. 3, 9, 10 and 4 and, in No. 10, Vote 43. It is proposed to take No. 4 in conjunction with No. 43. If not already reached, it is proposed to interrupt business at 1.30 p.m. to take Vote 43 and No. 4. Questions at 2.30 p.m.
Order of Business.
Could the Tánaiste say what days it is proposed to sit next week?
I think that had better be discussed with the Whips. I do not really know.
I should like, Sir, to raise a matter now. Yesterday, when the motion for the appointment of the Comptroller and Auditor General had been put to the House, and agreed, the Minister for Social Welfare was heard to make a remark, and was reported in the newspapers and also in the Official Report, as having said—I quote—"The Labour Party are professional liars". I am asking you now, a Cheann Comhairle, to call upon the Minister to withdraw that remark.
The Deputy should have given me notice that he was raising this matter.
That was not the remark I passed.
I have no means of investigation.
May I say I mentioned it to the Ceann Comhairle yesterday?
I did not think the Deputy was mentioning it in an official manner. Another Minister was mentioned but not the Minister for Social Welfare.
I told the Ceann Comhairle yesterday that the Minister had said the Labour Party were professional liars and the Ceann Comhairle said he did not hear the remark.
That is right.
The remark has been reported in the morning newspapers and it is also included in the Official Report.
My complaint is that the Deputy did not tell me he intended to raise it publicly in the House.
The reference I made was purely to the individual who is maintained by the Sunday Independent as part of its slander machinery.
That is a very cowardly attack on someone outside the House.
The Official Report shows the Minister for Social Welfare as saying "The Labour Party are professional liars". If he has any spleen against the Sunday Independent, or their writers, I suggest he should take it up with them.
The reference was to an individual.
The Deputy will see my difficulty. I have not seen the Official Report. If the Deputy had given me notice, I would have looked up the Official Report.
With your permission, may I raise this after questions?
It can be done again.
I want to give notice that, with your permission, I wish to raise on the Adjournment this evening the question of the issue of warrants by the Minister for Justice, authorising the tapping of telephones for the purpose of listening in to private conversations.
The Deputy will give me a written statement as to what precisely he wants to raise.
I thought I had done that.
I will communicate with the Deputy in the course of the afternoon.
The Deputy has a question down on the matter and he is now endeavouring, I think, to supersede any Deputy who may want to raise a question.
He is endeavouring to stop a reprehensible practice.
I will communicate with the Deputy in the course of the day.
We know the private line the Minister has; he has two private lines.