It is proposed to take business in the following order: No. 9 —Votes 1 to 20 inclusive—No. 10— Votes, 1, 2, 6, 21—and No. 9—Votes 8, 9 and 9 (Supplementary). Questions will be taken at 3 p.m.
Order of Business.
What business is it proposed to take next week, apart from the remaining Estimates?
It has not been arranged.
A meeting of the Whips could not be arranged.
Is it proposed to discuss all these Finance Estimates together or separately?
It would be impossible to discuss them separately.
In regard to the Excess Estimates before us, there are six of them——
We are not taking No. 3, the Excess on the Estimate for the Taoiseach's Department will not be taken today. There are four Excess Estimates.
I should like to learn whether there is any precedent in our history for six statements of excess having to be presented to the Dáil at once.
I had better explain. They are not excesses in the normal meaning of the term. They arose because of the dissolution of the Dáil and in the normal way would have been taken as Supplementary Estimates during the financial year concerned. However, on this occasion the dissolution of the Dáil interrupted that process and there was no alternative machinery available.
It is appropriate that explanation should be forthcoming because in my experience as a member of the Committee of Public Accounts, I have no recollection of six statements of excess coming before the Dáil at one time. It is regarded as exceptional to have a Department bring in a statement of excess.