asked the Minister for Finance the total cost of removing old entrance gates at the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin and replacing them with new entrance gates.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Central Mental Hospital Gates.
34.
The total cost of the work in question is approximately £2,900.
Does the Parliamentary Secretary know the reason for this expenditure?
Yes.
That seems to be a separate question. The question relates to the cost of removing gates.
Does the Parliamentary Secretary know that this expenditure arises because of a decision to install a turf burner——
The Deputy may not——
——and because of the fact that nobody anticipated that the lorries could not get in or out of the gates?
That has nothing to do with the question which is related to the cost of removing——
Surely——
The Deputy asked what was the total cost of removing the gates and there is nothing else in the question but the cost of removing the gates. The Deputy may not enlarge on the matter.
I will enlarge on it next week.
(Interruptions.)
If this is going to be the attitude of the Chair, it is very poor. The gates were removed——
As Deputy Clinton said, the gate which was originally there was not adequate and it was replaced with one that was.
At a time when it is much easier to instal oil than turf.
Do not be daft.
I am not daft and——
The Deputy may not continue along that line.
On a point of order——
There is no question of a point of order. The Deputy's question relates specifically to the cost of removing gates. I am calling the next question.
I am rising on a point of order. Am I——
There is no question of a point of order.
Am I allowed to raise a point of order? The Parliamentary Secretary has described me as being daft. Is that in order? Is it in order for the Parliamentary Secretary to tell me I am daft? Is that the way this House is to be Chaired?
It was a political charge——
(Interruptions.)
Might I seek your guidance, Sir? Is it in order for a Parliamentary Secretary, or any other Member of this House, to refer to another Deputy as being daft for asking a sensible question?
The expression is not new to the House.
I am asking if it is in order to use that expression?
If the Deputy sits down, I will tell him.
I am daft because I questioned the unnecessary expenditure of £2,000.
The Chair looks on the remark as a political charge. I have nothing to do with these things. Question No. 36.