I move:
That Dáil Éireann hereby approves the Summer Time Order, 1967, made by the Minister for Justice under the Summer Time Act, 1925 (No. 8 of 1925).
This Order fixes the period of Summer Time for the year 1968. The period of Summer Time will extend from 18th February to 27th October.
The House is, no doubt, aware of the background to the making of this Order. The position is that the British Government announced earlier this year that legislation would be introduced to provide for a new Standard Time in Britain (and Northern Ireland). They have made an Order fixing Summer Time for 1968 from 18th February to 27th October and they have circulated a Bill for a new British Standard Time effective from the 27th October 1968. The proposal in the Bill is that Britain will have a new Standard Time all the year round, which will be one hour in advance of Greenwich Mean Time and will be the same as that for Western European countries generally, that is the equivalent of the traditional Summer Time.
Standard Time in this country has been the same as that in Britain since 1916, that is Greenwich Mean Time. The Summer Time Act, 1925, provides that during the period of Summer Time the time is to be one hour in advance of Greenwich Mean Time. The period of Summer Time is prescribed in the Act but the Act empowers the Minister for Justice to vary the period either generally or in respect of any particular year or years. An Order was made in 1926 extending the period in the Act slightly to accord with a change that had been made in Britain. The period fixed by the 1926 Order is the normal Summer Time and it would apply in any year since if the Minister for Justice did not make a specific Order varying it. Many such orders have been made. If no Order had been made for 1968 the period of Summer Time in that year would be from 21st April to 6th October.
In the light of the British decision to adopt a new Standard Time the Government decided that the period of Summer Time for 1968 should be fixed by Order to commence on 18th February, which coincided with the date in Britain, and to end on 27th October. This will allow time to have a full examination made of the whole question and, if in the light of that examination, it seems right to do what the British are doing, it will be possible to have the new Standard Time in operation by 27th October, 1968.
There will, in any case, be ample opportunity on a future occasion for a debate on the whole subject of the desirability or otherwise of extending Summer Time. As Deputies are no doubt aware, I have invited the public to make known their views on the subject. Copies of a note on Standard Time and Summer Time are available on request from my Department and copies are also in the Library.
In the meantime, I ask the House to approve this Order.
