It is proposed to take No. 1 — Votes 26, 27 and 28; Private Members' Business from 6 to 7.30 p.m.
Death of Member. - Order of Business.
Could the Taoiseach conveniently tell me when it is proposed to take the Committee Stage of the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill?
I cannot say exactly at this stage, but we hope to have it at a very early stage. It will depend on the progress of the Votes now before the House. Perhaps I should say at this stage that following the approval of the House before it adjourned for Christmas and as endorsed by agreement among the Whips, only Deputies who have not yet spoken on the Vote for the Department of Local Government will be speaking during the course of the remainder of the debate, with the usual right of reply to the Minister.
That is agreed, but it will be understood that Deputy O'Leary who was in possession will continue?
He will continue.
Might I say that I, of course, agree entirely with this arrangement, but, for the record, while these arrangements we all know are rational and sensible for the proper conduct of the business, it is a very different thing to make an arrangement and to make a rule of the House. There is no motion before the House. Are we taking a Supplementary Estimate?
I am about to move a Supplementary Estimate.
Quite. I agree entirely with the arrangement being made, and it is a sensible arrangement to facilitate the despatch of public business, but there is a constitutional right vested in every Deputy to intervene in a debate on any Estimate moved. If there is an agreement, I think it is a very sensible agreement, but to make it a rule of the House is to do something that we have never done before which would be to prohibit a Deputy from participating in the debates of the House.
I did not ask to make it a rule of the House. The fact that I mentioned the understanding arrived at before Christmas and endorsed by agreement with the Whips is indicative of the fact that I did not seek to make it a rule of the House.
So far as that is on the record of the House, the Taoiseach and I are ad idem.