It is proposed to take business in the following order: Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 13. There will be no Private Members' Business.
Order of Business.
On the Order of Business, is it proposed to consider referring to the Committee of Procedure and Privileges the adoption of the proposal of Deputy MacEntee that a political speech of any Member of this House, such as the one made by the Taoiseach in his capacity as Leader of the Fianna Fáil Party at the Ard-Fheis of the Party, be placed in the Library of Oireachtas Éireann? Is this proper procedure? I am simply concerned with the protection of procedure. I do not think we should have the right to put our Party political speeches in the Library of the Oireachtas. If the Taoiseach has done this by oversight, let it be corrected; if he did it by design, let the document be removed as unsuitable for deposit in the library of the Oireachtas.
As far as the Chair is concerned, the placing by the Taoiseach of the statement referred to in the Library is in order, and if the Deputy wishes to pursue the matter he can have it raised by a member of his Party with the Committee of Procedure and Privileges.
Or by a Member of any other Party.
(Interruptions.)
If the Taoiseach can lay any document he wishes in the Library, can other Deputies do that also?
It was in reply to a Parliamentary Question.
The Taoiseach informed us today that he had placed a copy of the speech he made to the Ard Fheis in the Library. I am not complaining about the Taoiseach, but I am asking if any Deputy has a right to place the text of a political speech made in the country in the Library of the Oireachtas.
The Deputy should do it the next time he asks a Parliamentary Question.
I do not wish to do it.
It could be useful if there was a shortage of paper.
Old Mischief.
All I want is that the matter be regularised.
The Deputy should put in his "penny a gallon" speech.
Everything I said about milk in this House as Minister for Agriculture is in the Official Report and it will prove the Minister for External Affairs to have a very defective memory.
Deputy Dillon might raise this with the appropriate Committee.
On the Order of Business, can the Taoiseach say when No. 5 will be taken?
The subject matter of No. 5 is being examined by the Minister for Industry and Commerce.
Would the Taoiseach say when the Health Bill, introduced in the Mansion House, will be published?
Some few weeks yet.
When shall we see the Third Programme for Economic Expansion?
Towards the end of this month.
Further on the Order of Business, could the Minister for Defence tell us when he is going to take No. 19?
Whenever the whips agree.
We have been asking for it all the time but you will not take it.
I am prepared to take it any time.
If you properly instruct your whips for the future we shall all be agreeable.
The whips have not been consulted about No. 19.
Of course they have not.
It is the usual practice——
They have not been consulted.
The plain fact of the matter is that your whip did not ask.
It is the usual practice for the whips to consult on the Order of Business.
You did not ask for it at all. You have been dragging your feet.
Could the Taoiseach say when the Posts and Telegraphs Estimate and the Telephone Capital Bill will be taken?
I think very soon after the business that has been ordered today has been completed or during its passage through the House. It is on the list of immediate business to be taken.
Will the Taoiseach be moving the writs for the two by-elections in about two weeks time?
We might have a chat about that.
(Cavan): He might follow Captain O'Neill.
(Interruptions.)
(Cavan): When is it proposed to take the Planning Appeals Bill, 1969, standing in my name and that of other Deputies?
Another Planning Appeals Bill has been ordered for introduction by the Minister today.
(Cavan): Am I to take it the one the Minister proposes to introduce today is substantially the same as mine and is being introduced as a result of mine being put down?
It is not substantially the same but it certainly will take precedence over the Deputy's.
(Cavan): There is a similar ring about it.
May I say that we are glad to see our popular Minister for Finance back with us again.
You were not glad at the Ard Fheis.