Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 16 May 1974

Vol. 272 No. 11

Statement by Taoiseach.

The Taoiseach

I have made inquiries about Deputy Lynch's complaint that only two copies of the final report of the Broadcasting Review Committee were supplied to the Opposition. I am told that no copies of the report were supplied specifically to the Opposition by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs but that three copies were presented to each House of the Oireachtas on 14th May. This was in accordance with the standard procedure for presentation of documents which has been in existence for very many years. I am advised that this procedure was followed also in the case of the first interim report of the Broadcasting Review Committee. That report was submitted to the former Minister for Posts and Telegraphs in February, 1973, and three copies were presented to each House of the Oireachtas on 7th March, 1973.

The practice by which the Government Information Services send copies of reports and other official documents to the Opposition Chief Whip is a new courtesy service, which apparently did not exist under the previous Government.

Notwithstanding the previous practice, I am prepared to make extra copies of important publications of this kind available to the Opposition. I suggest that the detailed arrangements might be settled through the Whips.

Mr. J. Lynch

I do not know that the Taoiseach denied my suggestion that the Fianna Fáil Chief Whip got two copies of this document, one of which he gave to the current spokesman on the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and the other to the former Minister for Posts and Telegraphs. He got them on the evening before publication. The burden of my complaint has not yet been met. The procedure which the Taoiseach has now outlined does not appear to accord with the procedure he outlined in reply to my previous complaint on 27th March that the Estimates and other pre-budget publications by the Government were not put in the hands of the Deputies simultaneously with their publication in the newspapers. That again has been the case. In reply to my complaint on 28th March, as reported at column 1037 of the Official Report, the Taoiseach outlined the general procedure for the placing of these documents. He said:

... the last thing before the Oireachtas Library closes on the evening prior to publication, and to deliver copies to the General Office for circulation to Members in the post that night. As the House is aware, the purpose of the procedure is to preclude the premature release to Press or radio, while at the same time ensuring normal presentation prior to publication, and also that Members of Dáil and Seanad will have received copies in the post to coincide with publication.

That is the procedure which I acknowledge was the correct procedure, which the Taoiseach said was the correct procedure, but which was not followed in this case.

The Taoiseach

Apparently there is a slight distinction between different sorts of documents. The practice in regard to Estimates is as the Deputy mentions. What happened on a recent occasion, apparently, was that through some non-fulfilment of the normal procedure in the office in Leinster House, the copies were not sent in the post. So far as the publication of the Broadcasting Review Committee Report is concerned the procedure followed on this occasion was the same as on the previous occassions. This is not entirely satisfactory, but apparently it was the procedure to issue a certain number of copies to the Oireachtas Library. As I said, the recent practice of sending copies to the Opposition is one which, I think, should be extended. It has long been the experience that when publications of that sort are issued to the Press the night before, in many cases the Deputies do not get them until the morning post of the same day on which they appear in the newspapers.

Mr. J. Lynch

That is what I hope will happen in the future.