: It is proposed to take Nos. 1 and 6 (resumed). Private Members' Business will be taken from 7 to 8.30 p.m., No. 18 by agreement.
Order of Business .
: I should like to raise a matter on the Order of Business concerning Item No. 47. Some weeks ago I put down a motion asking "that the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 1978 be and are hereby annulled". The precedents for this are two orders of 1971, the James Connolly Memorial Hospital Board (Establishment) Order, 1971, for which one-and-a-half hours of Government time were given and the Unemployment Assistance (Unemployment Period No. 2) Order, 1971, put down on behalf of my party and the Labour Party at that time for which three hours were given. To my mind and to the best of my knowledge there is no precedent for not allowing Government time in this kind of situation. In fact, under the Patents Act, 1964, there is provision in section 3 (2) for this annulling mechanism and also an obligation, I would suggest, on the Government to provide time for it.
To me, this is a very serious breach of the statute and nothing short of contempt of the statutory obligation on the Government to provide this kind of time. This is the last day incidentally on which this can be taken, the 21st day after which the matter was placed on the Order Paper.
: The Chair is not responsible for what the Deputy is raising but I shall look into the matter.
: If Deputy O'Toole has not told the full story I think I should do so. Fortunately, we anticipated that the Deputy would raise this today and I made inquiries as to the background. The order to which the Deputy refers and which he seeks to have annulled was made on 24 April and laid before the House at that time. The Deputy submitted his motion on 3 May, at the beginning of last month, some five weeks ago. No attempt was made by the Deputy to ask for time or to arrange for the matter to be taken until last week when the Chief Whip of his party requested Government time to take the motion. The Chief Whip was informed that because of the financial business now before the House and the need to have it enacted in a short time it would not be possible to make Government time available but that, if the Chief Whip wished, one hour of Private Members' time tonight might be availed of for the purpose. The Chief Whip of the Fine Gael Party when asked what Private Members' time was requested by his party this evening nominated the item which I have just mentioned, No. 18, the Fisheries (Amendment) Bill, 1978 and made no reference to Deputy O'Toole's motion. Since the Deputy has quoted precedents he might have quoted another one of 1976 when a similar motion was brought in by Deputy Wilson. The motion at that time was to annual a statute of the National University of Ireland and it was taken in Private Members' time. The Deputy still has an opportunity, if he wishes, to have his motion taken tonight in Private Members' time. I am prepared to ask the Ceann Comhairle to amend the Order of Business for that purpose.
: The precedent quoted by the Taoiseach does not come under the statute quoted by me, it is a different annulment order. Secondly, the person for whom Private Members' time is being provided tonight, is entitled to his three hours for his Private Members' Bill, and I will not intrude on that time. The obligation is on the Government to provide time, and my not making a request for time until now is simply because under the statute the onus in on the Government to make time available.
: We will make time available tonight. The Deputy is not at loggerheads with the Deputy who put down the motion on the Fisheries Bill and perhaps he could come to some agreement with him.
: That Deputy is entitled to every minute of his Private Members' time and the Government should not slide out of their obligations by demanding that I make arrangements to take some of his time. The onus is on the Government to provide Government time for the annulment order and the precedent quoted is not in accordance with the statute I quoted.
: Let us test the urgency of the Fisheries (Amendment) Bill which is being taken tonight. The Bill will deal with only one small part of a series of amendments required under fisheries legislation and the Minister for Fisheries announced that the comprehensive Bill would be made available almost immediately. Perhaps it will be made available before the debate starts but it will certainly be available before the debate concludes. If the Deputy wishes, I am quite prepared to give him an hour tonight out of the Private Members' time devoted to fisheries. The Deputy cannot expect now that the Government would interrupt the Finance Bill which is before the House at this stage.
: It has 21 days.
: The Deputy's motion has been down for 21 days and he has not made any move until now.
: The onus was on the Taoiseach. We are not discussing Private Members' time in this context but Government time.
: The Deputy can have it that way or not at all.
: On the Order of Business, when is it likely that the Bill dealing with capital gains tax will be circulated? There are a lot of problems apparently for practitioners in advising people on how they stand.
: It is hoped to circulate it before the recess.
: When is it expected that it will be enacted?
: I am afraid there is not much prospect of it being enacted beforehand.
: Order, please.
: It is to be retrospective I take it?
: Yes, to operate from April.