It is proposed to take business in the following order: Nos. 1, 10, 11, 2, 12 and 13 (resumed). Private Members' Business, from 7 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. will be No. 20 (resumed).
Order of Business.
With regard to the Prevention of Electoral Abuses Bill, can the Taoiseach assure the House that the President will sign it before next Tuesday?
I am taken unawares. I assumed that he would, but I will make sure that it is signed before next Tuesday.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Did I understand the Taoiseach to say, so that the record may be clear, that he would see to it that it was signed before then?
It is a matter for the President.
(Cavan-Monaghan): I am afraid that that is what I heard and I hope the Taoiseach did not mean that.
It is characteristic of him.
I did not mean that. I have no power to compel the President to do anything but I will make every endeavour pursuant to our undertaking to ensure that it is signed before next Tuesday.
(Cavan-Monaghan): With the greatest respect, the Taoiseach should confine his activities to inquiring whether it is signed or not because that is all the power or influence he has in the matter, or should have.
I should like to ask the Chair to refer a matter which is of concern to Members to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. On 13 May last the Minister for Justice made a statement in the House — it is not my intention to go into any detail about the content of the statement — and from subsequent events it is clear that the statement he made, to put it at its most modest, was misleading and, possibly, untrue. It appears from subsequent events to have been untrue. I should like the Chair to refer the matter to that Committee and that they be asked to report to the House on what action could be taken in the circumstances.
The party can arrange to have that brought before the Committee on Procedure and Privileges.
With respect, the Chair should have some function in this in the sense that Members when they agree that a statement be made by a Minister normally accept the bona fides of that statement.
I will communicate with the Deputy on the matter.
I should like to ask the Taoiseach when it is proposed to take No. 8, the establishment of the Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities.
The appointment of the members?
The motion must be debated first before the Joint Committee can be established by this House and the Seanad. I should like to point out that the Joint Committee effectively have not met for more than a year with the result that a considerable backlog of work has accumulated.
The last Government were very remiss in some of these things, I agree with the Deputy.
If I recall correctly, the Leader of the Opposition in the last Dáil could not make up his mind whether he should allow his members to participate on the Joint Committee or not.
The Deputy was not in this House.
I was in the other House.
I agree with the Deputy. We will get on with it straightaway.
Will the Taoiseach tell the House if it is the intention of his Minister for Justice to make a statement relating to a newspaper report that on two occasions last week people who were ordered to be detained by the courts when they turned up at the place of detention were sent home because there was not any place available? Will the Minister for Justice be making a statement or have the Government any plans to deal with the matter?
You can submit an ordinary question on that.
A newspaper headline stated this morning that there was to be a Government drive against crime. That drive lacks a certain credibility if the people who are apprehended and ordered to be imprisoned are to be released because there is nowhere to put them. The Government's credibility in this matter would be helped by an early statement. There must be some explanation as to what is intended.
I wish to raise on the adjournment the closure of day care centres in my constituency.
The Chair will communicate with the Deputy.