Vol. 338 No. 1
I move:
That the Ceann Comhairle direct the Clerk of the Dáil to issue his Writ for the election of a member to fill the vacancy which has occurred in the membership of the present Dáil consequent on the death of Deputy Bill Loughnane, a member for the Constituency of Clare.
In the ordinary way I would not have opposed this writ but the haste with which it has been moved and the Government's Dáil tactics as indicated by their proposals through the Whips throughout the business in the House show that they are not prepared to carry on with their legislative programme during the by-election campaign. Instead it would appear that by dragging out to the unnatural length of five days, or perhaps even more, the debate on the document published last week, the Government seem to want to leave the way open for Ministers to abandon the Dáil, to which they are responsible, for the by-ways of County Clare. It is time that the Dáil got down to dealing with the Government's legislative programme, such as it is, and if this, as it would now appear, is not to happen then the by-election should not be held now but should be held outside the parliamentary session, for example in January, with the writ moved at a meeting of the Dáil convened for this purpose early in that month, rather than connive at a further postponement of action by the Dáil on outstanding legislation. We wish to see the by-election held in January outside the Dáil session and accordingly we oppose the moving of the writ now.
