It is proposed to take business in the following order: No. 10; by agreement, Private Members' business will be No. 53.
Order of Business.
I ask the permission of the Chair to raise on the Adjournment a very important matter, namely, where a Dublin man, a good family man, on his first offence in court suffered the incredible and imbecilic sentence of 12 months and who is now in Mountjoy because he was party to stealing six lbs of butter.
The Chair will communicate with the Deputy.
Can the Chair give me any assurance that I will have the opportunity of raising the matter?
The Deputy knows, at least as well as and probably much better than anyone else, that it is unheard of to give such an assurance until the Chair sees if there are any other matters for consideration.
May I have some hope, in so far as the Chair has had only one other request, that the Chair will regard my request as the more important?
There is no harm in hoping. That keeps all of us here.
I wish to raise on the Adjournment the pending closure of a factory in Castlerea, County Roscommon, with the loss of 35 jobs. The factory in question is Fenner Stone Limited. They have notice to quit within 30 days and this is a major blow to my constituency which is in a very deprived area.
The Chair will communicate with the Deputy. Deputy Tunney will now see the mess the Chair would have got itself into if it had said "yes" to his question.