It is proposed to take Nos. 1 and 6. By agreement, the Dáil shall sit not later than 5.30 p.m. today and the hour at which business is to be interrupted shall be 5 p.m. Also by agreement, at the conclusion of business today, the Dáil shall adjourn until 2.30 p.m. next Tuesday, 19 June 1984.
Order of Business.
Are the sitting arrangements agreed? Agreed.
Could the Taoiseach give us some indication when the recommendations, or any of them, of the Commission on Taxation will be considered or adopted by the Government in view of the mounting public concern at the crushing and inequitable burden of taxation at present?
The lone ranger rides again.
Very timely.
I will allow the question.
If I may recover my composure and endeavour to keep a straight face, the Government's taxation policy for the years ahead will be set out in the national plan at present under preparation.
It is different from that of the Deputy's Government, which was to borrow, borrow and borrow again.
When will we get a real national plan involving positive recommendations and decisions arrived at by this Government? We have had plenty of investigations into this matter.
Deputy, I am not going to allow this develop——
When will there be positive decisions taken, announced by the Government to remedy the obvious and blatant inequities in our taxation system?
I answered that.
Deputies wonder why the Chair is slow to allow matters be raised on the Order of Business. The answer is obvious, because they develop into argument.
A Cheann Comhairle, would it be in order for me to reply to the Deputy by pointing out that between 1978 and 1981 the burden of current expenditure rose by one-quarter under Fianna Fáil?
I was going to say to the Taoiseach that it would not be in order.
Oh, dear.
May I ask the Taoiseach if time will be given for debate on the Report of the Committee on Public Expenditure on the expenditure of £50 million on the Youth Employment Agency?
The Deputy should take the matter up with the Whips.
Will time be given to a debate on that report?
It is provided in their terms of reference that it has to be presented to the Dáil before any debate.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I should like to endeavour to raise on the Adjournment the serious health hazard on beaches in the Dublin Bay area.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
I wish to raise on the Adjournment the need for an urgent decision by the Government to allow Aer Rianta to proceed with the construction of a new east-west runway at Dublin Airport.
I will communicate with Deputy Burke.
Might I ask the Taoiseach when it is intended to take item No. 16, the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Bill, 1984? Will it be cleared before this session ends?
It is hoped to introduce it this session.
I did not catch that.
Sorry, I hope to introduce it this session.
I should like to raise on the Adjournment the continuing failure of CIE to supply a bus service to the Finglas area in the evening time.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
In view of the seriousness of the situation I should like to ask what action the Minister for Health is taking about the Cork Regional Hospital where the cardiac consultant will be resigning at the end of the month?
I am sorry, that does not arise.
A Cheann Comhairle, it is very important, it is so important that I have to raise it here this morning——
The Deputy cannot violate Standing Orders.
—— in order to know what action the Minister proposes taking. Does the Ceann Comhairle even fully realise what I am saying?
Has the Deputy read Standing Orders and is he prepared to abide by them?
And the Cheann Comhairle tells me it is not important——
The Deputy should not misquote the Ceann Comhairle. The Ceann Comhairle did not say that it was not important. He said it was not in order.
It is not in order to raise something as important as the resignation of the cardiac consultant at Cork Regional Hospital? The people of Cork think it is very important.
The Deputy will have to find another way of raising the matter. The Deputy will resume his seat.
Having made my point I will abide by your ruling but that does not minimise its seriousness.
If the Deputy does not resume his seat he will leave the House. I am calling on Deputy B. Ahern.
Might I ask the Taoiseach what is the latest position with regard to the reform of the Local Government Elections Bill, to which he referred recently in the House?
In the reference I made to the Bill I said that consideration of proposals for local government reform were at a very early stage and that it would be some time before they came to Government——
Two years?
——the objective being to enact legislation in time for the local elections next year.
Would the Taoiseach agree that what he said earlier was early in the New Year? It is a question, a Cheann Comhairle——
It may be a question but it is now turning into a discussion.
Would the Taoiseach agree that, if it was early in the new year, it would be highly unlikely that it would be possible to hold local elections next year?
On the contrary, the purpose of having it early in the New Year is to have the elections on the basis of the new local authority boundaries. That is precisely why it would need to be introduced early in the new year.
It is just as well the Europeans forced an election on them tomorrow.