It is proposed to take Nos. 30, 31 and 32. By agreement, the Dáil shall sit later than 5.30 p.m. today and not later than 11.30 p.m. and business shall be interrupted at 11 p.m. Also by agreement, the Dáil shall be suspended between 1.30 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. today. Also by agreement, No.32 shall be taken at 5 p.m. today and the following arrangements shall apply: (a) Votes 36, 37 and 38 shall be brought to a conclusion not later than 8.30 p.m. today and the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Tourism shall be called on to conclude not later than 8.15 p.m. today. (b) Vote 39 shall be brought to a conclusion not later than 11 p.m. today and the Minister for the Gaeltacht shall be called on to conclude not later than 10.45 p.m. today. Also by agreement, if a division is challenged on any Estimate today, the taking of such division shall be postponed until 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 11 June 1986. Also by agreement, the Dáil shall meet at 10.30 a.m. tomorrow and shall adjourn not later than 4.30 p.m. tomorrow.
Order of Business.
Are the arrangements for today's and tomorrow's business agreed? Agreed.
I tried, through a Private Notice Question yesterday, to raise the continuing dispute in Dublin Corporation. The Minister for Labour is not here now. Would the Taoiseach give an undertaking today that he will ask the Labour Court to intervene? Both sides are anxious to go to the Labour Court. It would help to stop the escalation of the dispute. Various actions are threatened——
The Deputy asked a question. It is not in order on the Order of Business. I am ruling it out of order.
In regard to the Dublin Corporation strike surely the Government, through the agencies available to them, should be making some effort to resolve this escalating strike.
It is not in order. The Deputy cannot raise it in this way.
Like many Deputies in this House, I am concerned about the escalation of this dispute in the Dublin area.
It is clear from the way I dealt with the other two applications that the Deputy is not in order. The Deputy must resume his seat.
Could I ask the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware of the concern of many people, including myself, that the Irish Sugar Company are deliberately conniving to bring about the closure——
The Deputy will have to find another way of raising this matter. He is out of order.
I would like to ask a question relating to the Private Notice Question which I raised yesterday.
We cannot start today's business with questions.
Arising from the reply which I received to that Private Notice Question I wish to state that the Taoiseach has no function in applying the same criteria to Egans in Cork as he did to Bewleys in Dublin. I want to know why——
The Deputy should resume his seat.
I will not accept that there is one law for Dublin and another for Cork.
Would the Deputy please resume his seat?
I will resume my seat if I can resume the question.
The Taoiseach made some comment, we want to hear it.
Would the Deputies please give way to the Taoiseach, he wants to answer?
Order, please.
On a point of order, I distinctly heard the Taoiseach intervene, he clearly wants to answer Deputy Lyons's question.
That point of order applies right across the House.
Does it apply to the Egans and the Bewleys?
May I ask a question, a Cheann Comhairle?
Would the Deputy wait a moment? If the Deputy is going to question a ruling of the Chair in this matter, he cannot do it in this way. I ruled the question out of order and that is the end of it.
I accept the ruling without qualification but I want to raise a further question.
This is not Question Time.
On the Order of Business, then, a Cheann Comhairle. I am sure I am in order to raise something on the Order of Business. Could I ask the Taoiseach if he is prepared to divorce himself completely from Cork?
I want to make it quite clear that the House has become disorderly and the Chair will have to take action without any further warnings.
A Cheann Comhairle, may I seek to have your permission to raise on the Adjournment the withdrawal of Government funding from the Hope organisation and the failure of the Government to provide alternative funding?
I will communicate with the Deputy.
May I ask if the Government will intervene urgently to prevent the sale this afternoon of the Irish Spruce in Marseilles at a loss to the State of £40 million?
That does not arise on the Order of Business.
A Cheann Comhairle, this morning I am looking for your advice. On 1 May I had a question down to the Minister for Industry and Commerce——
Deputy Ormonde, just bear with the Chair for a minute. I know the Deputy is seeking to know why a question was——
——which was on the Order Paper on 1 May has now been disallowed.
There is a perfectly valid reason for it and if the Deputy comes to my office when I leave the Chair at 11.30 a.m. I will explain it to him.
A Cheann Comhairle, could you not tell me here?
I will not discuss my rulings in the House.
What makes it in order a month ago but not today?
I have heard about that and I know about it.
Could I ask for the Chair's ruling? Yesterday, the Dublin Corporation dispute because it had not escalated——
Deputy Ahern, I am not going to start ruling——
Would you consider, now that the Army have had to intervene on health grounds, a Private Notice Question today?
Of course, I will consider it; but I am not saying I will grant it. I do not want to mislead the Deputy.
I will come back to it again.
In view of my colleague's concern about the industrial dispute in Dublin Corporation, a view which I obviously share, I wonder if the Taoiseach would consider suggesting to the Minister for the Public Service the possibility of the Labour Court intervening.
The Deputy knows that that is not in order.
I do not want necessarily a reply this morning. I am simply saying that there is an indication that the Labour Court's intervention could——
See the Whip or go to his office. The Deputy cannot raise it in this way.
I would like to ask the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will outline to the House the discussions and information he made available to a group of privileged TDs from Cork city and county last night regarding the Verolme Cork Dockyard and if he will stop playacting with the workforce and the people who have lost their jobs.
The Deputy is out of order, and I am ordering the Deputy to resume his seat.
In view of the Taoiseach's refusal to respond to the various requests concerning the Dublin Corporation dispute, could we have it raised on the Adjournment?
I will communicate with the Deputy.
A Cheann Comhairle, I have not refused. You have ruled.