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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 29 Apr 1987

Vol. 372 No. 2

Order of Business.

It is proposed to take Nos. 6, 7 and 8. It is also proposed that business be interrupted at 3.45 p.m. to take Nos. 7 and 8 and the Order of Business shall be resumed thereafter. Private Members' Business shall be No. 12.

I should like to ask for some advice on my own behalf and on behalf of other Members of this House. Yesterday you disallowed ten questions from me to the Minister for Education. All of these questions asked for details of how the £11 million extra cut in education was to be found in the Education Vote.

May I interrupt the Deputy?

I want to ask a question of yourself, if you will please allow me?

Is it in respect of my rulings on questions?

No, it is also on the other question I sought to raise on the Adjournment regarding dental benefit for spouses, which was announced by us when we were in power and agreed to by Fianna Fáil. That was also disallowed, not on the grounds that it was not of immediate urgency or public importance but because it also was a matter for the budget debate. I find it——

I cannot allow the Deputy to proceed along those lines. In respect of the Adjournment debate the Chair is usually presented with a number of requests. He has a difficulty in choosing and chooses the one which is most urgent in the circumstances. The Deputy will be afforded other opportunities. I will not allow my rulings to be challenged in this fashion, Deputy.

Your office rang me and gave me as the reason that it was a matter for the budget debate.

If the Deputy has any doubt about the manner of my ruling there is a procedure laid down in this House. On the other hand, if the Deputy wishes for further information my office will be most helpful in respect of that matter. I cannot and will not allow any Deputy to challenge my rulings in this fashion.

A Cheann Comhairle——

If the Deputy persists I shall have to ask her to leave the House.

As a matter of clarification——

Please resume your seat.

Can I not ask for clarification? I wish to clarify what your office said to me yesterday.

If you want clarification, call to my office. I will not be challenged in this manner in the House.

Then you are refusing Members of this House the facilities of Question Time and Written Questions which are there for our benefit.

The Deputy is persisting in being disorderly. I have striven most earnestly——

I should like to know why the Minister for Education is afraid to tell us about these cuts.

Is the Deputy refusing to resume her seat?

Who is hiding?

If the Deputy persists I shall regretfully have to ask her to leave the House.

I should like to know if the Minister for Education will tell us what these cuts are.

The Deputy must now leave the House.

Deputy Hussey left the House.

May I ask as a matter of general policy if questions on a matter which appears on the Order Paper are always to be ruled out of order? If so, you will make it extremely difficult for Members of this House to conduct their business properly.

Deputy Dukes, please.

I want to make a very simple observation. It has been a matter of practice in this House that Written Questions in particular were used by Members in order to facilitate debating matters.

I can assure Deputy Dukes that this Ceann Comhairle will uphold the best practices of this House.

I would ask you to reconsider that ruling with a view to facilitating good practice in this House.

I am calling Deputy Spring.

The Chair's politesse deserves praise.

Deputy Wilson was like a bull roaring and shouting when he was over here.

There is a way of sorting those bulls out.

(Interruptions.)

For the third time I will attempt to ask the Taoiseach on what date the Finance Bill is likely to be introduced.

It will be published on 22 May and introduced in early June for an expeditious passage through the House.

In view of the consternation in the country, will the Minister for Health outline details of the job cuts in the health services?

That is not relevant on the Order of Business. Deputy Allen.

Will the Taoiseach allow Government time to debate the crisis in the health services?

I wish to raise on the Adjournment the imminent closure of Community Action on Drugs (National Federation), Exchequer Street, Dublin.

I will communicate with Deputy Allen in the matter.

I wonder if you would allow time on the Adjournment for a discussion on the failure of the Government to meet with the National Association of Tenants' Organisations to discuss the re-establishment of their negotiating rights as a national organisation for local authority tenants.

I will communicate with the Deputy.

May be they think it is the other NATO.

Will the Taoiseach say when it is proposed to bring forward the Children (Care and Protection) Bill promised some weeks ago?

Before the summer recess.

Can the Taoiseach indicate whether the Government will be willing to allocate time to debate the crisis in the health services?

These surely are matters which could be arranged between the Whips.

Is the Taoiseach willing to make a statement on the sabotaging by his Government of the primary school building programme for Church of Ireland schools? The Government are failing to fulfil their obligations in relation to the school in my parish and Rathfarnham parish school.

When will we have the Book of Estimates?

Very shortly, within a matter of days.

Do the Government intend to bring before the House a Companies Bill to deal with the various matters that were contained in the Companies Bill published prior to the last election?

Yes, we intend to introduce the Companies Bill in the Seanad shortly.

I should like the permission of the Chair to raise on the Adjournment the delay in the signing of the contract for Listowel convent primary school.

I will communicate with the Deputy.

I should like to ask the Minister for Health whether the reports issued this week are valid, that we will have the long promised programme of education on AIDS later this week.

The Government are suffering from political AIDS.

I should like the permission of the Chair to raise on the Adjournment the effect of the recent health cutbacks in the administration of the county hospital in my constituency.

I will communicate with the Deputy.

Mr. Shatter rose.

This is the third time Deputy Shatter has risen.

He is in an uncomfortable seat.

Is it the intention of the Government to submit to Members for the purpose of the budget and the debate on the Finance Bill not only the Book of Estimates but a list of all the schools that have been cut out of the school building programme in this financial year so that communities may see the failure of the Government to meet their obligations?

Again, the Deputy is introducing extraneous matter; the Deputy is being disorderly.

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