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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 25 Jun 1987

Vol. 373 No. 14

Order of Business.

It is proposed to take Nos. 6, 1, 3, 14. 15 and 7. It is further proposed that No. 6 and the Supplementary Estimate for the Department of Industry and Commerce will be taken together without debate and decided by one question. It is further proposed that No. 1 will be taken without debate.

Will the Taoiseach agree to the immediate setting up of a committee on the health service?

I will consider that matter in conjunction with the other committees the Government are considering setting up. As the Deputy knows I suggested that we would proceed immediately to set up a limited number of committees, get them up and running and then have a look at what other committees we need. I will be glad to discuss the establishment of further committees. including a health service committee, during the summer so that we can be ready to establish them when we return.

Deputy Alan Dukes.

I find this request rather strange.

I have called Deputy Alan Dukes.

(Interruptions.)

Deputy O'Malley, I have called Deputy Dukes.

Deputy Dukes voted against the setting up of this committee——

Please Deputy, let us not cause obstruction.

I would remind the Taoiseach that there is already agreement in principle on the setting up of certain other committees. I would not wish to see any move back from that position. This additional committee will certainly be useful in the context of further work that this House will be doing in the autumn.

I would remind the House that, in Volume 373, column 2002 of the Official Report for 16 June, the proposal Deputy Dukes is making now was made by me. The matter was voted on. Virtually no debate was allowed and in the division Deputy Dukes and the Fine Gael Party voted with the Government.

Doubtless the Deputy will find time to debate that matter. It does not arise now.

(Interruptions.)

In view of the Taoiseach's comments in reply to Deputy Dukes what is the status in the Government's mind now of the foreign affairs committee? The Taoiseach said he is considering the formation of committees in addition to those already formed. I am not aware of any discussions that have led to an agreement in principle that includes a specific number of committees, that excludes any committees or includes others. All I know is that a number of committees have gone through the House without debate.

I will hear a question from the Deputy on the Order of Business.

Will we have a foreign affairs committee with adequate terms of reference and will this information be circulated in time? When it comes before us will those of us who have suggested some of these committees have an opportunity to debate them and to speak on their terms of reference?

It the Government decide to set up a foreign affairs committee, about which there is no certainty. it will come before this House in due course with terms of reference and the Deputy will have every opportunity as is his wont to express himself eloquently on the matter.

On that point, will we have an opportunity to debate it in the House after the Taoiseach has discussed it in extenso with Deputy Dukes?

The Deputy has made his point.

(Interruptions.)

On a point of order——

The Deputy will be surprised and perhaps gratified to know that conversations between Deputy Dukes and myself are very rare.

(Interruptions.)

I am encouraging you to talk more and more.

(Interruptions.)

You will all become one, and soon.

(Interruptions.)

Please let us hear the Deputy in possession without interruption.

The Supplementary Estimate to be taken without debate this morning is only being circulated now. It is outside the Chamber on the table, yet it was agreed last Tuesday to take it without debate in advance of anyone in this House seeing its contents. The contents are significant and fundamental in the sense that there are substantial savings in it on a variety of subheads, the implications of which nobody could have studied.

Do not talk rubbish.

That is true. It was not circulated. I tried to get a copy from the Department and it was not available. This is not the way the House should do business.

This is a rather innocuous Supplementary Estimate.

That is a matter of opinion.

It does not involve——

Science and technology, £3.1 million.

Please, Deputy.

It does not involve any extra expenditure. It is simply a regrouping of moneys in the Department of Industry and Commerce to enable some very desirable matters including science and technology and the Cork Enterprise Board and things like that to be catered for. It is more technical than anything else. The Deputy knows from his experience in this House that at this time of the year frequently as many as 10, 20 or 30 Estimates go through this House without debate at very short notice. That is a practice which unfortunately is necessary by virtue of our parliamentary process and furthermore it happens in every other parliament in the world.

It has come as quite a surprise to us this morning that there is £3.1 million for science and technology requirements. Will the Taoiseach in the Adjournment Debate at least elaborate on this Estimate? There are very substantial savings amounting to £3.299 million and a transfer of moneys into the science and technology development programme about which the Taoiseach made such a song and dance. Will the Taoiseach at least deal with the matter on the Adjournment Debate?

If I do not do so. some other Minister will give the Deputy——

We have only one day left and if your beloved programme on science and technology is to have any staff you should be——

I have called Deputy Tomás Mac Giolla.

On a point of order. in view of the serious unrest developing in the country and the major issues which remain to be discussed, may I ask the Government Whip and the Whip of the main Opposition party to reconsider their decision to go into recess tomorrow because of the effect this will have on the country. Many people will regard it——

There is a motion in respect of that matter.

They should reconsider this.

The House will have an opportunity of deciding that matter.

Given that we are excluded from the Whips' meetings. I would like to ask if agreement has been reached between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on the length of the Dáil adjournment for the summer. Is the House returning in September?

Again, that matter will come formally before the House.

I would like to ask the Taoiseach if he proposes to request the Irish Ambassador to the Holy See not to attend the diplomatic reception which is being held today for the discredited Austrian President.

That does not arise now.

I want to give notice of my intention to raise on the Adjournment of the House this evening the question of the school at Ballinadee in County Cork where rats have been discovered in the old building, making it more obvious that there is now an even more urgent need to get the new school building under way.

I will communicate with the Deputy.

I wish to refer on the Order of Business to a reply made last week by the Taoiseach that there would be a meeting this week of representatives of the parties in relation to the discussion on the annual day of commemoration. In a further reply yesterday he indicated that such a meeting would take place today. I want to know if any arrangement has been made for such a meeting.

The Tánaiste and Deputy Leader was abroad on Government business but he is anxious that that meeting would be held today.

I would like your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to raise on the Adjournment the need for either the Minister for Health or the Minister for Labour to intervene in the continuing dispute at the ISPCC where management have refused to go to the Labour Court and where up to £300,000 of public money is involved.

I will communicate with the Deputy.

I wish to raise on the Adjournment the serious effects which the health cuts are having on Temple Street Hospital which has resulted in staff cutbacks and the loss of services and the effect this is having on patients.

I will communicate with the Deputy.

With regard to the news from Luxembourg this morning and the welcome indications from the meeting with the Minister for Transport, can the Taoiseach confirm that Ireland has received satisfactory fifth freedom rights as a result of that meeting?

That is not a suitable matter to raise now.

I wish to raise on the Adjournment the position regarding the continued delay in the provision of sanction for a site and facilities for a post primary school at Confey, Leixlip.

I will communicate with the Deputy. Is it agreed that No. 6. the Supplementary Estimate for the Department of Industry and Commerce be taken without debate and decided by one question and that No. I be taken without debate. Agreed.

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