It is proposed to take items Nos. 5 and 15. It is also proposed that the Dáil shall sit later than 9 p.m. today and that business shall be interrupted at 10.30 p.m. It is further proposed that item No. 5 be taken without debate. Private Members' Business shall be item No. 39.
Order of Business.
Is it agreed that the House shall sit later than 9 p.m. today and that business shall be interrupted at 10.30 p.m.? Agreed. Is it agreed that item No. 5 be taken without debate? Agreed.
In the light of the discussion which we have just had in response to Private Notice Questions, may I ask the Taoiseach what steps, if any, he proposes to take to prevent the Minister for the Environment, who is not here today, from muddying the waters on Anglo-Irish relations?
That surely is a separate matter, Deputy.
It is an issue of some importance.
There is a proper method for raising such matters.
Quite apart from the muddying of the waters by the Minister for the Environment who thinks the beaches are clean——
Deputy Hussey is offering.
——we also had the recent case where the Minister for Communications, Deputy Wilson, has apparently been shouting again at RTE——
Deputy Dukes, please let us take up these matters in the proper fashion.
A peripatetic Minister for Communications——
Deputy Hussey is offering.
——is shouting at RTE. Does he know that he is giving credence to all those rumours about political interference in RTE?
I do not know what Deputy Dukes is talking about.
Turning the sod.
I should like to say to Deputy Dukes that he should mind his side and I will mind mine.
(Interruptions.)
Deputy Dukes could not count his side.
You got the count very wrong one night when you tried to hang Charlie.
Order, please, Deputy Gemma Hussey is in possession.
Unfortunately the Minister——
Please, Deputy Barry.
There is a lady on her feet.
I do not propose to argue with your decision, a Cheann Comhairle, to disallow my Private Notice Question on the packing of audiences in the "Questions and Answers" programme because I accept your ruling that it is a matter for the RTE authority. However, since I put down the question I have read a newspaper report in which Sinn Féin admit they have used the programme "to push their point of view". Could I ask the Minister——
I have already communicated with Deputy Hussey that that is a matter for the Authority in question.
A breach of section 31 is a matter for the Minister for Communications.
Deputy Molloy.
I wish to give notice of my intention to raise on the Adjournment the subject matter of the Private Notice Question which I submitted in regard to the closure of the Éisc Teoranta factorv at Rossaveel.
I will communicate with the Deputy in respect of that matter.
Since so much publicity has been given to what Deputy Hussey wanted to raise, can I ask her, through you a Cheann Comhairle, how many tickets did she seek, get and supply to the audience?
Two.
Deputy Quinn is offering.
On the Order of Business, and having regard to the fact that this is the last week before the Easter recess, may I ask the Taoiseach in respect of legislation promised in regard to the Department of the Environment — and I accept that the Minister is not here at present — if he can give any indication to the House as to when it is proposed to resume the Committee Stage of the Building Control Bill and to take the Second Stage of the Housing Bill, 1988? In addition to that, will he give an indication whether it is the intention of the Government to complete that legislation by the end of this calendar year?
The answer to the last question is yes. It is proposed to proceed with this legislation in the next session and I will ask the Whips to meet and try to expedite it.
I wish to raise on the Adjournment the matter of members of the Garda Síochána saluting the funeral cortege of the Gibraltar Three as it passed through Drogheda and Dundalk last week.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
They saluted the flag of Ireland.
I wish to raise on the Adjournment the proposed sale of 500 acres of prime ministerial land in Ballylongford.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
A Cheann Comhairle, I gave you notice of a Private Notice Question in connection with the role of the banking sector in the closure of a factory at Rossaveel, County Galway. I would like to have this matter raised on the Adjournment.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
I wish to raise on the Adjournment the recent decision of the Mid-Western Health Board to reduce the number of acute beds available at Ennis General Hospital to 76. This figure is below the economic guidelines set by Comhairle na nOspidéal for the number of consultants employed there.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
I asked permission to raise a Private Notice Question today, which you refused in your better judgment and said it was not a most important matter. The question dealt with the livelihoods of hundreds of farmers whose products are being sold by the multi-nationals at below cost. This is a very important subject. We had also two questions down to the Department of Education today and you decided to allow one and refuse the other, which was more or less the same.
You will not adopt this attitude to the Chair. I must now ask the Deputy to resume his seat. Resume your seat, Deputy, please.
I ask whether we are becoming irrelevant?
Resume your seat, Deputy. I hesitate to ask the Deputy to leave the House.
(Interruptions.)
I ask for action.
Deputy, please do not try that one. Deputy Farrelly, you should either resume your seat or leave the House.
I want to ask——
Deputy Farrelly must now leave the House.
I want to ask——
I shall have to name the Deputy, if he persists.
If you so wish, you must do so.