It is proposed to take items Nos. 5, 6, 9, 10, 11 and 12. It is also proposed that business shall be interrupted today at 10.30 p.m. It is further proposed that items Nos. 5 and 6 shall be taken without debate. Private Members' Business shall be item No. 21.
Order of Business.
Is the proposal for a late sitting today agreed? Agreed. Is the proposal that items Nos. 5 and 6 be taken without debate agreed? Agreed.
When do the Government intend to bring before the House the necessary motion to move the date of the forthcoming local elections from June this year to a more suitable date in October or, indeed, any other date? Have the Minister for the Environment, the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and the Minister for Energy got their heads together on this and are they agreed on it?
Sorry, Deputy Dukes, that is clearly a matter to be raised at another more appropriate time.
May I ask if the Government will bring a motion before the House in order to bring about those changes?
That question should be posed in the ordinary way.
On a point of order——
Deputy Quinn.
(Interruptions.)
Deputy Shatter, we are wasting precious time.
On a point of order, Sir, you indicated to Deputy Dukes that the matter should be raised in the ordinary way. It was, Sir. I tabled it as a priority question to the Minister today to find out whether he intends to lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas any order pursuant to section 2 of the Local Elections Act, 1973——
Deputy Shatter, that is clearly not a point of order.
This is running away from the issue of when the local elections will be held——
Deputy Shatter——
——and we are ready for them. They are afraid to go to the electorate.
Deputy Quinn. I think the matter is tabled before us today in questions nominated for priority.
Do the Government intend to make time available next week to allow the Taoiseach to report on his meeting with President Bush?
That will be considered by the Taoiseach when he returns tomorrow morning.
I wish to raise a matter in relation to the Department of Health. I put a series of questions to various Departments for answer on 22 February to which I got replies from all Departments. The Department of Health indicated they would not do the necessary research to find out what Acts or sections of Acts had not yet been implemented by the Department either by ministerial order or by order of the House. I regard that——
The Deputy is embarking on a speech.
I am not embarking——
This is not in order.
I am raising it here so that the House will be aware of the insolent way the Department and the Minister are treating this House.
This is not the appropriate time. Deputy De Rossa, please desist.
I am providing this information——
I cannot permit the Deputy to make a speech now.
I will raise this with the Committee on Procedure and Privileges in order to have this matter thrashed out properly. This House should be treated properly by——
That is the Deputy's privilege.
(Limerick East): Were the Government as embarrassed as we were on this side of the House at the Taoiseach inviting himself to Camp David? Does he not remember the time when any of our mothers would have boxed our ears if we did anything like that?
That does not arise now.
Would the Deputy have a sense of humour?
(Interruptions.)
Is it going to be a fun weekend?
Will the Minister for the Environment indicate to the House if the regulations to give effect to the Local Government (Multi-Storey Buildings) Act have been completed?
Is this legislation?
The legislation is complete but the regulations have not yet been finalised.
Will the Minister indicate to the House when they may be finalised?
I was hoping they would have been completed before now.
We all were.
I think it is coming to finality now.
Sir, I request permission to raise on the Adjournment the long waiting list for driving tests which now stands at nine months.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
I seek leave to raise on the Adjournment the matter of the petition at present before the Minister for Justice in regard to the Tallaght Two, Meleady and Grogan.
I will communicate with the Deputy in respect of that matter.
May I raise on the Adjournment the need to fix a date for the holding of the local government elections?
I will be in touch with the Deputy concerning the matter.
Yesterday I asked the then acting Leader of the Government a question with regard to the establishment of the committee on crime that has been outstanding since last November. Is there any response to that and any information for the House as to when that committee, who deal with the business of this House——
That is a matter which should not arise on the Order of Business. Put down a question on the matter.
Somebody made a point——
That is not in order now. The Deputy will now resume his seat.
I wish to raise on the Adjournment the financial crisis in Dublin Zoo. I do not know which Minister is in charge of it, the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Education.
We will find out. I will communicate with the Deputy.
(Interruptions.)
I would like to raise on the Adjournment the unprecedented step by consultants in the Cork Regional Hospital to call a press conference to outline the serious lack of finance for the forthcoming year.
I will be in touch with the Deputy concerning the matter.
I would like to raise on the Adjournment the implications for 20,000 Dublin householders who have applied for conversion grant assistance which is available under the Air Pollution Act to areas declared smoke control zones, like Crumlin and Drimnagh, of the decision of the Minister for the Environment not to ratify any further smoke control zones.
I will be in touch with the Deputy concerning that matter.
When will the promised legislation on the amendment of the Fisheries (No. 2) Act, come before the Dáil? I am concerned that the Minister might be pulled in for fishing illegally.
That does not arise now.
It is promised legislation, so it does arise now. When will it come before the House?
(Interruptions.)
I would ask your permission to raise on the Adjournment this evening the issue of the regular employment practices in the Department of Justice in the area of probationary service supervisors?
I will communicate with the Deputy.
I wish to raise on the Adjournment the need for the Minister for the Environment to continue extending the terminal date for completion of house improvement grants in view of the inclement weather and the impossibility of completing work within the specified time.
I will communicate with the Deputy.
Will the Minister for the Environment indicate when he proposes to publish in draft form the regulations to give effect to the Government's decision to ban the sale of bituminous coal in the Dublin area?
I am not sure if this is in order now.
I think it is. Last week I asked if legislation would be introduced and I was informed that legislation was not necessary. Clearly if legislation is not necessary regulations, which are a part of a secondary legislation, will be necessary. I think that is in order on the Order of Business.
The Deputy should pursue that matter by way of ordinary question. This is not Question Time.
Sometimes, a Cheann Comhairle, when one pursues such matters by way of Question Time one does not get the sort of answer which could be given now.
If it is in order now, that is all right.
The man would like to reply. Let him have a go.
He has not worked out how he is going to do it yet.
Go for it, Minister.
Deputy Theresa Ahearn is offering.
Is the Chair refusing my request?
There are ways and means open to the Deputy to raise this matter properly and formally in this House.
I think I am doing that now.
That is not so.
I would like to raise on the Adjournment the matter of the exceptional number of nurses employed in a temporary capacity in St. Joseph's Hospital, Clonmel. It is in fact 52 per cent, and the majority of them have been in that position for up to six years.
I will be in touch with the Deputy concerning the matter.
In view of the crisis in the beef industry I would like to raise on the Adjournment a protracted dispute which is happening in Shannon Meats in Rathkeale and the intransigence of Anglo-Irish Meats in resolving that dispute.
I will communicate with the Deputy in connection with that matter.