It is proposed to take Nos. 5 and 7. It is also proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that No. 5 shall be decided without debate.
Order of Business.
Is the proposal for dealing with No. 5 satisfactory?
While I am glad that this matter has been concluded, it is disappointing that the report of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges in question seems to have been circulated to members of the press yesterday.
Is the proposal satisfactory? Agreed.
I am delighted that the Minister for Finance is present because he intervened successfully in an ESB dispute. Will he ask the Minister for Enterprise and Employment to intervene and instruct the Labour Court to become involved in the rail dispute because 66,000 commuters in Dublin and 20,000 inter-city travellers per day will be without transport if this strike goes ahead? This is a serious matter.
The Chair appreciates the importance of that matter——
There is no other way of raising it.
——and is anxious to facilitate the Deputy but I cannot do so on the Order of Business.
It is fortuitous that the Minister for Finance is present because he intervened in an ESB dispute. Will he ask his colleague to do what he did on a previous occasion or are rail users less important than electricity users?
The Minister wants to reply.
It would be wrong of me and contrary to the procedures to permit a debate on this matter.
Deputy Rabbitte rose.
I must dissuade the Deputy and any other Deputy from making any further reference to the matter.
The Minister wants to reply.
That may be so but there are other ways of dealing with it.
Today?
We have no other way of raising it today; there will be no Private Notice Questions or Adjournment Debate.
I respectfully suggest to Members that they deal with it in another way.
How?
They are amenable to each other in the House.
The House cannot deal with it.
The whole country is talking about it.
It is important that the Government gives some response and leadership on this issue; we cannot drift into a rail strike.
(Interruptions.)
Nothing has happened as far as the Government is concerned; it has, Pontius Pilate like, washed its handed of the issue.
Without creating a precedent on the Order of Business and having regard to the urgency of this matter, if the Minister for Finance wishes to intervene I invite him to do so.
Having regard to the importance of this matter and to the fact that the House will not meet again before the strike notice expires, does the Minister agree that the Whips should allocate time today to discuss a most urgent and pressing matter? I am advised that a strike can be avoided given the Minister's skills and the commitment he has shown in the past.
The Government is acutely aware of the difficulties which may be encountered in a major dispute. The Minister for Enterprise and Employment and the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications are monitoring the position and the industrial relations institutions will be available throughout the day. It would not be appropriate to say what is going on behind the scenes. I hope the parties to the dispute will take the advice given by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment on Tuesday.
Does the Minister agree that the Whips should meet to discuss the matter? There will be chaos after midnight and it will be too late for the House to deal with the matter. This House has a right to deal with it on behalf of the 100,000 commuters who will be affected irrespective of what is going on behind the scenes.
I permitted the Deputy to put that question again but there should be no speech-making, please.
This matter was debated at some length on Tuesday. I do not see what purpose would be served by debating the matter again. The Opposition and the Government have already expressed their views.
I contacted the office of the Minister for Enterprise and Employment by telephone yesterday to obtain information on behalf of the thousands of commuters who will be without transport on Monday. The Department is giving no information in response to genuine inquiries. The least the Minister should do is arrange for the Minister's office to make information available.
Due to the exceptional circumstances prevailing, the Chair permitted some comment to be made on this important matter. That must be the end of it now.
I would like to ask the acting Taoiseach if strict guidelines are issued to Irish observers who are overseeing the elections in South Africa to ensure that they are totally impartial in their activities, in view of the fact that——
The matter is not relevant to the Order of Business.
——one of their members was asked to leave the country during the week, and that politicians from this country should be asked not to participate in electioneering.
With respect, a Cheann Comhairle, I have been offering for some time.
Deputy Deasy will please resume his seat. The matter to which the Deputy referred is quite outside our scope now.
In the light of the escalating violence in Northern Ireland and the tragic murder of Mrs. Clinton last night, will the Minister communicate to the Taoiseach the urgency for the Opposition parties and the Taoiseach to come together to progress the peace process?
The matter is not relevant now.
Deputy Rabbitte rose.
I called the Deputy earlier.
You did, Sir, and I greatly appreciate your indulgence, but I want to put it finally to the Minister that this is not a time to stand on protocol. The Government seems to have set its face against intervening and preventing this dispute tomorrow. That is a mistake and something I regret.
I thought we had disposed of that.