Vol. 40 No. 26
I move:—
That, pursuant to sub-section (20) of Section 2 of Article 25 of the Constitution Seanad Éireann concur with the Government in a request to the President to sign the Appropriation Bill, 1952, on a date which is earlier than the 5th day after the date on which the Bill shall have been presented to him.
We agree to this motion for the reason given by the Minister for Finance, namely, that if the motion does not pass the money already provided by the Dáil and Seanad in the Central Fund Bill will be exhausted to-morrow, the last day of July, and that if we do not pass the Bill and the Resolution the public services will close down. We would not like the public services to close down and therefore we agree with the Resolution. We would like to say, however, that that completely disproves the previous statement of the Minister that the Seanad cannot vote money. That is precisely and exactly what the Seanad has now done. Would you allow me to put on record disagreement with the Minister that the Seanad's function is to consider, in a general way, administration? That is not admitted, but we do support the motion.
