Could I ask the Leader of the House what the Order of Business is now? Is the School Attendance Bill next on the Order?
Business of Seanad.
The next Bill on the Order is the Housing (Gaeltacht) (Amendment) Bill, 1967.
Could we be told again in what order Bills are coming up now?
After the waste of public money by you in asking for a second Division—
In what order are those extra Bills coming up?
The first is the Housing (Gaeltacht) (Amendment) Bill. We will then take the School Attendance (Amendment) Bill if the Minister is available.
There is nothing on the Order of Business to that effect.
We changed the Order of Business at 7.30 p.m.
The Labour Party were not present and they could hardly be said to have agreed.
The House agreed.
On behalf of my group, I should like to make it clear that we have no objection to the alteration of the Order of Business. I do not want to be taken as objecting to the ruling of the House but what we do object to is the introduction of a Bill which has not, in fact, appeared on the Order paper. That is wrong and it should be reconsidered.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
The House is master of its own business and the decision was taken after the interval.
I think this procedure is agreed to year after year; those Bills come to us quite frequently. I do not think the Senator has any reason for complaint, especially as he was not here when the decision was taken.
The point could be made that if the particular item is not on the agenda, a Senator might well decide that he could not be present at 7.30 p.m. and if the business is changed at 7.30 p.m. and not at 3 p.m. some injustice might be done.
We were told that the Order of Business was Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 3 this afternoon.
The position is that the debate on the Second Stage of the Finance Bill ended rather unexpectedly early and there was a question then of using the time which was available up to 10 p.m., rather than allow the Seanad to adjourn half an hour after the Censorship Bill was taken. As the Members of the Seanad were here, I thought it was a good idea to take the opportunity to deal with this Bill. If the Labour Party object, I can do nothing about it.
The Labour Party object. They were not consulted. I object, and I still say it is bad business, with all due respect to the ruling given. Apart from the two Bills on the Order Paper now being taken, I understand that, in addition, another Bill which does not appear on the Order Paper, and which did not appear on the Order Paper at any time, is now being taken.
May I say to Senator Crowley that his place is to be here at 7.30 p.m. when the business resumes?
I still say that something is being done here that should not be done.
It will not be reached tonight at any rate.
I appreciate what has happened. There is a very sensible argument in relation to two of the Bills. I was here and my recollection is that two Bills were named with possibly another. An injustice could be assumed by Senators having looked at the Order Paper and not having seen the School Attendance (Amendment) Bill. Now to take a Bill which is not on the Order Paper is going too far. I still think we should not take a Bill that was not on the Order Paper.
We could argue this for the next two hours.