Vol. 69 No. 15
I move:
That, pursuant to subsection 2º of section 2 of Article 25 of the Constitution, Seanad Éireann concur with the Government in a request to the President to sign the Control of Exports (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1956 (Continuance) Bill, 1971, on a date which is earlier than the fifth day after the date on which the Bill shall have been presented to him.
This motion is to enable an abridgment of the time during which the President will sign and promulgate this Bill into law. In passing this Bill so quickly, because of the emergency, the Seanad has facilitated the Government. We are happy to do so. But may I refer the Leader of the House back to his comments on Wednesday, 24th February, when the Seanad accommodated him in relation to the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill by not debating the "7 Days" Tribunal Inquiry? At that time Senator Ó Maoláin said:
I should like to suggest to the Seanad that with the agreement of the House, if this Bill were given the same expeditious despatch as it received from the other House the Minister's Estimate will be taken in the Dáil today or tomorrow, and he has undertaken to return to the Seanad immediately that Estimate is finished and to devote the whole day to discussion on that motion.
That is on the "7 Days" Tribunal.
This hardly seems to be in order on this motion.
I am trying to make a point on this, with your indulgence. If the Seanad does accommodate the Government in this way I think we ought to hear from the Leader of the House as to whether we are to have a day before Easter which would be devoted to the "7 Days" Tribunal since the Estimate has been passed in the other House. This surely must be a process of quid pro quo. There must be some fulfilment of undertakings by the Leader of the House in this respect. I would ask him for his comments on this matter.
Before I permit Senator Ó Maoláin to reply I wish to point out that I consider this would have been more appropriate to the Order of Business. It is not appropriate now. However, since the case been made, I propose to allow Senator Ó Maoláin to reply.
I am delighted to inform Senator Robinson that I had arrangements made for the discussion tomorrow of the motion on the "7 Days" Tribunal, but at the request of the Fine Gael Party it was deferred because of the absence of the person who was to move it.
Perhaps I should confirm that. I mentioned on the Order of the Business on the last day the Seanad met that it would not suit us to take that particular motion because Senator Kelly, who would be our spokesman on it, is away. It was purely in deference to that that the motion is not being taken today. In fairness to the Minister it should be made quite clear that he did, very exactly, offer to implement his undertaking and to come back to the Seanad.
I appreciate the remarks of the Leader of the House.
