On a point of order, might I register a protest that Question Time in this House for backbenchers is becoming an irrelevance when we see that after one hour we have got through about seven questions. Backbenchers submit questions, then must go through a draw arrangement and more often than not their questions are not drawn. If we are to be realistic and have an orderly conduct of the affairs of the House it must be open to back benchers to have their questions taken. Something will have to be done about this and I ask the Chair for his agreement on that.

I know that the Deputy does not intend to give the Chair a lecture and, indeed, if he did such a lecture would not be justified because the Chair daily appeals to Members and, in some cases Ministers, to make their questions, and answers, short and not to get into discussions or debates at Question Time, which are not in order. I should like to suggest to Deputy Taylor, one of the Whips, that he bring this matter up at a meeting of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. The weight of an expression of opinion by that committee would assist me in doing what I want to do, to make reasonable progress at Question Time.

I will certainly take the matter up with my own Deputies but, as the Chair has seen, my own Deputies were very well behaved today.

(Dublin North-West): I should like to support Deputy Taylor's protest. This is the second occasion a question I have had down was not reached. The Chair is chairman of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges and I appeal to him to have some type of order brought into this matter. A Deputy should be permitted to ask a supplementary question only on the question he has on the Order Paper. The whole thing has got out of order and Question Time is meaningless.

Deputy Barrett often acts as assistant Whip of his party and Deputy Taylor is the Whip of his party and I should like to ask both of them to take this matter up at party meetings and get co-operation for the Chair. If I get co-operation we will make progress. We cannot waste any more time on this.

I should like to ask the Chair to permit me to say a word about this. I am inclined, as the Chair is aware, to give rather full answers to questions trying to anticipate supplementaries that may be asked so that we will not have to go through the bother of supplementaries. Deputies who feel aggrieved, as I know some of them do, should co-operate with their colleagues to prevent them asking the same supplementary three times round. Incidentally, we have got through 11 questions today because I took a number of them together.

I remember the time — it was not yesterday or the day before — when 38 or 40 questions were dealt with daily and the Order Paper was cleared every day.