There are three proposals to be put to the House. Is the proposal for dealing with Tuesday's business agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with Wednesday's business agreed to?

No.

No.

It is not agreed on two counts. I understand on the time allowed for statements on the Scally scoping inquiry that there will be eight ten-minute slots.

The standard practice for statements is that time is allowed for a Minister to respond. Given the seriousness of the issue, one would expect that half an hour would be provided for questions and answers. However, there is no opportunity to come back on it, which is a mistake.

The second issue with which I have difficulty relates to the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. The Bill has been under discussion for 1,000 days. That is six and a half years after the first recommendations were made on this legislation. A large number of spurious reasons have been given for delaying the Bill. Many tactics have been used by various Members here and in the Seanad as a result of the massive lobby put on by the alcohol industry. Time had been allowed to discuss the Bill tomorrow night and there is no reason we cannot deal with that. There are 14 Members of this House who are continuing to engage in these kinds of delaying tactics and have tabled all sorts of spurious amendments on the Order Paper. They come from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and, in one case, the Labour Party. I strongly appeal to the Taoiseach and Deputies Micheál Martin and Brendan Howlin to ask their party members to withdraw those amendments. Let us stop the game playing on this and get this important legislation through as quickly as possible.

We cannot get into a very detailed discussion on the matter.

I wish to say something on the same matter.

I will call Deputy Stephen Donnelly first and then the Deputy.

People have been waiting for a very long time for the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. Our understanding as of around 10 a.m. this morning was that it would be heard and hopefully would pass Report Stage in the House tomorrow night. At about 11.30 a.m., we received word that it had been pulled from the schedule.

By the Government.

Yes. While I hope this is merely a scheduling issue, my concern is that this has also happened several times in the Seanad. Senators were told it was an administrative issue and that the Government would return with the Bill the following week, but then the legislation disappeared for months. The Bill will, I hope, save many lives. The Government pulled it from the schedule this morning. Will the Minister of State tell us why and assure the House that it will be back in the time necessary to get through Report Stage by next week at the latest?

The Public Health (Alcohol) Bill has been subject to disgraceful delays. The people who are doing it know who they are, and we know who is pushing this agenda. Will the Taoiseach give us an explanation? I join Deputy Donnelly in hoping that it is a scheduling error. However, the experience in the Seanad is that the Bill has disappeared from the agenda on several occasions. Will the Taoiseach explain why we cannot discuss it tomorrow when there seems to be consensus in the House that we should do so?

On the first matter raised by Deputy Shortall-----

That was the Scally report.

Yes. A circular was issued on the Scally report on Wednesday. In fairness, Deputy Shortall was alone in requesting time for questions and answers at the end of the discussion. We have a tight schedule but if Deputies agree, the Government side has no problem with having 15 or 20 minutes of questions and answers at the end.

Is it agreed to facilitate a question and answer period, as set out by the Minister of State?

Yes.

That is agreed.

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. On the second issue raised by Deputy Róisín Shortall and also Deputies Stephen Donnelly and Louise O'Reilly, we have received messages that new amendments are being considered. There are no delaying tactics. The Bill was on the schedule because it is also one of the Taoiseach's priorities. The Deputy asked for an assurance that it would be on the schedule next week. As far as I am concerned, it will be. I am also happy to check to see if there is any possibility of getting it on the schedule this evening, with the amendments that need to be considered.

To clarify, if party leaders secure the agreement of their Members to withdraw the delaying amendments, can we take the Bill tomorrow night? I do not see any reason the legislation would not go through in the hour that was allocated for it, or in ten minutes.

I do not ever recall a Deputy arguing that amendments were delaying legislation. Members are entitled to table whatever amendments they wish.

The Deputy's point about starting the debate tonight or tomorrow on whatever it was originally proposed to deal with is very relevant.

To provide absolute clarity, it was the Government that withdrew the Bill. It was nothing to do with the Opposition or anybody else. Deputy Shortall might be implying that we had some involvement in withdrawing the Bill but we had none whatsoever. We want the Bill to go ahead as it is going on for too long.

In the interests of the House we must respect the process by which people can table amendments.

Of course.

All Members are entitled to table amendments and we should be very careful about imputing ill intent to anyone who tables an amendment.

For the record, as the Head of Government and the Minister who published the Bill, I want to see it enacted too, but I do not think we can play out the Business Committee here. I will speak to the Whip about it afterwards, and if there is a way to get it back on the schedule this week, we will do that.

Okay. Can we accept that from the Taoiseach?

Yes.

He was very positive. Therefore, is Wednesday's business agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with Thursday's business agreed to? Agreed. We will move on quickly then to Deputy Micheál Martin and questions on promised legislation.