Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

Before coming to today's Order of Business, I have a few notices to bring to the attention of Senators, with your permission, a Chathaoirligh. The Taoiseach will attend the House from 12.30 p.m. to 1.30 p.m. for statements on the European Presidency. That may not have been clear from the Order Paper so that is why I am mentioning it now, in addition to which, it was announced on the radio that the Taoiseach would be meeting Dr. Paisley this morning, but that is happening this evening.

The House will sit tomorrow despite the fact that the Immigration Bill will not be dealt with today in the Dáil. The legislation is being introduced in this House first, so we will sit tomorrow. There will be no sitting next Thursday.

The Order of Business is No. 1, a motion to enable the introduction of electronic voting with effect from next Tuesday, 3 February 2004, to be taken without debate; No. 2, statements on the strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy, to be taken at the conclusion of the Order of Business and to conclude not later than 12.30 p.m., with the contributions of spokespersons not to exceed eight minutes, the contributions of other Senator not to exceed six minutes and the Minister to be called upon to reply not later than five minutes before the conclusion of the statements; and No. 3, statements in relation to the European Presidency, to be taken at 12.30 p.m. and to conclude not later than 1.30 p.m. I understand the Taoiseach will speak for 20 minutes, which will leave 40 minutes, or eight minutes for each of the five groupings in the Chamber. It will be up to the leaders of each group to sort out the time allocation.