I have not used the guillotine in any legislation and it would not be my intention to do so, but it was agreed by the Whips. Having said that, in the interests of reform and given the goodwill expressed here I have spoken to the Minister and we can agree not to have a guillotine procedure. The Order of Business will therefore be Items Nos. 1 and 2. We will let 4 o'clock stand at the moment; if this means going past 4 p.m. the House, by agreement, can arrange that.
As regards new legislation, we have made every effort to ask Ministers to use this House for the initiation of legislation and the two Bills that have come before us are a step in the right direction. We are hopeful that over the coming months Ministers will use this House for legislation. After Easter we will be dealing with both of those Bills.
I have said here on several occasions that this House would debate the amendment to the Protocol. It was, at that time, agreed that we would wait for various discussions that are taking place at the highest level to end. I hope today we will see a total consensus on the issue of the wording. I have no doubt that, should that happen, we will be ready to take a debate whether it is next week or the week after.
This House has been aware for many months of the difficulties within the banking system. Senator O'Keeffe and many others have raised this over the past couple of months. I believe that, given the unfortunate labour relations problems involved, it would not be right for the House to have a debate at the moment. Several of the issues raised pertain to the possible strike. On behalf of this side of the House let me say it will be an absolute tragedy if the bank strike goes ahead in the next couple of weeks. On behalf of this House, I will convey to the Government and the Minister for Labour the concerns expressed here this morning that the Minister and the Government use all their efforts over the weekend to ensure that a strike, which would be devastating to the economy, is averted.
Senator Dardis mentioned the Milk (Regulation of Supply) (No. 2), Bill. We will be taking Committee Stage after Easter. We hope to have a White Paper on Maastricht sooner rather than later. We would all like to see a debate on consumer protection. There are many issues relating to European law now that have major effects on consumer protection. We will seek out the departmental views on that and find the wording for a suitable debate here quite soon. The Housing Bill has just been initiated in the other House. Like Senator Ryan we are all hopeful that the social policy on housing will have a positive effect. We will have our chance to discuss it soon. It is being ordered today in the other House and we should have it after Easter. Senator Howard mentioned some issues that are more a matter for the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. I will take note of the views expressed by others also.
Finally, on the Culliton report, if we need more than one day for that discussion it will be accommodated. Like everybody else I think it is an extremely important policy document and this House will have a major input into it. We have all received several presentations from interested parties relating to the report. A debate in this House may well require two or three days and that will be accommodated.