Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House of Parliament

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I am resuming because I was interrupted when the matter regarding Deputy Minister Aruna Jayasekara arose. First, as we said when the motion was presented, if Parliament approves in accordance with procedure, we are ready to debate. Secondly, whether to table or not is your responsibility. Parliamentary history shows that on 2nd October 2007, in Volume 3 and the Supplement, there was a motion against a State Minister who had gazetted powers. That motion, brought by Hon. M. Joseph Michael Perera, a former Speaker, was not entertained as a No-Confidence Motion but as a motion of censure. Likewise, there was a motion concerning Mahinda Ratnatilaka in 2007, also a motion of condemnation, not a No-Confidence Motion. Our point is about Deputy/State Ministers. To our understanding and upon our study, there is no issue in bringing a motion of censure or any other motion within parliamentary procedure. But bringing an inadmissible No-Confidence Motion and then wasting the time of Parliament is unacceptable.

¶ 02 Further, since they cannot gather even 300 or 500 people outside, they engage in this morning’s theatrics here. I also state—