Aiken, FrankTuesday, 21 June 1949 |
Dáil Éireann Debate
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Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Short-wave Transmission.
What substitute is the Minister going to have for making the knitting needles if he is going to use the masts that the Minister wanted for needles to knit the rabbits' fur?
Committee on Finance. - Vote 5—Office of the Minister for Finance.
The Minister explained that one of the reasons for the increase was the increased work in the Foreign Exchange Department. The Minister during the year has approved of many information officers being...
I am not going into these figures. At Budget time a table explanatory of the Budget is sent out by officials, in fact, they prepare various tables. All I am asking the Minister to do is to call the ...
I do not propose to discuss anything in connection with policy.
That is what I propose to do. I ask the Minister to publish a statement which will bring it home to everybody that in 1947-48 the Exchequer issues for Central Fund and Supply Services were £65,161,00...
I am talking about the issues from the Exchequer, which are fed not only from taxation but from other Exchequer income.
I submit that it is important that in the administration of the Department of Finance the public should be aware of what they are paying, that they should be told that clearly.
If the Budgetary statements are not sufficient, I submit that other statements should be issued and, particularly, that the Taoiseach, the head of the Government, should be warned against telling the ...
Then we will bring that matter up on the Vote for the Taoiseach's Department. One of the Votes for which the Minister is responsible and which we are asked to discuss in a general way is Vote 15— Com...
If the Chair will bear with me for one second, what I am objecting to is that there is no money for it. At least, there is a Vote, it comes in under the Commissions and Special Inquiries.
I am complaining as a matter of the Minister's administration that during this year which we are now discussing he turned down an application for expenses to which citizens of this country were put by...
No, the findings do not arise, but the fact that the Minister refused to pay the expenses of a person whom the judges claimed was unjustly charged, irresponsibly charged, falsely charged, does arise, ...
The Minister refused during this administrative year.
I know the members of the Government do not want to hear about this.
They fooled a lot of people about it and they do not want to be reminded of the fact that three judges stated that, in relation——
I propose merely to quote the findings.
I propose to quote a certain portion of the findings in order to prove that my contention that the firm of Stokes and Quirke and other citizens of this country were put to unjustifiable expense becaus...
I am not proposing to discuss them.
For my information, will you instruct me as to whether it is right and proper that a matter which is in the sole discretion of the Minister for Finance is open to discussion here during the debate on ...
I am not discussing the findings. What I am discussing is the Minister's action in refusing to pay the reasonable costs of the people who were charged unjustly of corruption.
That is what I propose to do, with your permission. Several charges were made.
Will the Chair tell me when the people of this country are entitled to discuss this?
There are ways of putting down motions. I am simply discussing here——
——the Minister's action in turning down an application for funds.
I have not read one word.
I do not propose to read the findings out but I want to characterise the findings in the words of the judges so that I will not be held afterwards to have misquoted them. When we are discussing a jud...
I have not even read one yet. One of these charges was described as fantastically inaccurate. Another was described as “wholly untrue, entirely without foundation and made with a degree of recklessne...
Well, another was——
I will proceed then to deal with——
——with the Minister's administration of his Department, with your permission, which is the normal thing to discuss on such occasions. I object to the Minister for Finance refusing to meet the reasona...
The Attorney-General was present at that tribunal and, not only was he present at the tribunal, but he stated in no uncertain fashion what he thought of the Minister for Finance and of his allegations...
What I am concerned about is that the people involved— innocently involved—in this should be indemnified against loss. If we are going to carry on here as a democratic State in which everybody has re...
This Dáil was used——
The importance of the thing is this——
The Minister is appointed by this Dáil to administer the Department of Finance. The Department of Finance is more than an accounting office. It is an office which has a fair amount of influence on p...
I am because I have been interrupted several times.
I am quite prepared to believe that it is in the interests of order you are doing it. I passed away from certain aspects of this matter which I would like to discuss when you decided that they were o...
Will the Government give time for the motion?
You are not the Government?
The Deputy by his interruption——
Deputy O'Higgins, of course, is not a member of the Government. He is a member of the Government Party, and he has no right to speak on behalf of the Government with regard to this matter. I took qui...
——they have the right to expect that they would be indemnified against loss in relation to those charges and the Minister has refused to do it. I believe that, in doing that, he acted very wrongly, t...
I did not confine it to Messrs. Stokes and Quirke. The owners of the distillery were dragged before this tribunal. That was quite natural. Their manager may have known something about negotiations t...
There were letters to the Taoiseach, as well as to the Minister, in this case.
It went up by nearly £8,000,000.
Were not Dr. MacCarvill's expenses also paid?
Dr. MacCarvill also got paid.
Dr. MacCarvill received his complete costs on the charges proved on a solicitor and client basis.
On a point of order. I was forbidden by the Ceann Comhairle to deal with the merits of this particular case and the merits of the judges award.
I was forbidden.
The jury said nothing.
What about the Currency Act of 1927?
And carried forward by the Minister.
And the Minister packed £3,000,000 more.
It is a mark-time commission of course.
Everybody knows what is the cause of emigration.
The Government decided not to go on with it.
With reference to the tables in the Financial Statement, 1949, will the Minister say whether the figure shown as the Issues from the Exchequer for 1947-45 is correct, £65,165,000, and whether his fig...
1947-48, £65,000,000, in the last year of Fianna Fáil's term of office and almost £73,000,000 in this, the second year of the Coalition Government—an increase of almost £8,000,000 in expenditure. You...
This is the audited expenditure.
You are spending almost £2 10s. 0d. per head more than we spent. Vote put and agreed to.
Committee on Finance. - Vote 72—Central Statistics Office.
As this is a new Estimate, has the Minister anything to say about the setting up of this office in the Taoiseach's Department?
Will the Taoiseach answer for this particular Estimate in future or the Minister for Finance?
Committee on Finance. - Land Reclamation Bill, 1949—Committee Stage.
To which court would he apply? Would it be likely to be the District Court?
I would direct the Minister's attention to the fact that a Deputy on the Government Benches also expressed doubts as to whether the section, as drafted, did not estop an aggrieved person from going to...
I move amendment No. 7:— To add at the end the following new sub-section:— () In no case shall the contribution payable by the occupier to the Minister on foot of works carried out under this section...
I put down the amendment simply because the Minister stated in reply to certain questions of mine on Second Reading that in a certain case, where a job costs £14, the man might have to pay £12. If th...
Yes. Is the Minister in a position to tell me what will be the maximum amount spent on any acre? The general scheme seems to be £36 with the farmer paying £12 in the case where the farmer calls upon ...
I appeal to the Minister to accept Deputy Smith's amendment or something like it. The fact is whether the drainage carried out under this or any other scheme is to be of permanent value depends not ...
Deputy Smith's amendment would have met it.
In other words, that the reclamation annuity will not be halved.
That has been deleted.
He certainly did.
The Guarantee Fund is the rates—the agricultural grant in relief of rates.
If the Minister says Deputy Allen is rambling I would be delighted to hear the Minister explain what is the Guarantee Fund under the Land Purchase Acts referred to in sub-section (5) of Section 4.
Seeing the Minister is so obstreperous I will press him to give us exactly a definition and an explanation of the Guarantee Fund under the Land Purchase Acts. I think the Dáil is entitled to that. I...
The Minister has told Deputy Allen that he is rambling. I think he should prove that he is rambling.
I thank the Minister for his lecture, but I must insist on my democratic rights as a member of the Opposition to ask the Minister for information, particularly if I know that the information which he ...
The Minister, in his little recitation of past history, was completely wrong. Instead of trying to stop John Brown from collecting land annuities, the reason he demurred at the land annuities being t...
The Minister for Agriculture resurrected him.
Hear, hear.
It has been there since 1923 or before it—long before it.
I move amendment No. 16:— To add at the end the following new sub-section:— () Before commencing to clear a watercourse under this section the Minister shall give 14 days' notice to the Commissioners ...
Yes.
I ask the Minister to think over the matter between this and the Report Stage. On the Local Authorities (Works) Bill we had a number of discussions on this whole matter of drainage, not only from the...
Yes.
The Board of Works.
I am not saying that the Board of Works know everything about drainage, but they know that they have made mistakes in the past and at least they will not make similar mistakes again. I want to ensure...
I propose to withdraw the amendment and put it down again for the Report Stage in order to enable the Minister in the meantime to think over this particular problem. Perhaps he will see his way to in...
Yes, I hope the Minister will consider it later. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
I move amendment No. 17:— To add at the end the following new sub-sections:— () Before entering on land under this section any person executing works pursuant to this Act or an Order made thereunder,...
Yes.
It is a watercourse.
We were all very interested in the Minister's concern to ensure that everyone living adjacent to a bog or marsh would be relieved before the year 2050. I am afraid we cannot just accept his assurance...
That is my objection.
On this Committee Stage I put down an amendment which was ruled out of order.
I am objecting to Section 5, as amended, because it gives the Minister power to walk in and open up watercourses—but he has accepted the obligation to notify people upon whom he intends to walk in—and...
Or the absence of compensation. Perhaps I shall be able to get it in under the next amendment, which is in order. Section 5, as amended, agreed to. SECTION 6. Amendment No. 18 not moved.
I move amendment No. 19:— Before section 6 to insert a new section as follows:— (1) The Commissioners of Public Works, if satisfied upon a report of their chief engineering officer that serious flood...
It is.
That is so.
I submit that the two things can run side by side. There would be no necessity for the Minister to consult the Board of Works if the Board of Works advised him that there were certain basins which co...
If the Minister has sufficient time, meanwhile, to consider any amendments which he may bring forward.
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