PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT. - GENERAL.
The PRESIDENT continuing, said that the meeting of the new Dáil might be a suitable occasion for discussing whether it would be well to have a few new articles added to the Constitution, and he would be glad to have suggestions from the members. The members had probably seen references in the press to Lord Derby's visit to Ireland. Derby was over and he saw him. He (the President) regarded him as a mere political scout, and he spoke to him as he would to a Press man. Then there was the Craig interview; he had heard a number of times that Sir James Craig was anxious to meet some of them, and he had indicated that he was quite willing to meet Craig. The interview was of no significance.
He could say that he felt they had now come to the point in which they had turned the corner. It was only a question now of keeping up the constructive effort and keeping the country with them. The enemy Government were afraid of the renewal of the Republican Court activities. He urged that they should use every effort to get the Courts working again. The day they got the Courts working again all over the country they had the British heaten.
The MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS complained he got no assistance from some members of the Dáil in organising the Courts, and he impressed on them the necessity of attending to this important work.
The SUBSTITUTE DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURE asked how they would stand with regard to the yearly estimates if the new Dáil could not meet till the end of June.
The MINISTER FOR FINANCE said that the fact that a new Dáil was coming into being did not affect the Estimates, which should be prepared before the end of the present month.