Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 2 Mar 1922

Vol. S2 No. 3

MANUFACTURE AND SALE OF INTOXICANTS.

I move:

"That in view of the grave statements made by the Deputation from the Catholic Total Abstinence Federation regarding the abuses which had grown up in connection with the sale and manufacture of intoxicants in Ireland, a Commission representative of all sections in this Dáil be set up to enquire into the question of these abuses, and to suggest the best means for their removal and prevention."

The motion I have proposed is not a Party move, because no Party could gain above another by a measure devised to advance the cause of temperance. The whole nation and both Parties would be gainers in this. The origin of this matter lies in the representations that were laid before this Dáil by the Deputation from the Catholic Total Abstinence Federation and it arises very opportunely just now when the whole Irish people look forward, with a certain amount of misgiving and dread, to the election; not misgiving and dread because their own political ideas are to be the issues in the election, but because the election may cause a great deal of ill-feeling and bad blood between brother Irishmen. Now, it has been agreed that if one thing more than another has made for that better feeling in the past, it has been the fact that in those days numbers of Irishmen were prone to the evil of intemperance. In one or two cases, and particularly in the election of 1918, the very salutary measure was taken of closing the public-houses and those elections went through without any disorder in any portions of the country. The elections now are due within a very short period. As the Total Abstinence Federation told you, while English authority in this country has lost all its power and force and while the only Assembly that hitherto had been able to enforce its authority upon the Irish people has been gravely shaken by the action of some of its members, we find that the evils consequent on intemperance are becoming daily more and more grave. Consequently, any man who has any regard for his country must ask himself how he can check it. It would be naturally the duty of the Government to take this thing upon themselves. I know that the President of the Dáil and the President of the Republic would look with very great sympathy upon any efforts which might be made to check intemperance. Answering my question this morning, he said as soon as the Cabinet had time they would go into the matter and deal with it. Intemperance is an evil that develops and spreads by geometric progression; in a very short time the evil would spread over the country. I need not refer to the old days when it was necessary for a distinguished Irishman to preach a crusade. The Cabinet's hands are too full and I am suggesting, therefore, a way out by immediately setting up a Commission to deal with it. That Commission, if set up here, may be able at the next Session of the Dáil to suggest measures to the Cabinet by which the evils may be prevented or whereby the abuses may be removed. That it can devise a measure I am certain. During the late European war certain restrictions were imposed upon the sale of intoxicants, which restrictions, whatever their origin, were beneficial in their effect not only on the whole community but on every section of it. They made the condition of those whose livelihood depends on this business certainly tolerable. Their occupation, instead of being, as it had been in the past, an instrument for degrading the nation served to satisfy a reasonable want in some sections of the people. They were able to live decent lives. I have practical experience of it because I have an intimate knowledge of the business. I remember the time when the sale of intoxicants was practically unrestricted in this country and there was no section of the people to suffer more from that than the ordinary publicans. They had not the lives of ordinary business people. They were in the shops from seven in the morning till eleven at night and whatever their position might be, the lives of their assistants were much worse. In addition, a large number of the people squandered a good deal more of their money than they could afford and intemperance was widely prevalent. After the enactment of certain restrictions, the lives of the people connected with the drink business became tolerable. For a number of years here, from 1914 to 1922, it was very rare indeed to see a drunken Irishman or Irishwoman. We have been told that intemperance is on the increase, this being largely due to the psychological reaction of the people against the terror—if you like, the unnatural conditions under which they had to live. Naturally, if you compel or try to compel the people to live within the boundary of an eight-hour day, as most of us were compelled to live, when you relax these restrictions human nature will indulge in a little excess.

You are indulging in excessive speaking.

It is all right. If every speech in this Dáil had been delivered to as good purpose as this, this nation would be in a happier condition to-day. The Catholic Total Abstinence Federation has told you all those things. There are at our disposal means for remedying them. This Dáil can do it, and it is only the authority of this Dáil that can cope with the growth of intemperance in this country. In the period between 1919 and 1920, when the English authority was on top in this country and we had not the machinery to take these steps, we were faced with the spread of drunkenness and intemperance. The authority of this Dáil, backed by the arms of the volunteers, suppressed this and put a stop to intemperance and put it under proper control. The Commission which I am now asking the House to appoint can do exactly what we did before in regard to the sale of poteen. It can enforce the licensing restrictions and laws everywhere and it will give the people a much greater incentive to put down intemperance.

I desire to second the motion. It is very appropriate that it should come from Mr. MacEntee, who is connected with the trade. I do not refer to that in any offensive way. And it comes well from me too. I am not a tectotaller, though a strong temperance man. Total Abstinence Associations do not ask you to bring in any new laws. They ask you to enforce the existing laws. There are abuses of the existing laws. I brought it to the notice of the late Minister for Home Affairs and little was done. The decent publican is not trading after hours but the mean publican is. If you set up this Commission, you would be well able to stop that abuse. That is the reason I second this motion.

I at once accept this motion and will get the Home Secretary to set up a Commission representing all sections of the Dáil.

The motion was then put by the Acting Speaker and carried unanimously.

Top
Share