To ask the President to state the number of persons who have been interned in Ireland within the past fourteen days in pursuance of Orders issued by British Secretaries of State; how many, if any, of these prisoners are citizens of Saorstát Eireann; whether the President's attention has been called to the terms of the Internment Orders in which the British Minister "orders" that certain persons "shall be interned in the Irish Free State," and "shall be subject to all the rules and conditions applicable to persons there interned, and shall remain there until further orders"—such orders to be made by him; whether the Executive Council of Saorstát Eireann was cognisant of the terms of these Orders of Internment before they were issued; if not, whether it is intended to protest against the implied assumption contained in these Orders that British Ministers have authority in the affairs of Saorstát Eireann, and that Regulations made under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act (1920) are still enforcible inside Free State territory at the will of British Ministers?
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. - INTERNMENTS IN SAORSTÁTEIREANN.
As to the first part of the question, the answer is 110.
As to the second part of the question— this is a question of fact which has yet to be inquired into; all are presumed to be such citizens.
As to the third part of the question, the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act, 1920, and the Regulations made thereunder are, so far as the territory of Saorstát Eireann is concerned, spent and of no legal force or effect. Legal opinion in Britain is to the effect that they are still in force in Great Britain, though it has not been suggested that they are so in force in Saorstát Eireann. Whatever be the authority under which certain persons have been arrested in and deported from Great Britain to this country, no one is being held here under the authority of that Act or the Regulations under it. The Executive Council was not cognisant of the terms of the Orders referred to before they were issued. No such implication of assumed authority on the part of British Ministers in the affairs of Saorstát Eireann, as suggested in the question, has been found or is apparent. The suggested protest is, therefore, not called for.