Being arrested in a tram, because soldiers are left with power by the Minister under the Bill. Well, everyone knows that soldiers are not in fact going about, and are not in the future likely to go about, arresting inoffensive, law-abiding citizens, who are not in the least wanted by the State or by the Government. And so, while I admit that in some of the arguments that have been urged with regard to the Bill, there has been a certain force and, I admit, a certain necessity for safeguarding rights as far as possible, still it is not possible to legislate in such a way as to meet every extravagant hypothetical case that might be advanced here in a spirit of jest or in a spirit of casuistry. As to soldiers arresting at all, I would certainly wish that a situation existed in the country in which soldiers ought not to arrest, in which it would not be necessary to ask soldiers to make any arrests at all. But you have not reached that position. Men are going about armed. Certain very lawless and very desperate men are still on the loose through the country, and it would not be a fair thing, it would not be a proper thing, to ask members of an unarmed police force to face into a house to arrest these men who are armed to the teeth with lethal weapons of one kind or another. And because you still have that situation, it is necessary to retain for the military certain powers of arrest, while endeavouring to safeguard these powers against abuse as far as possible.
While this discussion was proceeding the Minister for Defence Drafted a suggestion which seems to me to meet all reasonable objections that might be urged. It is to substitute for the amendment: To add after the last word of the particular paragraph, "Commandant":—
"who may be specifically empowered in any particular case by the Minister for Defence to delegate his powers under this Act to any member of the Military Forces of Saorstát Eireann not below the rank of sergeant. Save and except in such cases where a military force has been detailed by the order of a person so empowered to arrest any person or persons in which case every member of such force shall be deemed to possess the powers granted by this Act."
Reading that—and I have given it careful consideration—I think that it meets reasonable objections that in might be urged. It confines the power of arrest normally to the Commandant. It goes on then to say that a Commandant may be specifically empowered in a particular case by the Minister for Defence to delegate his powers under the Act to any member of the military forces of Saorstát Eireann not below the rank of sergeant. He can delegate in a particular case, when be is authorised to do so by the Minister for Defence, down to the rank of sergeant. And then there is this further modification: "Save and except in such cases where a military force has been detailed by the order of a person so empowered to arrest any person or persons, in which case every member of such force shall be deemed to possess the powers granted by the Act." If there is substantial agreement with that I would put it in as an alternative to the Deputy's amendment.