(for Mr. Connor Hogan) asked the President if he will state whether the text of the agreement known as "Heads of working arrangements for implementing the Treaty," signed at London between Irish Ministers and His Majesty's Ministers on the 24th January, 1922, will be printed and circulated to members of the Oireachtas.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - LONDON AGREEMENT.
The document in question was published as a Command Paper in London in July, 1923, and has, of course, been available to the public since that date.
It was not considered necessary to publish it separately here as the matters to which it related consisted largely of departmental arrangements for a transfer of functions to the Provisional Government and for the setting up of machinery for the assessment of compensation for damages to person and property, and for the release of prisoners and similar matters, and as these arrangements had been in operation for a considerable time the facts were already well known to the public.
If any Member of the House desires to have a copy and notifies me to that effect during the course of the next few days I will have him provided with a typed copy. It is not considered, in view of the publication which the document has already received, that the expense of printing it as a Parliamentary Paper should be necessary.
Are we to take it from the President's answer that it is part of Governmental policy that papers affecting Irish interests and printed in London by the British Government need not be printed in Ireland for the benefit of Irish readers and citizens?
No. Ordinarily I would say that they would be published simultaneously in both places but, I think, if the Deputy throws his mind back to the period in question he will understand that many things might have been overlooked. We were just approaching the end of the Session, the matters were not really of great public importance, while the facts in the publication were well known.
Am I to take it that the President is expressing his regret?
I do not think so.