I move—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £6,700 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1928, chun Seirbhísí Sicréideacha.
That a sum not exceeding £6,700 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1928, for Secret Services.
The purposes of the Secret Service Vote are the obtaining of information which is requisite for the security of the country and which cannot be obtained openly. The amounts are paid out on the order of the Minister for Finance at the request of another Minister. The Minister who is responsible for the requisition is required, at the end of the financial year, to give a certificate in the following form:—"I hereby certify that the amount actually expended by me or under my direction for secret service in the year ended—— was so much and that the balance in my hands on the 31st day of March was so much, and I further solemnly declare that the interests of the public service required that the payments should be made out of the Service Fund and that they were properly so made." That is the form of certificate which has been in force so far as the British service has been concerned since 1888, and the British Public Accounts Committee in 1888 expressed the opinion that these certificates were satisfactory.
The amount of the estimate is £4,000 less than the previous year, and I am not sure that it would be wise, in any subsequent year, to make the estimate less than £10,000, because this is not the sort of service for which, if the necessity arose, one could well come to the Dáil for additional sums on a supplementary estimate. There might be a public danger of some sort which would require expenditure on secret service, and if the money were not in the Vote it would do more harm to come to the Dáil and say that a danger was threatening which required the provision of this money than perhaps even to fail to take the steps that should be taken. I will read for Deputies the amounts voted in previous years and the amounts actually spent. In the year 1922/23 the amount voted was £220,000, and the amount actually expended £118,762. In the year 1923-24 the amount voted was £50,000, and the amount actually expended £39.236. In the year 1924/25 the estimate was £35.000, and the amount actually expended £19,665. In the year 1925/26 the amount voted was £20,000. and the amount actually expended £8.995. In the last financial year the amount voted was £14,000, and the sum actually expended £2,970.
