I beg to move "that the Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 1927, be read a second time."
The object of the Bill is to put an end to the present anomalous condition of things in which persons avail of the electoral machinery which has been provided by the State for the selection of members of the Oireachtas to offer themselves for election without having any intention of taking their seats or of undertaking their duties and responsibilities of the office which they seek. This futile performance has now gone on for five years. At every general election and at most of the bye-elections candidates have been put on what is described as the abstentionist programme. These candidates claim that such votes as they obtain are votes against the Treaty settlement. Some of them, no doubt, are. That they can all be so regarded is more than doubtful. During the recent election everything possible was done by the abstentionist group to cloud the issue. No two of their candidates appeared to be of one mind. Some of them were against the Treaty; others pretended that they were merely opposed to the oath which it contains, and it was consistently sought to delude the people into the belief that the oath could be removed without violating the Treaty. The situation was further confused by allegations of Government extravagance, by promises of employment, of relief from payment of debts, and so on.
But even if the maximum claim be conceded the position would be that the opponents of the Treaty are in a minority of one-third of the electorate. The issue of the Treaty has now been before the people at least three times. It is time that parliamentary institutions were protected from prostitution by a minority. This country has been run on the most democratic lines. Every adult has a vote; Deputies are elected on the basis of proportional representation, so as to render the legislature as nearly as may be a picture of the electorate. The rights of minorities are amply recognised and provided for.
But the majority has its rights, too. The majority of the people of this country have declared in unmistakable terms that they desire to work out their destinies peacefully under the constitutional liberties and parliamentary institutions which they enjoy. This they cannot do if a minority is to be permitted to play fast and loose with the basic principles of democratic government in their application, if they are allowed to persevere in their effort to bring parliamentary institutions into disrepute. There is a place where the voice of the people can be heard in council, namely, in the Oireachtas. The Oireachtas is the place provided for that purpose, and it is the only place.
It has been charged against the Government that this measure is an attempt to make political capital out of the assassination of the late Vice-President. Nothing could be further from the truth. A very little reflection should make it obvious to the weakest intellect that the accusation is entirely unfounded. As long as the Fianna Fáil Party contested elections upon the basis of non-acceptance of the Treaty and the Constitution, as long as the Treaty and the Constitution were in issue, so long did there exist a strong reason, a strong inducement to voters who desired the continuance of these instruments, to support the Party which had brought them into being, and which had defended them for five years. The effect of the present measure will be to remove that inducement, to give the people a choice, unhampered by the fear that the result might be a Dáil so broken up into little groups that stable government would be impossible. Clearly the passing of this Bill, so far from giving a political advantage to the Cumann na nGaedheal Party, will do the exact opposite. It will remove a handicap from the other Constitutional Parties in this House, it will enable this House to be completed, and it will give the electorate a greater freedom.