I want to speak to the amendment put down in the names of Deputy Rice and Deputy O'Hanlon. This is a Bill which is clearly only justifiable, if ever, at a time of public emergency, public disorder or civil war. The Minister has argued that it is one which should be maintained in being, in inactivity, for seven years from now, because of the possibility that though they may, by the powers of the Bill, drive out all that is evident in the way of insurrectionary activity or conspiracy, there might be someone left up to seven years, and that therefore all the powers in the Bill should remain. If the Bill has to be passed through the Dáil, it ought not operate for more than one year, and, if it is necessary to be renewed, it should be renewed year by year.
There is one aspect of this Bill to which I would like to call attention, and that is the fact that by Section 3 it has to have effect as an amendment of the Constitution, and, unless something new takes place in the way of an extension of the period during which the Constitution itself may be amended, it may be altered by the ordinary process of the law. That period expires, I think, in a couple of years' time. Then nothing can be done in the way of revoking this without the referendum, because it is, in effect, an amendment of the Constitution. That means making the Bill permanent unless we are prepared to submit the question to a referendum, and we have to assume, while discussing this Bill, that the present constitutional provisions regarding the referendum and the changes of the Constitution are to remain.
According to Section 3, the Constitution is amended by the passing of the Bill, and the amended Constitution will remain, and this Bill, in so far as it has amended the Constitution, does not sink into nothingness at the end of seven years, but remains as a Constitutional amendment. I put that forward as a proposal with some diffidence, but I think it is worthy of consideration. The point raised by Deputy Cooper is of quite definite practical importance. Apart from the special courts which are to be set up by proclamation, there will be nineteen sections of the Bill which will be ordinary law, and for all the time during these seven years it will be within the power of the Executive to deport or order the expulsion of a person, and, failing expulsion, to commit him to prison for six months' hard labour without any modification of that sentence, and no appeal from it. That is a provision that is to remain for seven or five years, if the President's proposition is agreed to by the House. It is one which ought not remain except during the time that the House is satisfied that a state of disorder, unrest, or public emergency exists.
So it is, of course, with the very wide powers of Section 15 in respect of the Civic Guards. These powers certainly should not be given, but, if they be given to them, they should be given for as short a period as possible. Martial law has given, as we know, powers to soldiers and police to stop people, search and arrest them, or to stop them, search them, take their goods and chattels from their pockets, and let them pass on with no record of what was taken from their pockets. That was done during the period of martial law, and it is quite possible to be done under this Bill. If it is to be done at all, it should be for as short a period as possible, and if, at the end of that short period, it is found desirable to extend the powers for a further period, it should be done by a deliberate act of the Oireachtas. One might say, further, with regard to the other extraordinary powers, that they ought only be allowed to operate for the shortest period which the Dáil considers necessary. Then, on further application to the Dáil, if it is still found necessary, the period could be extended. But, in my opinion, it is very necessary that we should not give these very wide powers, powers which are only justifiably given in times of disquiet, general disorder or civil strife. The powers should be retained in the hands of the Oireachtas, and not be given for so long a period as five years.
