The motion down in my name and which I move is:—
"That the Executive Council has ceased to retain the support of the majority in Dáil Eireann."
In effect, it is clear that that motion is intended to test the views of the House as to whether the present Executive Council shall continue in office. It is based on Article 53 of the Constitution, which says: "The President and Ministers nominated by him shall retire from office when they cease to retain the support of the majority in Dáil Eireann." It is intended that that proof should be given as to whether the present Executive Council do, in fact, retain the support of the majority. One would imagine from some of the public comments that there had never been a motion of this kind, or a motion implying want of confidence in the Executive Council, moved before, but those who have been members of that Council, or members of the Dáil, for the last four or five years are pretty familiar with the fact that from the Labour benches numerous motions implying want of confidence in the Executive Council have been moved, spoken to, and defeated.
At the first meeting after the general election the Labour Party divided the House on the question of whether Deputy W. T. Cosgrave should retain the office of President, and there was also a division on the question of the composition of the Executive Council. That division, too, resulted in confidence being expressed in the Executive Council, as nominated by the President. There were, in addition to the Labour Party, a few other Deputies who voted for that motion, or, rather, who voted against the motion of the President, which was, in fact, an indication of want of confidence in the nominees, as a Council, of the President. We gave our reasons in that discussion why we had not confidence in the Executive Council. They were reasons affecting the social and economic conditions of the people, and we felt then, as we felt for months before, and still feel, that in the matter of the social conditions of the people, in the matter of employment and unemployment, the Executive Council have not made the most of their opportunities, and have not utilised their power and authority in a manner which would best serve the people of the country.
We believe that there is much poverty, much distress, that is capable of being removed, suffering which could be eased through a more sympathetic attitude on the part of the Ministry in the administration of the laws which exist. We believe that the Executive Council have power within present legislation, within constitutional authority, to initiate many works, public opportunities, for employment, and stimulating private enterprise and private activity in a manner much more satisfactory and more conducive to the public well-being than they have so far shown evidence of. Nothing that has happened since the date of that motion has warranted us in changing our views. We have had no sign—no opportunity has been given them perhaps of showing a sign—of any change of attitude, but we were convinced then by definite statements that the policy of the Government in future in regard to those social and industrial problems was to carry on as they have been carrying on in the past.
So far from anything having happened in the meantime to inspire greater confidence in the Executive Council, much has happened within the last few weeks to diminish even that amount of confidence which we had. We are familiar with the legislation that was introduced in respect to public safety, and included in that term were Bills known as the Public Safety Bill, the Electoral Amendment Bill, and the Constitution Amendment Bill. It is known well that the Labour Party and others in the House opposed the policy that was behind those Bills. It seemed to us that they were not likely to lead to better order, to better government, and to greater promise of peace, but that, on the contrary, the introduction and carrying through this House of those Bills rather indicated a state of mind in the Executive Council which was more likely to lessen the prospects of good order and good government than to improve them. When the discussion on the formation of the Executive Council was before the House it was said by several Deputies that there had been no alternative offered, that had there been an alternative put before the House there might have been a change in the decision of Deputies who were speaking, that they were not prepared to put out the present, or then existing, Government until they saw some prospect of an alternative, and they said that they saw no prospect of an alternative.
I said then that it was a sad reflection upon the Dáil if there could only be found in the assembly the then existing eight or ten members who were capable of carrying on government in the Saorstát. The position, to-day. I think, is somewhat different. New facts have come into the arena. There has been a change by the entry into the Dáil of 43 Deputies who had hitherto abstained, and it cannot be said at this stage of our existence, even by those who thought that there was no alternative two months ago, that there is no alternative now. Ministers told us in that discussion that they had no desire to retain office, and that they recognised that the country had decided that they were a minority and had not given them sufficient support to warrant them in maintaining office if any alternative could be found. To-day there are a number of alternatives. The fact that the Deputies of Fianna Fáil are in the House provides the obvious alternative.
There is the alternative of a combination of parties on my right, and on the Government left—quite a reasonable possibility of a combination of Farmers, National League and Independents, who, I have no doubt, would be able to carry on the business of the country satisfactorily, and being just as assured of backing from the other parties in the House as the present Government are of backing if they continue to carry on. There is the possibility of a combination of all the middle parties of the House. Some people have said that there is the possibility of the parties who are of the elements of the two wings of the main parties and who are really in fact much closer to each other than they are to other members of their own party. That is also a possible combination. I can imagine also the possibility of a combination of parties with the Labour Party and the elements in the Cumann na nGaedheal, who are in fact closer to Labour than they are to some of their own members, and the elements in the Fianna Fáil Party who are closer to Labour than to some of their own Party. A combination of such parties is possible, and within the region of practical politics. It has been even suggested that there can be a combination of all those parties with a definite national democratic policy—parties capable of lifting the country out of the present slough. That all remains to be seen. The question before the House is whether we have confidence in the existing Executive Council to carry on the government of the country for the lifetime of this Parliament, or any shorter time as may be possible.
I have a strong belief that the important thing for this country at the moment is that there should be a party or a combination of parties in office which will exclude from office for a time both those parties who have been in fierce contention one with the other during the last two years. I said that there has been a new situation created by the definite, formal entry into the constitutional course of a party which has hitherto abstained from attendance at this House. That is a great new fact, and I think this House ought to welcome and recognise it. It is for themselves to say, but I believe the primary consideration determining that course was the belief which I and others have insisted upon in public that the country needed a rest from turmoil and trouble, that there was need for a period of settlement, for a period of reconstruction, for a period of devoted national service. It is my belief that they are willing to join in that effort at reconstruction and national service, and that there are possibilities for a period of peace and quietude in the country and of a general common effort at economic development. If the present Ministry retain office, faced by the main opposition of those who had been hitherto in violent conflict—I am not going to recount past troubles or try to bring into comparison the merits or demerits of either Party—the possibilities of carrying on Parliamentary Government successfully, and with a successful issue for the cause of peace and development, are very much less. I put it as low as that, very much less indeed while the present Ministry retain office.
During the debates on the Public Safety Bill in the Seanad a Senator quoted from a certain American newspaper. I shall not read the quotation, but it was from a newspaper which attacked the present Government, and particularly attacked the late Vice-President. There is in circulation in the country at the present time a copy of a rival American organ containing a most venomous attack upon the leader of the Opposition in this House. It is an attack by name, and brutally refers to the leader of the Opposition, Deputy de Valera, as the real assassin, and inciting quite deliberately to the killing of that assassin. I shall not read the quotations, but I draw attention to them, to show that on one side and the other in America there is an awful feud between two contending elements which have been associated in the past in the promotion of the cause of Ireland. Those newspapers are being circulated in this country, and they have their echoes in the public pronouncements of the protagonists of the two rival parties in this country. Even as recently as Sunday last we had a statement from a responsible Minister, if the newspaper reports are to be relied upon, describing the chief Opposition Party in this House as a party of assassination. I put it to the House that if that spirit is going to prevail in the Government it will certainly provoke a counter-spirit in the Opposition, and what will be the effect on the country if that spirit is going to be behind the administration of the Public Safety Act? I say that the peace, order and good government of Ireland will be more surely promoted by the occupancy of the Government Benches by some party, or a combination of parties, outside either of these contending elements. I believe that association in the work of legislation, in the work of Parliament in this Chamber, will effectually, in due course, soften the asperities and remove the hatreds that have generated and developed within these last few years. That will come very much more surely if neither of these contestants are in the Government offices.
It has been suggested that any alternative to the present Ministry will bring disaster upon the country. I know that the President does not hold that view. I believe that the Executive Council does not preach that doctrine. It would be a very sad reflection upon the country if it were true. There are possibilities of governing this country by numerous combinations, numerous associations, even to the most extreme imagination none of them being less homogeneous than the present coalition, known as the Cumann na nGaedheal Party. We had it even boasted of during the election that that Party was a perfect coalition. I do not think there is anything particularly compatible, let us say, between the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, between the Minister for Finance and, let us say, Deputy Hugh Law——