This matter that with your permission, a Chinn Comhairle, I brought up to-day is, to my mind, one of vital importance. It started in October, 1927, when the representative of Mr. Moore himself came to me and told me that he was in business in Buncrana engaged in the manufacture of shirts and collars. The premises he had, he said, were not suitable, and if it were possible to get a couple of huts that were attached to the naval barracks in Buncrana, not alone, he said, would he extend his business in the manufacture of shirts and collars, but he would also engage in the manufacture of boiler suits, pyjamas and dungarees. The making of boiler suits and of dungarees meant practically the creation of a new industry. I think it is the pioneer industry of the kind in the Free State. It was new in that area, at all events. After a long space of time, during which a great deal of correspondence passed between the departments concerned and Mr. Moore in regard to these premises, a provisional lease was granted to Messrs. Moore and Co. for two huts, covering a period of five years, at an annual rent of £55. Statutory sanction would have to be applied for, and on 1st October, 1928, the Board of Works communicated with Messrs. Moore, and said: "We are making application for the necessary statutory sanction for making a letting to you of these premises." They specified that under the proposed lease: "You will be required to have the site completely walled off or fenced off from the rest of the camp to our satisfaction, and provide a suitable direct entrance to the site from the adjoining public road, to maintain the buildings and any fresh erections in good condition, and so yield up at the end of the term, and to insure the premises."
They said, of course, that statutory sanction would have to be granted, and they allowed Messrs. Moore in at their own risk, getting from Messrs. Moore a half-year's rent, £22 10s. 0d., assuring them that statutory permission for the granting of the lease was being applied for. That is as much as to say that everything would be all right. In good faith Messrs. Moore went into the place, gave up their own premises, installed machinery, and carried out all the repairs to the huts. When they took over occupation they got the necessary machinery installed. They have upwards of thirty girls employed there, and in addition Messrs. Moore gave work out to the surrounding districts, that is, the making up of shirts and so on, which provides very necessary employment for the people in the district, which is a poor, congested area. It is most necessary some employment should be given. The Minister comes along now after all that lapse of time, and because of the intervention of some mysterious Mr. X., although this has lain on the Table of the House for twenty-one days and this is the last day, he suddenly makes up his mind that Messrs. Moore have to vacate. He finds out that somebody might give a little more than Messrs. Moore. The Minister then gets this letter sent to Messrs. Moore:
"We beg to acquaint you that the letting of portion of these premises which was provisionally arranged with you, subject to the terms of the State Lands Act of 1924, cannot be proceeded with. It is, therefore, necessary for us to call on you to vacate the premises forthwith, in accordance with our letter of the 22nd December, 1928. Please inform us of the date and hour on which you will give possession to our representative, who will hand over a payable order for the sum of £22 10s., being the refund of the amount lodged by you for use and occupation."
A nice, polite letter that. They have put up huts and railed the place off from the rest of the camp, and made a road to the main thoroughfare. The same mysterious Mr. X. I have mentioned would have paid more had he known the place was to be let. The place was not to be let. The mysterious Mr. X. whispers to the Minister that if he had been informed about this perhaps he would have paid more than Messrs. Moore. Messrs. Moore have, as I have said, girls employed there already, and they will lose their employment if this polite letter of the Minister takes effect. That is what it means, as there are no other suitable premises in the town. It means that those thirty girls and the outdoor workers employed by Messrs. Moore will be thrown out on the roadside. If the President were here he would tell us they can go and see their friends in America. I want to know from the Minister definitely whether any mysterious Mr. X. from Buncrana or elsewhere is going to dictate the policy of this Government. I had experience a short time ago of the same mysterious Mr. X., who whispered to the Minister what he wanted him to do. The mysterious Mr. X. is not mysterious to me, for I know him. In Buncrana he boasted of the fact that he would have Messrs. Moore put out.
What has the Minister to say about it? At this stage the Minister has had whippings enough which should have taught him a lesson. I am going to teach him one now. At this stage of the country's history, when we are all prating about our country turning the corner, and about the upper curves in the prosperity of the people, when a firm sets up to employ a number of girls in their factory and others in their own homes, in a portion of Donegal, in a poverty-stricken area, that can hardly support half its present population, and when certain regulations are laid down and complied with, the Minister comes along, and he wants the people who are giving employment to clear out. He wants to break the firm that gives that employment, a successful firm; a firm that, instead of standing still, is progressing all the time and giving increased employment. The Minister wants to break that firm and to throw their employees out on the roadside. What are the thirty girls employed in the factory and the people who make the shirts in their own homes going to do if their means of livelihood is taken from them? The Minister suddenly discovers, after a lapse of eighteen months, that he made a mistake. Is it possible the infallible Minister can make a mistake? Eighteen months elapsed since this matter was first mooted, and the Minister discovers after eighteen months that he should have advertised the place. There is nothing to compel the Minister to advertise it. His little tender conscience starts to prick him now. He suddenly assumes all the virtues, and he does not want to do anything underhand. He wants the place advertised broadcast, and Messrs. Moore would still get the opportunity of tendering.
Is it possible the Minister made a mistake when he allowed this matter to proceed so far, and allowed those people to burn their boats, and allowed them to take occupation of the premises, allowed them to employ these people, all because he made a mistake, and he wants to remedy his mistake at the expense of the workpeople there by throwing them out on the roadside to die of starvation? That is what it means, but if the Minister thinks that his mistakes are going to be covered up in this matter, he is making the biggest mistake he ever made in all his lifetime, and your mysterious Mr. X. is making the error of his lifetime. If the Minister listens to what this Mr. X. wants him to do all the time, he is not going to be a Minister very long. I can foresee that, and only the mysterious Mr. X. is a sort of a fixed star, he would have been shifted, too, out of the position he occupies; but, unfortunately, he cannot be, for he is as far away as Mars. He is in the Seanad. Are we going now to allow, as the Minister proposes, to have those people who are in employment in this factory, thrown out because the Minister wants to remedy his mistake by sending a little letter to Messrs. Moore, ordering them to remove all their machinery out of the factory? We want a direct answer from the Minister, and I hope we are going to have it from him.
