Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 18 Jun 1930

Vol. 35 No. 10

In Committee on Finance. - Reports of Commissions.

Mr. Corry

In view of the fact that this Dáil is about to adjourn for a very long period and that we may expect a Report from the Grain Commission in a short time I would like to get an assurance from the Minister that this House will be called together to consider that Report. The Dáil is adjourning till November and by that time the harvest will have been sold for what can be got for it. The Report of the Commission and the decision of this House upon it might very well affect the price that the farmers will get for their harvest and I think it is very important that the House should be called together when the Report is issued.

I would also like an assurance from the Minister with regard to the decision of the De-rating Commission. I do not know how long more that is going to sit. It has been sitting for a long period and we hope soon to get some results from it. If the farming community have to enter into competition with their fellow-farmers across the Border who do not pay rates we do not know how long they will be able to exist. I think it is a very serious thing that this House should adjourn for five months without having the Reports from these Commissions before them and coming to some decision upon them.

In view of the present precarious condition of the butter industry I think that is another matter on which some very definite decision should be come to by the Minister. I think it is an outrage in a country like this that is depending practically altogether on the agricultural industry that the House should remain without sitting for five months when the farming industry is in this condition. We should have some definite idea as to when the Commissions are expected to conclude their sittings and get an assurance that the House will be called together to consider the Reports of the Commissions.

Mr. Gorey

I beg to support Deputy Corry's plea, especially with regard to de-rating. I do so particularly for the reason that Deputy Corry would be in a position of bankruptcy if we had not de-rating within the next twelve months, because he gave promises to the ratepayers of Westmeath that if they elected Geoghegan and did not get de-rating within twelve months he would pay the rates himself.

Mr. Corry

I offered to take Deputy Gorey around in my car because he was the best exhibition that we could have in the constituency. He cannot deny that I offered him a seat. I declare now that his appearance in the constituency was worth a thousand votes to us.

Mr. Gorey

It is a fact that Deputy Corry offered to take me around in his car. I would make a plea to the Minister that he would consider the position of Deputy Corry because he made a promise, I think in some cases in writing, that if we had not de-rating inside of twelve months he would pay the rates himself. I wish the Minister would consider that aspect of the case.

Mr. Clery

To my mind, of all the unreasonable things that have been done in the past year, to adjourn the Dáil for a period of five months is the most unreasonable. I can see no excuse whatever for the proposal to adjourn this Dáil for a period of five months. Surely those of us who are most anxious for holidays should be satisfied with three months. I do not see why even Deputy Gorey could not be satisfied with three months' holidays after the very few days on which we have met this year. The Government were recently defeated by a vote in this House on a very important question, and they were defeated the other day by a very decisive majority in two counties out of the twenty-six comprising the Free State. Immediately after that defeat, instead of settling down to work in an endeavour to make some amends to the people for what they have done they come here and propose to adjourn for five months. I think that proposal will be received with very great disgust by Cumann na nGaedheal supporters throughout the country. We have representing Mayo the Chairman of the Cumann na nGaedheal Party. I cannot understand why he should want the Dáil to adjourn for five months without having dealt with any of the very many questions a discussion on which was promised by Ministers. What do they want five months' holidays for? Is it to tour around Europe?

Unfortunately, we have to realise that Cumann na nGaedheal Ministers are more interested in the affairs of other nations and in the affairs of the British Empire than in the affairs of the people of the Twenty-six Counties. The worst point of all is that you find the Chairman of the Cumann na nGaedheal Party, who comes from my own county, and the T.D.s who talk about representing farmers are in agreement with him, deciding now that we must have a holiday for five months after a very short session, having done practically nothing as far as the people are concerned. How they can defend that attitude I do not know. Nobody objects to a holiday, but surely three months should be sufficient for any Deputy, if not too much. In order to give our Ministers a chance of parading Europe as Ministers of the Free State—Ambassadors, mar dheadh—we must let them have a five months' holiday. They want to settle the affairs of other nations abroad; while at home they have got their walking papers but will not take them decently. If taking such a long holiday is merely to give the President time to recuperate, I say that we can get on without him. We have got on for months without him, and why can we not get on now without him? The De-rating Commission will carry on for a little while, and every other Commission will carry on the bluff for a little while and even the Cumann na nGaedheal T.D.s will carry on the bluff. The Town Tenants Bill and the Fisheries Bill are now to be put aside for five months. We are to have no opportunity of forcing the Minister to take some action. The whole thing is disgraceful and I am ashamed of the Cumann na nGaedheal T.D.s, some of whom I had respect for, agreeing to this holiday for five months when three months would be quite sufficient.

Mr. Blythe

With reference to the two points raised by Deputy Corry, I could not undertake, on the receipt of the Commission's report on graingrowing, to call the Dáil together. That matter is not at all similar to an investigation in connection with tariffs. If a tariff were recommended the Dáil would be called together, because the legislation required would be perfectly simple legislation which could be drafted within a day or two. If the Grain Commission reported in favour of action, a rather complicated type of legislation would be required, and there would be, in fact, no possibility of calling Deputies together, no matter how much desire for haste there would be; there would be no possibility of calling the Dáil together to deal with the matter within the period of the Recess.

The De-rating Commission is pushing ahead as rapidly as possible with its work. I cannot tell when it will report, but in any case if there were to be legislation following that report the legislation would be complicated, and it would be extremely difficult to draft it. In my opinion anything like de-rating would involve in this country a recasting of the entire system of local government, and would be much more complicated than they have in Great Britain. With regard to the points raised by Deputy Clery, they are the usual thing that we have heard on many occasions from Opposition Deputies when the Dáil is about to adjourn for a lengthy period. The Deputies who made protests are generally as anxious as anybody else that an adjournment should take place, but yet they have to make those statements.

Question put: "That the Dáil do now adjourn until the 19th November."

The Dáil divided: Tá, 71; Níl, 59.

Tá

• Alton, Ernest Henry.
• Beckett, James Walter.
• Bennett, George Cecil.
• Blythe, Ernest.
• Bourke, Séamus A.
• Brennan, Michael.
• Brodrick, Seán.
• Byrne, John Joseph.
• Carey, Edmund.
• Cole, John James.
• Collins-O'Driscoll, Mrs. Margt.
• Conlon, Martin.
• Connolly, Michael P.
• Cosgrave, William T.
• Craig, Sir James.
• Crowley, James.
• Daly, John.
• Davis, Michael.
• De Loughrey, Peter.
• Doherty, Eugene.
• Dolan, James N.
• Doyle, Peadar Seán.
• Duggan, Edmund John.
• Egan, Barry M.
• Esmonde, Osmond Thos. Grattan.
• Fitzgerald, Desmond.
• Fitzgerald-Kenney, James.
• Good, John.
• Gorey, Denis J.
• Haslett, Alexander.
• Hassett, John J.
• Heffernan, Michael R.
• Hennessy, Thomas.
• Hennigan, John.
• Henry, Mark.
• Hogan, Patrick (Galway).
• Holohan, Richard.
• Jordan, Michael.
• Kelly, Patrick Michael.
• Keogh, Myles.
• Law, Hugh Alexander.
• Leonard, Patrick.
• Lynch, Finian.
• Mathews, Arthur Patrick.
• McDonogh, Martin.
• MacEóin, Seán.
• McFadden, Michael Og.
• McGilligan, Patrick.
• Mongan, Joseph W.
• Mulcahy, Richard.
• Murphy, James E.
• Murphy, Joseph Xavier.
• O'Connell, Richard.
• O'Connor, Bartholomew.
• O'Hanlon, John F.
• O'Higgins, Thomas.
• O'Leary, Daniel.
• O'Mahony, Dermot Gun.
• O'Sullivan, Gearóid.
• O'Sullivan, John Marcus.
• Reynolds, Patrick.
• Rice, Vincent.
• Roddy, Martin.
• Sheehy, Timothy (West Cork).
• Thrift, William Edward.
• Tierney, Michael.
• Vaughan, Daniel.
• White, John.
• White, Vincent Joseph.
• Wolfe, George.
• Wolfe, Jasper Travers.

Níl

• Aiken, Frank.
• Allen, Denis.
• Anthony, Richard.
• Blaney, Neal.
• Boland, Gerald.
• Boland, Patrick.
• Bourke, Daniel.
• Brady, Seán.
• Briscoe, Robert.
• Broderick, Henry.
• Buckley, Daniel.
• Carty, Frank.
• Clery, Michael.
• Coburn, James.
• Colbert, James.
• Cooney, Eamon.
• Corkery, Dan.
• Corish, Richard.
• Corry, Martin John.
• Crowley, Fred Hugh.
• Crowley, Tadhg.
• Davin, William.
• Derrig, Thomas.
• De Valera, Eamon.
• Everett, James.
• Fahy, Frank.
• Powell, Thomas P.
• Ryan, James.
• Sexton, Martin.
• Sheehy, Timothy (Tipp.).
• Flinn, Hugo.
• Fogarty, Andrew.
• Geoghegan, James.
• Gorry, Patrick J.
• Goulding, John.
• Hayes, Seán.
• Houlihan, Patrick.
• Jordan, Stephen.
• Kennedy, Michael Joseph.
• Kent, William R.
• Kerlin, Frank.
• Killilea, Mark.
• Kilroy, Michael.
• Lemass, Seán F.
• Little, Patrick John.
• Maguire, Ben.
• McEllistrim, Thomas.
• MacEntee, Seán.
• Moore, Séamus.
• Morrissey, Daniel.
• Mullins, Thomas.
• Murphy, Timothy Joseph.
• O'Connell, Thomas J.
• O'Kelly, Seán T.
• O'Reilly, Matthew.
• O'Reilly, Thomas.
• Smith, Patrick.
• Walsh, Richard.
• Ward, Francis C.

Tellers: Tá, Deputies Duggan and P.S. Doyle; Níl, Deputies G. Boland and Allen.

Question declared carried.

The Dáil adjourned at 10.15 p.m. until Wednesday, 19th November, 1930.