Vol. 48 No. 16
I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £6,500 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mharta, 1934, chun Seirbhíse Sicréidighe.
That a sum not exceeding £6,500 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1934, for Secret Service.
Then there is still a Secret Service?
And always will be.
It had always been the custom for the members of the present Government to initiate a discussion on the Secret Service Vote for a number of years when they were in Opposition by accusing their opponents, the Cumann na nGaedheal Government, of spending the Secret Service money for some nefarious purpose. It was not possible for the Government in power to state for what the money was spent and, therefore, the accusation always went down without contradiction. In order that this excellent custom, which was initiated by the present Minister for Finance, should not fall into desuetude I should like to suggest that possibly this £6,500 is being spent by the Government in buying arms for the I.R.A. The Government cannot prove that that is not true and it is certainly quite as true as the accusation they made against their predecessors.
While the Government might, in the circumstances under which this money is expended, not be in a position to prove that that statement is untrue, nevertheless Deputy Esmonde and everybody else in the House know that it is not true.
And I suppose the Minister has found that his suggestions were not true either.
