asked the President if he is aware that a body calling itself the Easter Week Memorial Committee has issued by advertisement in a Dublin daily paper an invitation to all national organisations to participate in the unveiling ceremony of the Easter Memorial to the men and women of 1916, which, it is stated in the advertisement, will be unveiled by President de Valera on Easter Sunday. the 21st April next; and whether he will state if the Easter Week Memorial Committee is an official Committee set up by the Executive Council; and, if so, if he will state the names of the persons invited to act on that Committee, and the names of the persons who form that Committee; the nature and amount of the estimated expenses of the Committee, and the Vote in which this amount is provided for.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Easter Week Memorial Committee.
The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The Committee is not an official Committee set up by the Executive Council, and its expenses will not be defrayed out of public funds.
As indicated by the Minister for Defence yesterday, the Committee consists of representatives of various associations of 1916 men, pre-Truce I.R.A. and pre-Truce Fianna Éireann. It was formed to make arrangements for the participation of members of these and other organisations in the unveiling ceremony on Easter Sunday.
Will the President say by whom the Committee was formed?
I am not quite certain. I think it was formed by the Minister for Defence. He asked certain representatives of those bodies to consult with him on the matter.
Is the President aware that this Committee has invited the Dublin Corporation to be present at this commemoration, and will the President say if that is the only invitation which is going to the Dublin Corporation?
I cannot directly answer the Deputy's question. My idea is that there is both an official and an unofficial side to the ceremony, and that this Committee was formed mainly to deal with the portion which could not be directed by the official side.
Is the President aware that the only invitation which has been received by the Dublin Corporation is from this Committee, which has already split up because the ceremonies are being conducted in a Party spirit?
I do not know anything about that, and do not think it is true.
Will the President say whether official invitations are being issued to public bodies such as the Dublin Corporation?
All I know is that the Government will be officially inviting a number of persons; I do not know if the invitations extend to bodies. Certainly all Deputies and those who hold public positions and are usually invited to functions of that sort will be invited.
Is the position then that the Government are having an official commemoration, and are unveiling in the G.P.O. a monument provided out of Government funds, and that the Government does not know who is to be invited officially, or how they are going to be invited officially, but that the Fianna Fáil organisation in the meantime has taken the matter in hands and is running it as a Party function?
There is no foundation whatever for the suggestion made by the Deputy. The Government has an inter-departmental Committee looking after the official side of it. There is a number of people whom you cannot invite individually, and there is a number of people interested in it from the official side. The purpose of the Committee and the work of the committee is to organise those who wish to participate and who cannot directly get official invitations.
Is the House then in this position on the 4th April, that it cannot be informed by whom and when a body like the Dublin Corporation is going to be invited to take part in this national commemoration?
I have told the Deputy that an Official Committee is dealing with that. It is a Departmental Committee. The invitations will be issued in due course.
Is not this question of invitations to the Dublin Corporation quite a separate question?
The Minister for Finance asked the House to vote money for the setting up of this memorial. In the meantime we have had set up, through the instrumentality of the Minister for Defence, this Committee which has invited the Dublin Corporation to be officially present. We can find out nothing from the President as to whether that invitation was in order. The only thing we know is that it has broken up because the proceedings were conducted upon Party lines.
I think the Deputy is proceeding on Party lines. This House has voted money for an official memorial to the men who died in the Rising in 1916 and particularly to the men who were signatories to the Proclamation of Easter Week. That had been done officially and any expenses incurred in that way would be strictly in order. Now in addition to that there is a number of bodies, as the Deputy is quite well aware, who are anxious to participate, and they have a right to participate; and to facilitate their participation the Minister for Defence invited some representatives from these bodies and asked them would they co-operate. They are co-operating in an unofficial way. If the Deputy had asked me a question with regard to the invitations issued to the Dublin Corporation I would have made enquires about it. There is nothing in the question here on the Paper to indicate that any such matter had arisen. If the Deputy puts down a question I will give him all the information I have on the matter.
There is no question of the right of anybody to be present. If it were a question of issuing invitations why should not these invitations be issued by the Official Committee of which the President has spoken, and if the Official Committee existed why should it be necessary that the Dublin Corporation should be invited not by the Official Committee but by the sub-committee?
There is an Inter-Departmental Sub-committee dealing with this matter from the official point of view. I understand they will issue invitations to the Dublin Corporation, but if you want things to be done properly you cannot leave them in the air. You cannot issue invitations and expect to see that the bodies participating will be marshalled in a proper way, unless you take proper steps to see to it. If the Deputy were himself organising this I know from past experience that he would do what the Minister has done. He would operate officially, and unofficially he would keep in touch with the organisations that ought to be invited so that they would do their part.
The Minister tells us what he does not know but he does not tell us what he knows.
Next question.