Vol. 66 No. 14
I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £13,300 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 Mhárta, 1938, chun Seirbhíse Seicréidighe.
That a sum not exceeding £13,300 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, 1938, for Secret Service.
As far as the Estimate shows, we are providing £20,000. Is that right?
Yes.
That is the same that was provided last year. Before the present Government came into office, much less than that was spent on secret service. It has been a matter of amazement to a lot of us in this country as to what the reason is for an Estimate of that magnitude in this country. We are still at a great loss to know. Very many allegations have been made, of course, that this money is possibly going into the hands of people who really are not doing the work of the State—that they are political agents. That statement was made before here in the House, and I think there is a good deal to be said for that view. I am afraid that, as far as the detection of crime in the country is concerned, the persons guilty of the outstanding crimes that we had in this country did not seem to be tracked down very effectively. If those secret servants had anything to do with the detection of those crimes I am afraid they cannot be congratulated for the manner in which they carried out their work. It may be that the Minister feels he requires £20,000. I do not know; I hope he does not. As far as we are concerned, we feel it is a very large amount to ask for that particular service.
I see that in the year ended March, 1936, the sum of £7,611 was spent. Can the Minister give us any idea of the actual amount expended in the year ended March, 1937?
£5,800.
This is also a decreasing Vote?
Not necessarily.
I think Deputy Brennan was under a complete misapprehension as to the significance of the sum of £20,000. It is quite obvious that, this service being of the nature that it is, it is exceedingly undesirable to have to come to the Dáil to ask for an increase in the Vote, and therefore it is considered prudent to have a very large margin in the Vote. It is quite true that the amount of the Vote was reduced from £20,000 in 1925-6 to £14,000 in 1926-7, and £10,000 in 1927-8. It remained at that until 1934-5, when it was increased to £25,000, and over £10,000 was spent. As I say, experience has taught us that it is desirable—if this service is to be operated in the way in which the Dáil intends it to be operated, that is, to secure the safety of the State—there should be a very large margin in this Vote, such a margin that unless circumstances are exceptionally abnormal it will not be necessary to come to the Dáil to ask for further money. It is for that reason that I, as the Minister responsible for the Vote, have taken the figure of £20,000 rather than the figure of £10,000, at which it stood prior to 1934-5. As Deputy O'Neill has elicited, in 1935-6 the actual amount spent was £7,611, and for last year it was £5,800. I do not suppose that the expenditure in the coming year will show any increase on that. In fact, I anticipate a decrease, but I think that £20,000 is a fair and reasonable sum, which will give us ample margin for contingencies.
As far as I am concerned, I should certainly be very sorry if the State did anything which might impair the Secret Service. As the Minister rightly points out, a time might come when possibly it might be required. I can see the reason for it.
