I wish to join the other members of the Labour Party in registering my protest against this Bill, and I am prepared to issue a challenge to the Government. There is a vacancy for a representative in County Wicklow, and if the Minister is so cocksure that the people of the country are prepared to support him, why not have a by-election in that county? We are prepared to abide by the result of that election on the Government's mismanagement of the past two years.
The workers of the country responded to the appeal made them in the cause of unity, believing it was sincere. I am one of the few who could not agree that the Government were sincere in looking for unity, and, therefore, I have never appealed to the workers in any constituency to accept the Government's plea that they wanted the workers to unite. Notwithstanding the Emergency Powers Order, they have granted concessions to men with £1,500 a year; they have granted increases to engineers on public boards while, at the same time, refusing to grant an increase of 2/6 per week to workers. These are the kind of actions we have had from the Government who are supposed to be representative of the plain people. If they are satisfied that they represent the people, why not take steps to ascertain the feelings of the people at the present time?
I suggest that the Minister has been misled by some people who are alleged to be representative of the trade union movement, and the proof of that is the wholesale opposition of the organised workers of Ireland, represented by the meeting last Sunday in Dublin. The Minister would show himself to be a bigger man by recognising that fact rather than by using his machine majority to achieve his ends. If the Minister wants to have unity, which I do not believe will continue much longer, why is he not prepared to meet the real representatives of the trade union movement in order to preserve peace in industry, if he is genuine in his desire to have peace in industry? His excuse for bringing forward this Bill is that there were disputes occurring in industries which the real organised workers were not aware of. If they were, I am sure he would receive the co-operation of all sides, not alone in this House but outside the House, to prevent any unnecessary strikes or friction. If he has been misled or deceived by interviews with certain parties, let him now realise the seriousness of the position, postpone the Bill, meet the representatives of the Trade Union Congress and discuss the matter with them and see if, with the support of the trade union movement, he cannot improve the Bill in such a way as to carry out the wishes of the Government and of everybody concerned to secure peace in industry. I submit that the Minister would show himself to be a bigger man by admitting that this Bill will not achieve what he has in mind.
To-day we see the Government allowing young men to be exported across to England for work there which is denied to them at home. Over 100 young men from my own town went to England to-day and had passports granted to them within 24 hours, which could not be got by other people inside a month. Then we are toid that they do not want to work in Ireland. That is going on wholesale all over the country. The on way in which the Minister and his Department can try to solve the unemployment problem is to export the youth of the country and the tradesmen of the country to whom work is denied here. Yet, in a serious situation like that, we have our time wasted here considering this Bill and other Bills brought in in order to make the people believe that, the Dáil is a very important Assembly. But the people are not fools. If there is one Party more than another whirh is bringing this Dáil into contempt and trying to bring it back to what the Government said it was in 1923 — not representative of the people — it is the Government Party. In every action of theirs, day after day, they have treated the elected representatives of the people with contempt, so that we had the Executive governing the people and not those elected by the people.