When discussing the Taoiseach's Estimate the other day and touching on the general dislocation of Government machinery, I referred to the attitude of mind of the Government implied by the suggestion that we were going to postpone local elections and a certain amount of objection was taken to some of the things I then said. The present county councils have been in office for seven years. An election was due in 1937, but it was postponed because there was a general election. When the postponement that year was discussed, the then Minister for Local Government indicated that, while he took power to postpone the elections for three years, it was not his intention to hold up the elections for the full period. He agreed with Deputy Brennan who criticised the postponement that it was wise to hold these local elections at regular intervals and that the intervals should not be prolonged. It might have been the intention to hold elections in 1938, but, again in that year, there was a general election. When we came to 1939 and 1940, we were discussing the Managerial Bill, and I take it that the Minister felt there was not much use in holding local elections until he had got his Managerial Bill through the House and was in a position to make the changes in local bodies entailed by the passage of that Bill.
All the legislation bearing on the reconstruction of local councils and the introduction of the managerial system has now been passed, and we find ourselves in the middle of an emergency. The nature of that emergency has been referred to in various ways by different Ministers comparatively recently, and all kinds of administrative devices have been adopted to meet that emergency of one kind and another. Speaking in Waterford, and reported in the papers of 28th June, the Minister for Supplies said:
"The difficulties which face us are utterly appalling. The public has been informed of it, but their full extent will not be understood until they are actually upon us."
One part of the machinery which has been planned for use, if necessary, is the appointment of regional commissioners for different areas, the idea being that they will take over the general administration of Government, if the development of the emergency here brings about such conditions that the central Government will not be able to reach these areas. Parish councils and committees of various kinds have been set up for the purpose of helping and showing the willingness of the people generally to help. In the meantime, it has been found necessary to use some of the local machinery for production and in other ways. The valuable assistance which can be given by local machinery through county engineers and surveyors is demonstrated in connection with the drive for the production of turf, and in connection with the general arrangements for evacuation in some of the reception areas, the valuable services which can be rendered by the county medical officer of health have been shown. If there is any officer who can be equally useful, or even more useful, in circumstances in which communication with different parts of the country was difficult, there is the county secretary or county manager, but the very fact that it is necessary to fall back on that local machinery, the very fact that regional commissioners have been appointed, shows the necessity of having the ordinary local representatives elected in present circumstances and facing the emergency in an emergency spirit.
The present councils have been seven years in office. Hanging over them has been the sword not only of the elections but of the whole change in relation to the managerial system. If there is to be any attempt to rally the people to face their problems, to get that closer touch with local machinery which will make it more effective, I submit that it is a great mistake to postpone these elections. When I suggested that these elections should be held and that it was entirely wrong not to hold them, Deputy Corry said that I did not like to see the people united too long and that I wanted to see them cutting one another's throats in local elections. He made the statement that he knew the kind of friendship there was between people, parties and factions in every parish after the local elections. I asked what the people would be cutting one another's throats about and the only answer he could give was: "In local elections, people say a terrible lot of nice things to one another."
I was surprised, however, to hear the Taoiseach following that up and asking if I were really serious. He indicated that a partial election such as this—an election for local bodies— would be capable of all kinds of misrepresentation. He added:
"The Deputy is not so foolish as not to know that you could not hold these elections without political malice coming in."
And went on to say:
"...the fact is that if you are going to have these elections you are going to have present-day politics brought into it, and the next thing would be the whole question about Government policy in every direction. You know it cannot be stopped and we are simply in a dream world if we think it can."
On the other hand, I think we are in a dream world, if we think we can face the difficulties of the emergency, even at their present standard, with our present arrangements. If we are to run into the situation pictured for us by the statement of the Minister for Supplies, when he said, with regard to the difficulties, that the public had been informed of them but their full extent will not be understood until they are actually upon us; if we are to run into circumstances in which we shall have these regional commissioners working, and the local representatives whom they have to fall back on are people who have been in office for seven years, and who are under sentence of administrative death, due to the fact that they have run nearly three normal political lives, I say we are going to be utterly unprepared.
It is the spirit of the whole thing that is more striking than anything else. The Government did not particularly invite the kind of co-operation which they got on the Defence Conference, but when it was suggested they accepted it. The country has made use of the spirit of that co-operation with very marked success, and there was a great strengthening of our position throughout the country. While it is a fact that matters connected with national politics have been introduced into local government elections, and they have created, perhaps, the results that Deputy Corry spoke about, and what the Taoiseach says seems to be a fundamental fact in this country, it was political divisions not of an ordinary kind that dragged politics into local government machinery, into local government administration and into the general arena of local government.
I think that if we do not face to-day the fact that we want our local bodies set up in the atmosphere of the present emergency to stand over their local problems and carry out local work in the effective way in which it must be carried out, and to be there to assist any divisional commissioner that circumstances may require to shoulder his responsibilities there, we are missing a tremendous opportunity. I think the opportunity is a Heaven-sent one to hold our local elections this year in the spirit in which the emergency calls upon us to hold them, and we should cut out, as they ought to be cut out, all purely Party or political considerations in the matter of local administration.
In the first place, I think the country deserves a chance to show that it can face its local problems without dragging the political divisions of the last 20 years across local discussions or into local administration. In the second place, the very atmosphere of the present day makes it possible for the Government to appeal to all Parties to set up their councils now in the interests of local administration, pure and simple. In the third place, it gives us local authorities with a definite mandate from the people, as distinct from a mandate that is seven years old, a mandate that is already old and withered, to deal with whatever arises in local administration or in the general public service in any special circumstances that may arise during the emergency.
I think that in taking up this attitude the Government misjudge the country and they are losing a valuable opportunity of wiping out the artificial introduction of purely Party and political divisions into local government. They are depriving the country of giving a fresh mandate to those who are prepared to stand over local administration to-day. A fresh mandate is badly wanted and I appeal to the Minister to drop the spirit or the implications of this Bill. If you do not hold local elections this year, you are not likely to hold them until the emergency has passed.
The Minister has not indicated whether, even assuming he persists in his intention not to hold the elections, he is going to put the managerial system into operation. I should like to emphasise once more that the opportunity is there, and the need is there to take that opportunity, and I believe the Minister will find that he will get as big a response from every Party in the country as he could expect and he will get vigorous and live local bodies returned at the election, whether they are 95 per cent. of the present people or not. Even if they were 95 per cent. of the present people, I believe they would be in a better position to stand up to their work than the people who got their mandate seven years ago. I urge the Minister to drop the implications of the present Bill and he should appeal to the country to face the local government elections this year in the spirit that I suggest and for the purpose I mention.
