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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 11 Mar 1943

Vol. 89 No. 10

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Petrol Supply for Deputies.

asked the Minister for Supplies whether members of the Vocational Commission, the Cereals Advisory Committee, Irish Shipping, Limited; Irish Flour Millers' Association, receive allocations of petrol wherewith to come to Dublin on official business; and, if so, whether Dáil Deputies, whose journey to Dublin by rail requires their leaving home on the morning of the day before the Dáil sits, will receive similar treatment.

Some members of the Vocational Commission, of the Board of Irish Shipping, Limited, and of the Millers' Control Committee, receive allocations of petrol to attend meetings of these bodies in Dublin. The gentlemen concerned all reside at a distance from Dublin and give their services voluntarily and without remuneration for work of national importance. Members of the Irish Flour Millers' Association do not receive petrol allowances to attend meetings of that body and I do not know anything of a Cereals Advisory Committee.

I have looked carefully into the question of the facilities which should be granted to Deputies to attend meetings of the Dáil in the light of the very serious curtailment of petrol supplies anticipated during the present year. I have been able to make substantial concessions and have eliminated the discrimination which some Deputies felt existed in the treatment of Deputies. I cannot, however, grant petrol allowances in the circumstances set out in the final part of the question.

If it is right to provide the directors of Irish Shipping, Limited, with a private car which they can take all over the country wherever they want to go on the business of Irish Shipping, Limited, and if the other public-spirited gentlemen referred to are also given a petrol allowance for coming to and from Dublin to discharge the various duties referred to by the Minister, surely it is wrong, by implication, to suggest that their work is more important than that of members of this House; and if their work is not more important, surely members of this House who are trying to earn their living at their normal callings should not be required to leave home on Tuesday morning and not get home until Saturday night for the want of petrol to bring them in a motor car from their place of business to this House?

That was a speech.

I am asking the Minister, if he can provide petrol for the other purposes——

The records will show exactly what the Deputy said; I did not hear any interrogating trend.

I am sorry. I will have to insert a note of interrogation.

Which might not change the nature of the speech.

If it is proper to give these other people petrol—and I do not challenge it—surely it is proper to give legislators petrol in order to enable them to do the nation's business? If it is proper to give the flour millers and the other people petrol and not proper to give us petrol, does the Minister suggest that the work of Deputies is of less importance than the work on outside bodies of the advisory persons to whom he has referred?

There is no suggestion of making any comparison between the importance of the work done by those bodies and the work done by the Dáil.

Will the Minister provide facilities equal to those provided for these gentlemen for Deputies who are trying to earn their living down the country and to discharge their Parliamentary duties at the same time? That is all I want.

The members of these three bodies—the Vocational Commission, the Board of Irish Shipping Limited, and the Millers Control Committee—who receive allocations of petrol receive it for the purpose of enabling them to attend meetings in Dublin when they are required there. They give their services on these bodies voluntarily and without remuneration. Deputies do receive allowances to recompense them for whatever loss or inconvenience is involved in attending meetings of the Dáil.

If the Minister imagines that the Deputy's allowance recompenses a man for having to leave his business on a Monday, getting back to it on Saturday night, he is daft. It does nothing of the kind. All I am asking is: will the Minister not give members of the Dáil, similarly circumstanced to these gentlemen to whom he has referred, similar convenience?

Members of the Dáil receive petrol allowances sufficient to take them to the nearest railway station.

Yes. Is the Minister aware that that can involve a man in having to leave home on a Tuesday morning and not getting back until Saturday night, if he is to discharge the duties of his office as a member of Dáil Eireann? Is that reasonable? If there is no petrol for anybody then the members of Dáil Eireann will be the last to complain, but if there is petrol for the flour millers——

There is no petrol for the flour millers. The Deputy is completely wrong in the implications of his question.

The cereals advisory committee.

The Deputy invented that.

What is the name of the body?

There is no such body.

What is the name of the body that has to do with grain? Everyone knows damn well it is the flour millers, and I could name them. If there is petrol for the flour millers and for members of the Vocational Organisation Commission, surely it is not unreasonable to ask that petrol be provided to take Deputies to Dáil Eireann in the same circumstances. Will the Minister give similar accommodation to Deputies similarly situated?

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