I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £30,500 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith inioctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1944, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an Aire Gnóthaí Eachtracha, agus Seirbhísí áirithe atá fé riaradh na hOifige sin (Uimh. 16 de 1924).
That a sum, not exceeding £30,500, be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending the 31st day of March, 1944, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for External Affairs, and of certain Services administered by that Office (No. 16 of 1924).
The Estimate for External Affairs for the current financial year is £98,000 That is an increase of £2,282 compared with 1942-43. Receipts from fees, etc., however, are estimated at £22,300, an increase of £800 on the estimated receipts for 1942-43. Actually, there have been no significant increases in staff or expansion of existing services, and the increase of £2,282 is due very largely to normal salary increments and exchange compensation and, in the case of sub-head A of the Vote, to the fact that we are this year obliged to provide in this Vote for the replacement of certain junior staff which other Government Departments have until recently been able to lend to this Department. Provision for the salaries of this loaned staff was formerly borne on the Votes of their parent Departments, so that we are now providing in this Vote for expenditure that has hitherto been borne on other Votes.
When presenting this Estimate last year, I gave the Dáil a fairly full review of the activities of the Department, particularly the activities that have arisen from the war situation and the difficulties in which our citizens abroad have found themselves in consequence. All those activities that have arisen as a result of the war situation continue to take up an appreciable amount of the Department's time and attention. For instance, remittances totalling the equivalent of approximately £14,000 have been made during the year to a number of our citizens in 12 different European countries. The necessary funds were lodged with the Department by the relatives and friends of the citizens and paid to them through our Legations on the Continent. Close on 900 individual payments were involved in the cases to which I refer.
Numerous inquiries affecting the welfare and whereabouts of our citizens all over the world were also dealt with. Ordinary postal communications with countries abroad are, nowadays, slow and uncertain and, in some cases, non-existent. Deputies will realise the great comfort it is to people, both here at home and in countries abroad, to be able to get news, even at secondhand, in regard to those who are dear to them. Wherever possible, the Department, as far as it can, assists such of our citizens as desire to come home. Over 70 — including a number of priests from Rome — have come home from the Continent in the past financial year. The difficulties in regard to securing travelling facilities and the necessary visas etc., are very great and have, in fact, of late increased.
A final aspect of the Department's war-time activities to which Deputies might like me to refer is that of the collection of debts due to firms and individuals in this country from European countries with which the normal banking facilities are no longer available. Since the outbreak of the war, over £8,000 has been collected by the Department in such cases, for close on 60 firms and individuals here.
As I pointed out last year, much of the ordinary work of the Department is still carried on, despite the war conditions. One example frequently referred to in the debates on this Estimate is the work in connection with estates of deceased persons abroad. During the year, the Department handled nearly 800 new estate cases and the amount of money which accrued to Irish beneficiaries was appreciably more than $600,000, of which over $300,000 was distributed to the Irish beneficiaries directly through our Consulates in the United States and the Department.
Those are the details of the Estimate and of the Department's activities. I do not think that now is the time for anything like a general international survey. Most of the Deputies have been following events as closely as I have been able to follow them and the general situation is known to all. What the post-war international political position will be it is too soon to state at this particular time. Naturally, it is our business to keep as close a watch as we can on developments, with a view to being able to take our part in any post-war international organisation that may be set up for the purpose of securing the maintenance of peace. Our national wishes in that matter are clear from our actions in the past. We were ready to join any international organisation which aimed at collective security and the maintenance of peace on the basis of the equality of sovereign right between nations, large and small. In any such organisation in the future we will, I feel certain, be prepared as a nation once more to take our part. On another occasion, it may be useful to talk on that particular subject and to give views as to the basis on which such an organisation must be founded if it is to have any hope of achieving this aim.
Most of us are aware of the faults there were in the League of Nations. We were aware of them long before the present war broke out. Nobody seemed to be able to find a solution for the obvious difficulties that were there. Whether such a solution can be got in the future remains to be seen. The one thing that is certain is that no solution can be found unless the various nations are prepared to make the sacrifices which appear to me— and, I am sure, to any other Deputies who have been thinking about these matters — to be absolutely necessary. Apparently before this war, nations were not prepared to make those sacrifices: they wanted the results, without being ready to make the sacrifices. We cannot have it that way; the world cannot have it that way. If we want peace, if peace is of primary importance, the sacrifices that peace requires will have to be made.
It would be idle for us to go into a discussion on that matter at the present moment. However, I was asked a question by Deputy Anthony the other day which seemed to indicate anxiety in that regard, and I want to avail of this occasion to assure every Deputy that, so far as we are concerned, and so far as we are able to direct national policy, our actions will be in the direction of being prepared once more to take our share in any international organisation that may be set up for the maintenance of peace and for national security.