If we are going to discuss the motion, and if nobody on the Front Opposition Bench desires to say anything at this stage, I want to say that the Minister has been very succinct in his introduction of this proposal. He has not given us any indication of the shape that the commission will take. I am acting on the assumption that the whole Dáil is united in its desire to provide the most effective possible form of tribunal, so as to clear up doubts in the public mind. Therefore, I am prepared to assume that the Minister has devised the most effective form of tribunal that could be chosen to sift this matter to the very bottom, and provide the public with the fullest possible information, with the reassurance, if the circumstances indicated it, of a full exposure of all persons who have acted even with indiscretion if that should come to light.
The Minister has not told us who will sit with the judicial person who will preside. If the form of the commission ultimately is going to be a judge presiding with some body of assessors with him, is Dáil Eireann going to be represented on the tribunal, or will any members of the House act with the judicial person? On the whole, I think it is desirable that they should. The Minister says that so far as he has read the relevant sections of the Act under which this tribunal is to be established, there is no limitation of the field-over which it can travel. Surely that is not a thing we ought to leave in the air. We ought not leave it open to the judicial person presiding to say: "Looking at the terms of the resolution passed by Dáil Eireann I decide that I am limited in the scope of my inquiry to incidents that took place after the first day of January, 1943." If we intend to leave an absolute discretion to the judge, or the tribunal, to go as far back as they choose to go, then surely we ought to say so quite explicitly here and now. I think there is a good deal to be said for providing some limit so as to ensure that the proceedings will have some recognisable order of relevancy, but, at the same time, I think it would be right to go back to the 1st January, 1942. I think that the very essence of this inquiry will be an intelligent comparison between the sort of trading that took place in 1942 and the trading that took place in 1943.
The House, I think, should awaken itself to this fact, and should do its part in awakening the country to this fact, that the type of inquiry on which we are about to embark is an inquiry that might do cruel injustice to perfectly honourable men. There are many men who devote a great deal of their time to a study of stock market trends, and who might very rationally have said, when this debenture stock stood at 50: "Well, it is inconceivable that the Government is going to look on and allow the railways to go. If you sold up the railways to-morrow the stock would be worth more than 50. The debenture holders in any event could come in if the railways ceased to pay dividends on the debentures. We, therefore, propose to buy this debenture stock because we think it is good buying." Thanks be to God, I have not any railway stock of my own. Many years ago I did buy railway atock at 112 and sold it at 15. I can imagine myself, if I had a few odd pounds to spare, saying: "This debenture stock at 50 is good buying." Therefore, we may discover through this inquiry, that individuals who did buy large blocks of these shares did so in a perfectly legitimate way, that it was a perfectly legitimate speculation. This is not a court of morals. This is a court to see whether somebody has done something which is, against the law or against the undertakings of his confidential position. We have no right to pass judgment on people who speculated in a perfectly legitimate way, provided it was not done on the grounds of confidential information which no honourable public servant or quasi-public servant would use for his personal advantage.
I want to enable the inquiry to take note of the transactions in the first nine months of 1942, and put them beside the transactions of 1943 to see if their volume materially differs, and if the effect of a similar volume of business on the stock exchange in 1943 had a very murh more profound effect on price movement than the similar volume of business had in 1942. I think it would appear to Dáil Eireann that if it were found that a similar volume of business very profoundly affected prices in 1943, not having affected prices at all in 1942, then it would seem as if the people who bought in 1943 must have been very well informed, because the moment the Stock Exchange saw persons buying in 1943 they proceeded to shift prices up. They said "if those boys are buying there must be something on" since a similar volume of buying in 1942, by outsiders shall we say, caused no marked fluctuations on the exchange. That is a matter that could not be correctly evaluated unless the tribunal had the fullest powers to examine the transactions that took place in 1942, with the same meticulous care that they would examine the transactions in 1943.
I am glad that this tribunal is being set up. I am glad that the Taoiseach so readily acceded to the request of the Opposition that it should be set up, because whatever emerges from it this fact emerges: that the legislature of this country, on all sides of the House, is quite resolved that no seedy transactions of the kind which these incidents make us think possible have happened, will be tolerated in this country. Whatever the consequences of this inquiry are, that excellent-result must accrue: that where it seems to Dáil Eireann that an attempt has been made to exploit the public, the Government and the Opposition Parties combine and say if improper profits have been made, the persons who made them must be brought to book, and joined action in the resolve to suppress irregular activity of this kind in our community. That certainly is good. I think many countries, had they followed many years ago the example of what we are doing now, would have spared themselves very serious constitutional upheavals which. really had their root in the suspicion of the common people that those whom they had chosen as governors—and by that I mean all the elected Deputies of this House—were no longer discharging their duty honourably, and were open to pressure by influential elements in the State. That, certainly, cannot be said in this case.
If there have been fortunes made on the exchange, at least they have been made by persons who have wealth behind them, thus giving them power and influence greater than that of ordinary citizens. Whoever they are, Dáil Eireann is stronger than any of them, and in appointing this tribunal is establishing before the people the resolve of this House to use its power, if and when it becomes necessary to do so, against any wrongdoer however powerful and influential he may be.
