I do not think that this Bill or powers of this kind are necessary to meet an incident of this kind. If people outside imagine that irresponsible threats against the lives of our Ministers or public servants are calculated to throw this Dáil into such a state of chaos as would induce them to suspend the Constitution in order to deal with threats of that character, they are making a very great mistake. The Parliament of this country 100 per cent. supports the Government in suppressing the attempt of any unauthorised power inside or outside this country to challenge the right of the legitimate Government of Ireland to govern the country in the name of our people.
We disagree with the Government in many matters; we are prepared to censure them vigorously in Dáil Eireann and outside it; but if anybody imagines that that attitude involves the support of any element in this country which would challenge the authority of the legitimate Government, they make a great mistake. If anybody outside this country imagines that Parliament in Ireland, acting through the elected Government, is not able to deal with any conspiracy that is set on foot by a small or large group, they are quite mistaken. We do not have, in this day and age in Ireland, to resort to emergency legislation or to violent methods to sustain ordered government against the attempt of an irresponsible few, or indeed of an irresponsible individual who may be concerned in this case and may address threatening letters to public figures in the country. It ought to be remembered that, although newspapers inside or outside this country may feature such things as being occasions of great drama, such letters are continually appearing in the police files of Great Britain, the United States of America and every civilised State in the world. Any lunatic can steal a sheet of notepaper from a Government Department and use it to write a threatening letter to one or more important figures in the community to which he belongs.
Therefore, I beg of the Taoiseach, even at this late stage, to do something which will secure for him the kind of co-operation which he got when we were putting the Defence Conference into operation, that is, to say now: "I will come back to this House on a given date and I will repeal all emergency legislation; and, at the same time, I will ask the House frankly for the specific powers which the Government requires and will advance my reasons to justify my request for each several power for which I ask." Should he do that, this House might, with a very much easier conscience, give him a prolongation of these powers which he now seeks to maintain, giving him six or even 12 months to examine the position and make up his mind as to what precise powers he may require for the future.
I do not think it is necessary to recall to the Taoiseach's mind that, for two years of which I had a knowledge, his Ministers and the Leaders of the Opposition were able to sit around a table and, in the Defence Conference, argue and discuss in the most intimate and frank way the gravest possible matters. I am speaking now of the years that I knew of; I do not know what happened after I left the Conference. I do not think in all that time there was a single breach of confidence in regard to the proceedings of that body, and I think his own Ministers are constrained to admit in this House that those members of that body who were most opposed to them were helpful and co-operated in whatever work they had to do. Why does the Taoiseach think, with that experience at his disposal, that in the future, if unforeseen difficulties arose, he would find himself obstructively harassed by the Parties of this House?
Surely, there was never a time when it was more incumbent on us to make clear to those inside and outside the country that, trenchant as our differences may be on almost everything, there is one common ground between us all, that is, that the legitimate Government of this country shall govern without interference from any other body whatsoever and that any person who calls that in question faces not only the Government but the whole Oireachtas of Ireland? How better could that be underlined and emphasised than by a declaration from the Taoiseach that he was resolved to put emergency powers out of existence and to trust to Dáil Éireann in future to give him the help in emergency that has been given him in the past?
Now, I do not think I have said anything designed to irritate the Taoiseach. I want to safeguard the reputation of my own country. I want to feel in my own country that I am a free man; I resent the feeling that the Government of this country can infringe my liberty and leave me without any remedy whatsoever to vindicate my rights under the Constitution against the Government. Is there anything wrong in that? I cannot help feeling that a great many members of the Fianna Fáil Party, having lived through six years of emergency under Emergency Powers Acts, have developed a kind of feeling that that ought to be the norm, that there is nothing queer about living in that way. I have never felt that and do not feel it now. I have always resented the necessity of living under powers of that kind. I have recognised that one had to bury one's resentment and endure the humiliation of submitting to tyrannical powers of that kind, because the alternative was to put the whole State in jeopardy to the armies of the Third Reich. Once the German menace has passed, I ask the Taoiseach to give me back the freedom I enjoyed before that menace manifested itself. The Taoiseach's reply is that he cannot do that, as some unforeseen crisis might come upon him, in which he would need to have recourse to these emergency powers again. Surely that is what the Taoiseach has said.
Now, he has said further: "I want time to examine the whole thing and ascertain what powers I may require permanently". Surely the test is whether the Taoiseach would say: "On this day six months I am going to abandon the emergency powers altogether and then going to ask Dáil Eireann for powers to deal with the emergencies of which I then have knowledge". But that involves the Taoiseach trusting Dáil Eireann that if some emergency arises which he has not foreseen, he will get from the Dáil the powers necessary to deal with it forthwith. I say to him that his past experience should teach him that he might safely depend on the Oireachtas to do so; and it is because he will not trust the Oireachtas to do so that he wants to hang on to all these powers until he is perfectly certain that he knows of every contingency which may arise. If he adheres to that view, he is going to hang on to the powers for ever, since no man can foresee the future with certainty.
There is the issue joined between us. I ask him to trust Oireachtas Eireann to give the legitimate Government of this country adequate powers to deal with any threat that may arise to the safety of the State, to the maintenance of public order or to the protection of the people; and the Taoiseach's reply is: "I cannot do that; I must retain all the powers and use them, if and when I think it necessary to do so". I beg of the Taoiseach to see where that is leading.
I ask the Taoiseach to think of himself as being on the Opposition side and, hearing the Leader of the Government, of which he was not a member, making that claim, what would he say to himself? Would he not say: "That means that he wants to keep these powers forever; that means that for ever more the Constitution of this country is in abeyance". And, remember, that so long as the Emergency Powers Act is in operation the Constitution is in virtual abeyance. I am asking the Taoiseach to bring the Constitution back into operation and give us back all our constitutional rights. I have not yet had from him any satisfactory explanation of why he will not.
This much is certain, if he adheres to the view that he will never surrender the Emergency Powers Acts until he has foreseen every contingency that can possibly arise, it means that we never will have the Constitution back; that we never will have the Emergency Powers Act code relinquished, and that the status of every citizen is altered, and altered in such a way as to leave the Irish people infinitely less liberty than they enjoyed under the bloodiest administration that Balfour ever sustained in this country. None of us complained of that while the World War was in progress, but it will be an enduring shame to this country if, when the crisis has passed, the shade of Balfour can say: "The worst that I dared to do in Ireland pales into insignificance beside what an Irish Government claims the right to do 50 years after I left the scene".
