asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will state for what reason he has intimated to the committee organising the proposed Michael Davitt Commemoration at Straide, on the 9th June, that Leaders of Parties in the Dáil, attending and speaking at the commemoration, will be denied the broadcast facilities arranged from Radio Éireann unless a manuscript of the speech intended to be delivered is submitted to him eight days previously.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Michael Davitt Commemoration.
The request made to the secretary of the Michael Davitt Commemoration Committee is in accordance with standing practice which requires that manuscripts of all material to be broadcast shall be supplied in advance to enable the Director to consider its suitability for broadcasting.
Will the Minister say why he selects this occasion to apply this rule to Leaders of Parties in this House—a rule which has never been applied to the Leaders of Parties prior to this?
That rule has been applied to all sorts of authoritative people in the country and our practice does not differ materially from that of any other country where there is a Government controlled broadcasting station.
Government-controlled is right.
Will the Minister say why this is the first occasion upon which, say, I am asked to supply a manuscript, never having been asked to supply a manuscript under similar circumstances before?
I can assure the Deputy that persons just as important as he have been asked and have had misgivings, but the Director of Broadcasting has been able to satisfy them that it was necessary that these scripts should be submitted to him beforehand. The whole attitude of the station is rather to co-operate and to make sure that a broadcast, going on the air to the world, should be as perfect as possible and that no flaw should occur in it which might be contrary to the national interest.
Will the Minister answer me as to why, on two previous occasions, when I broadcast as the Leader of the Opposition, I was not asked to provide a manuscript and why I am asked to provide it now?
I do not know if the timing was right, if you had the right number of words, if all these little details had been attended to. Possibly they had omitted on that occasion to enforce a rule which applies universally.
Will the Minister say why leaders of other Parties in the House who broadcast previously and were not asked to supply manuscripts then, should be asked to supply a manuscript now?
I do not know of any case when that occurred.
The Minister cannot have been minding what was going on in the country. On quite a number of occasions the leaders of the various Parties in the House broadcast during the emergency and were not asked to supply manuscripts.
Is the Minister aware that I was asked to speak at the Davitt commemoration and signified my readiness to do so, that I was then informed that Radio Éireann proposed to visit the occasion and broadcast the proceedings and, for their convenience, they wished the Taoiseach to speak for 15 minutes, Deputy Mulcahy, myself, Deputy Blowick and another, to speak for ten minutes—I readily understood their difficulty in timing the broadcast and said, "certainly," when I understood that I was to be limited to ten minutes and no more—that I was then informed that I must submit my manuscript a week in advance for perusal by the Director of Broadcasting, and that I replied that I would submit to censorship by nobody in this State, as no law existed entitling them to exercise it, that I then received notice from the committee that Radio Éireann had informed them that they would not broadcast the proceedings if that censorship were not submitted to by each speaker and that, accordingly, the committee must ask me to refrain from speaking, and I replied that I would gladly refrain from speaking?
Is the Deputy asking a supplementary?
Is not the House entitled to know these facts?
Not at all.
Is it right, Sir, for the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to claim the right to censor what I or Deputy Mulcahy says on a public occasion when the Taoiseach and the Government have suspended the whole system of censorship in this country? Why should he have the right to censor?
Question time is not the time for debate.
This question asks why the Minister asked of Deputy Mulcahy a manuscript a week in advance. I am asking the Minister, when I did express my readiness to fall in with all arrangements relating to timing and organisation, why did he ask to see the words I intended to speak? I was quite ready to fall in with any regulations, but why does he claim the right to see the words I am going to speak? Is not that censorship? Why does he claim the right to censor? I deny that right. Does he claim it?
It is a right which must be exercised in every broadcasting station. I regret very much that the Deputy did not co-operate in what should be a very excellent commemoration.
I challenge the Taoiseach to say, does he claim the right of censorship at the present time?
The Deputy may not challenge the Taoiseach on a question to somebody else.
Is not it a disgusting fraud, if the Minister chooses to assert this right?
The Deputy might as well suggest that the editor of a paper should not see an article before it goes into the paper.
The Minister has intimated that such is the rule of every broadcasting station. May I point out to him that such censorship as has been imposed on Deputy Mulcahy, Deputy Dillon and myself in respect of the commemoration at Straide, only occurs in Germany, Russia and Eire?
Nonsense.
Ignorance.
I have never refused to submit script when I was going down there.
I have no intention of allowing any person in the State to censor the manuscript of my speech.
The Minister did not submit his Tramore speech.
This is deliberately denying the right of free speech.
The Deputy is making a speech.
The Tánaiste spoke at Tramore and was broadcast. Was he asked to submit a manuscript?
Yes.
He was not and he did not submit a manuscript.
Was the Taoiseach asked for his manuscript?
If we are going to be prevented from speaking at Straide——
If the Deputy is willing to co-operate, we are always willing to oblige him on the matter. The approach to the work of broadcasting should be on the basis of general co-operation and confidence. The station, as far as possible, is nonpolitical.
What?
Go bhfoire Dia orainn.
It is Fianna Fáil broadcasting.
The Minister has asked for co-operation. It is impossible to consider co-operation when we can be told that in June, 1946, leaders of Parties in this House are required to submit to restrictions with regard to broadcasting that we were never asked to submit to before.
Well, they should have been.
The Minister will not muzzle me, for one thing.
It is a disgusting fraud.
This is Deputy Dillon's fifth interruption in about 20 minutes, or less.
Do you blame me, Sir?
I do.