I move that leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) Act, 1938.
Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) (Amendment) Bill, 1947—First Stage.
This measure is opposed also. However, I would like to hear what the Minister has to say on the matter.
This Bill proposes to increase the allowances to members of the Dáil and Seanad by 30 per cent. As Deputies are aware, the allowances to members of the Dáil and members of the Seanad were fixed in 1938. The Government has thought it wise to make the proposal to the Dáil that these should now be increased, in view of the increase in costs since then on members in carrying out their functions, by 30 per cent. As Deputies are aware, a recent increase was made in the salaries of civil servants and of members of the judiciary. This 30 per cent. is considered appropriate in the case of members of the Dáil and Seanad.
The second purpose of the Bill is to enable members to use their cars more freely than they have been allowed to use them heretofore. Under the existing law a member could not get more for the use of his car than first-class train travelling would cost, if the train was running along the route to Dublin. It is considered advisable in these modern days that, in the case of Deputies who have cars and who want to get quickly to Dublin and want to get home quickly to attend to their business, facilities should be open to them to use their cars, and they should get the appropriate mileage allowance. We should not compel them to travel by train or penalise them by giving them only the train level of expenses if a train were running along the route.
I oppose the introduction of this measure. The manner of the publication to the Press by the Government on Wednesday night last of proposals affecting the allowances to Deputies and Senators was extraordinary and, from a Parliamentary point of view, was, in my opinion, an outrage. Neither House of the Oireachtas had the courtesy of any communication in the matter from the Government, and as far as I know no leader, and no member of any other Party but the Government Party, had received any information about the matter. This is all the more extraordinary when it is recalled that the increases in the allowances of Deputies which were given in 1938 were given contrary to a recommendation of a committee which had considered that matter. The giving of those increases evoked much disagreement in the House here. This committee also recommended that Senators' allowances be reduced from £30 a month to £20 a month, a recommendation that was not at that time acted upon, nor has it been acted upon since. I have not had a single word of representation during the last seven years from anybody that their allowances as Deputies are not sufficient or that their outgoings, arising from their political work, have increased in any way, or had made things any more difficult for them. Even if they had, the present is not the moment to increase allowances, and particularly without any kind of examination.
It is impossible to understand this proposal in view of the attitude taken by the Government on so many questions of distress arising out of to-day's conditions. At the time when the Government's intentions were being communicated to the Press on Wednesday last, the Dáil was engaged here discussing difficulties caused by the fact that to-day comparatively heavy income-tax charges fall upon persons with a standard of living not chargeable with income-tax pre-war. The massed vote of the Government Party went into the Lobby that night to prevent the necessary increased relief asked for in respect to children being given. This year is a critical one, both in our social and economic history. Everywhere, even amongst those who are happy enough to be employed, there is discontent and there are many evidences of social unrest. Our Irish Parliamentary institutions of to-day were built up by people who had in their heart "the sacred flame of faith, of ideals and of readiness for sacrifice" mentioned the other day by Our Holy Father the Pope as being essential if the difficulties in the world to-day are to be surmounted and safely faced. Our Irish future can only be faced by hard work and by mutual understanding and this is particularly necessary between the representatives of the people in Parliament and of the people as a whole. If Deputies are not going to make some sacrifices to-day—and it is not particularly clear that they are being asked to face sacrifices very much greater in their work than they were prepared to face pre-war—how can the ordinary citizens, who assist in political and social work, or who face their own domestic responsibilities, be expected to shoulder with courage and faith the troubles, the inconveniences and the sacrifices that their work, both in the home and in public, undoubtedly involves? So many people have got rich and powerful through political influence in recent years in Ireland that unless those in the political front line—Deputies and Senators—are prepared to show that they can make sacrifices, there will be a tendency to root deeper into the public mind that suspicion which is now strongly, if unjustly, held, that Irish politics has become the happy hunting ground of the mere self-seeker.
Even if an increase in Deputies' allowances were actually warranted by conditions to-day, and if they were shown to be so warranted on examination, the circumstances of the time are such that they ought not to be given. It has been repeatedly emphasised both in statements made here in the House and in reports made for the information of the House that there is no clement of salary and no element of compensation for the consequential loss in the allowances paid to Deputies. If there is a question of public policy, and if anyone desires to raise that question, then it should be raised in the most public way, and it should be given the fullest public inquiry. There should be an opportunity for the fullest possible public discussion of it. The proposals as published in the Press by the Government on Wednesday night last are unacceptable to us and they are being opposed.
Mr. Blowick rose.
There can be only one speech.
A brief statement by the Minister followed by brief statements by the Leader of the main Opposition and such other Leaders opposing the Bill as the Chair will allow, is the Standing Order.
Why does the Minister want to stop the Deputy?
Deputy Blowick.
I resent very much that a matter of this kind, containing this proposal, should be given to the Press without any intimation even to the Leaders of Parties. I received none until I saw to-day's Order Paper. That seems to me to be very high-handed on the part of the Government—to adopt the attitude that Deputies are clamouring for increases in their Parliamentary allowances and also in their expenses. I would like to ask the Minister if representations have been made by the members of the Fianna Fáil Party or the members of any other Party in the House that the Parliamentary allowance at present payable is insufficient? Has the Taoiseach been notified by any Deputy that he would be forced to resign his membership of this House because his Parliamentary allowance and his travelling allowances were insufficient on the present scale? I have received no such representation from any member of my Party, and I take it from Deputy Mulcahy's speech that he has received none from the members of his Party—that is, that the present allowance is insufficient. The Minister has not intimated that he has received any such notice from any Deputy of the House no matter what Party he belongs to—the intimation that his present allowance is insufficient to meet his expenses. I want to say to the Taoiseach and to the Minister for Finance that, as Leader of a Party, my expenses are heavier, I believe, than the average Deputy's. I wish to say this that if I thought that the present allowance of £40 a month was insufficient to meet my expenses, I would resign. I hold that they are quite sufficient, that they are sufficient for the average Deputy, and I only wish that the Minister, when he is adopting the rôle of dispenser of public money, would take into account some other very deserving sections of the community such as old age pensioners and the lowest paid grade of workers.
Like Deputy Mulcahy and Deputy Blowick, I can assure the House that this Party received no intimation, other than the reply given by the Taoiseach in the House recently, in answer to a question by Deputy Dillon, that this measure was about to be introduced. The Party as a whole has not had an opportunity of sitting on this question, but I have no hesitation in adopting the same attitude as I adopted when this matter was before the House in 1938, and when we had a free vote of the House. The matter was very dispassionately discussed then and it was agreed that an increase was due to the Deputies if they were to do their duties correctly by the people irrespective of its being questioned whether they were well circumstanced in the world's goods or not. Some of us then adopted the attitude that lack of other means should not prevent a person from becoming a Deputy.
May I ask if the Deputy is opposing the measure, since only those opposing have a right to speak?
I am not opposing it, but I am intimating at the moment that there has not been an opportunity to consult the Party as a whole.
The Deputy will have an opportunity of speaking on the Second Stage.
Would the Minister state what the provisions will be under the income-tax code?
Question put.
The Dáil divided:— Tá: 46; Níl: 30.
Tá
- Aiken, Frank.
- Bartley, Gerald.
- Beegan, Patrick.
- Blaney, Neal.
- Boland, Gerald.
- Bourke, Dan.
- Brady, Brian.
- Brady, Seán.
- Breathnach, Cormac.
- Brennan, Thomas.
- Breslin, Cormac.
- Burke, Patrick (County Dublin).
- Butler, Bernard.
- Childers, Erskine H.
- Colbert, Michael.
- Colley, Harry.
- Corish, Brendan.
- Corry, Martin J.
- Crowley, Honor Mary.
- Derrig, Thomas.
- De Valera, Eamon.
- Everett, James.
- Gorry, Patrick J.
- Harris, Thomas.
- Hilliard, Michael.
- Keyes, Michael.
- Kilroy, James.
- Kissane, Eamon.
- Lemass, Seán F.
- Little, Patrick J.
- McCann, John.
- McEllistrim, Thomas.
- MacEntee, Seán.
- Moylan, Seán.
- O'Grady, Seán.
- O'Leary, John.
- O'Reilly, Matthew.
- O'Rourke, Daniel.
- O'Sullivan, Martin.
- Rice, Bridget M.
- Ruttledge, Patrick J.
- Ryan, James.
- Ryan, Mary B.
- Smith, Patrick.
- Traynor, Oscar.
- Walsh, Richard.
Níl
- Beirne, John.
- Bennett, George C.
- Blowick, Joseph.
- Browne, Patrick.
- Byrne, Alfred.
- Coburn, James.
- Cogan, Patrick.
- Coogan, Eamonn.
- Cosgrave, Liam.
- Costello, John A.
- Dockrell, Henry M.
- Dockrell, Maurice E.
- Donnellan, Michael.
- Doyle, Peadar S.
- Fagan, Charles.
- Flanagan, Oliver J.
- Giles, Patrick.
- Halliden, Patrick J.
- Hughes, James.
- Keating, John.
- MacEoin, Seán.
- McGilligan, Patrick.
- McMenamin, Daniel.
- Morrissey, Daniel.
- Mulcahy, Richard.
- O'Higgins, Thomas F.
- O'Reilly, Thomas.
- Reidy, James.
- Reynolds, Mary.
- Sheldon, William A.W.
Tellers:—Tá: Deputies Kissane and S. Brady; Níl: Deputies Doyle and Bennett.
Question declared carried.
Second Stage ordered for Tuesday, 17th June, 1947.