This afternoon I asked the Taoiseach if it was with his approval or consent that a member of the Government recently attended a commemoration ceremony at which, according to a newspaper report, an appeal was made for support for an illegal organisation, and if he would state what was the Government policy in this matter. I submit, Sir, that I did not get an answer to that question. The Taoiseach raised an entirely different matter—the attendance of Ministers at ordinary functions. I am not concerned with that at all. I know quite well that a Minister can go to an ordinary function. What I am concerned with, and what I think every member of the House should be concerned with, is the fact that any member of the Government should attend functions at which appeals are made for support for an illegal organisation. The Taoiseach's attitude was most extraordinary and it would certainly be taken as an indication, so far as the Government is concerned, unless the Minister is repudiated by the Government, as an encouragement to those people who are seeking to bring young persons into this illegal organisation. I was told that the Minister was going to these functions for 25 years, but he is not a Minister for 25 years. We know that for a long time he occupied a very prominent position in that organisation, but he has been out of it now for ten years.
Committee on Finance. - Adjournment Debate—Minister's Attendance at Commemoration Ceremony.
You were a member of it yourself.
Not since the civil war. I was in it when there was any fighting to be done but not when there was murdering going on. I want to assure the Taoiseach, whether he believes me or not, that I do not raise this matter in any Party spirit. I raise this matter purely on the ground of public interest. I think it should be the concern of every member of the House that this organisation should not be allowed again to raise its head. I am quite serious about that. We had a very tough time, as everyone knows, in recent years in dealing with this organisation. I must say that during the war years we got full co-operation from all Parties in this House and it was not in any Party spirit that I raised the matter.
I want to draw the attention of the Taoiseach and of the House to the fact that there have been three public appeals for recruits for this organisation since the new Government came into office. There was a meeting in Cork at which an appeal was made, another in Tralee, and there was this one in Glasnevin. I submit to the House that it is a very dangerous situation if we encourage the growth of that organisation. I do not want to bring out any of the past actions of members of the Government but I think we are entitled to ask that when Ministers take office they should accept the full responsibilities which their acceptance of office implies. I must say that I was amazed when the Taoiseach said that the attendance of this Minister at that function was more conducive to public peace and order than my action in raising this matter. It puzzles me to know how that that could be. It appears to me that if that is the attitude of the Government and of the Taoiseach, it is going to be very hard to keep order in this country. I must say that I do not envy the job of my successor, the Minister for Justice, if that is going to be the position.
This organisation, as everybody knows, caused no end of trouble. When we assumed office we released all these political prisoners. We did the best we could to conciliate them. Our gesture was taken as a sign of weakness and the result was that after we released these people, there was a big influx of young persons into this organisation in 1932. We were finally forced to take firm and strong action to keep them down. It is deplorable if there is going to be a recurrence of these illegal activities. It is in that spirit that I raised this matter and not in any other spirit. I have no intention of trying to score points against anybody but it is certainly a disturbing thing to see that a member of the Government can attend such a function and more disturbing still to see that the Taoiseach should meet us in the manner he did. He met us in a truculent manner, a bad-tempered manner, and I am surprised at his attitude.
We have been asked for help in public speeches made by members of the Government. I can certainly tell the Government that, as far as this particular matter of the preservation of peace is concerned, they can rely on the co-operation of this Party; but I would ask them, for goodness' sake, not to allow a recurrence of what took place during the time that we had to deal with this organisation while the war was on. I do not think there has been much of that trouble since. I would say to the Minister for Justice that he is going to have a very difficult job indeed, if an organisation which had such relations with the Guards in the past is going to be allowed to raise its head again, and I do not know how the police are going to be expected to deal with it. I want an assurance from the Taoiseach that the Government is not going to allow this thing to continue.
Am I not perfectly entitled to speak on this motion?
The debate is usually opened by the Deputy who asked the question. The Deputy is entitled to speak, of course, but the Taoiseach will have to get sufficient time to reply.
I appreciate that. All I want to say is what I said earlier, that we should endeavour, as far as we can in this House, to forget a lot of these past differences and this ill-feeling. I do think that the Deputy who has just spoken has done neither himself nor his Party any good by raising this matter in the way he raised it here. For many years these Easter commemorations have been held and it is spiteful, malicious and mean for a Deputy, like the ex-Minister for Justice, to raise a matter here this evening in the same language he used in this House on a number of occasions when he was defending actions in this House which horrified the people of the country.
May I say, if there is anybody in this House doubtful about the spirit which actuated the ex-Minister for Justice, that I know exactly the motives which prompted his raising the question this evening? We had to face in the Government a terrible duty during that period. The anxiety of the ex-Minister for Justice and myself is that young people may not be led again by any misunderstanding into such an organisation; that they will be told and know from the start what they are doing and what it will involve for them ultimately. We have had a very sad and terrible experience, an experience which we hope will not have to be met by future Governments.
The aspect of this question which disturbs the ex-Minister for Justice and which disturbs me equally is that a statement urging recruitment for this organisation should be made without any repudiation by the Minister who was present. I know the difficulty that there is in doing so. But surely in this House at any rate there ought to be some indication that it was not with the will of the Minister who was present an appeal of that sort was made. Surely that is reasonable in order to save the young people who might be brought into this organisation, to save any future Government, whatever it may be, or the present Government, as might happen, from the terrible experience that we had to face as a Government during that period. I hope it will be approached here in that spirit and not in any Party spirit.
I should not wish any body of men a worse experience than our experience in dealing with that particular matter during the emergency period. I would live all my life and everything that happened during it over again without any qualms rather than have to face that particular experience. It is in the hope that any future Government may be saved a similar experience and that the young people who might be brought into that organisation will be saved such an experience that we are raising this matter.
When Deputy Boland intimated his intention to raise the matter on the Adjournment I must say that I was profoundly disgusted. It appeared to me that sufficient public damage had been done by the mere fact of his having put down this question without having the type of the discussion we had here to-night. Since it came into my office, I have asked myself what was the purpose of the question. Since this afternoon I have asked myself what was the purpose of having this discussion on the Adjournment to-night. Deputy Boland said, with all apparent signs of sincerity that he was not raising it in a Party spirit. Let us accept that assurance from Deputy Boland and let him consider has he in fact not done very great damage by the type of discussion we had to-night and the ill-feeling that may be caused throughout the country. We have been the Government for just over two months, and I can assert with confidence that during that period there has been a time of peace in this country which has not existed since the establishment of this State.
Question.
Say that in Roscommon.
I consented to become the head of this Government for a number of reasons. The chief of my reasons for becoming head of this Government was that I held and sincerely believed, as I do sincerely believe now, that in consequence of the coming together of these Parties, and particularly the Clann na Poblachta Party, we would see in this country the end of the gun as an instrument for furthering political theories or wishes.
Mr. Boland
We all hope for that.
Again I assert my confidence that as a result of this Government's coming together here in these last few months we will see the end of the gun in politics in this country. Deputy Boland, and I think the Leader of the Opposition also, referred to the attendance of a Minister at this meeting. I think the House and the country will take confidence from the presence of the Minister for External Affairs at this meeting. As a responsible Minister of this Government he would not have attended any meeting or continued his attendance at any meeting which would have in any way jeopardised the security of this State or the maintenance of peace and order. I have the utmost confidence in the fact that because he was there we have nothing to fear and that is why I said to-day to Deputy Boland, in reply to one of his supplementary questions, that far more damage was done by his question than could possibly have been done by the attendance of the Minister at this meeting, whatever it was. I would have stated here to-night my view, which I formed since this afternoon, that this question was put down and was raised again on the adjournment in a mischievous spirit——
Mr. de Valera
That is not true.
——but I accept the word of Deputy Boland that that is not the spirit in which he has put it down. Equally, I ask him to meet me in the spirit in which I meet him. I believe that this Government will succeed in establishing such a reign of peace and order in this country as we had never hoped for in the last 25 years.
Is there any principle you will not sell for office?
The Dáil adjourned at 10.20 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 16th April.