asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will state how many meetings have been held to date by the Commission on Emigration, and when its report may be expected.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Commission on Emigration.
There have been 14 formal meetings of the commission to date. In addition, there have been many committee and sub-committee meetings, and special surveys have been undertaken in almost all counties and in England by individual members of the commission.
I am informed that oral evidence is still being taken, and that statistical and other information is being assembled. This work must take time, and, although I am satisfied that it is being done energetically, it is not possible at this stage to indicate when the report will be available.
Does the Minister propose to suggest to the commission that, as action by the Government depends upon the presentation of the report, it is desirable that that report should not be delayed?
The commission have already been made aware of the fact that the Government desires to have the report with the utmost expedition. I am quite satisfied that the commission appreciates its responsibilities in that respect. The fact that they have held so many formal meetings and sub-committee meetings, as well as sending members to England to inquire on the spot, may be taken as a clear indication of the fact that they are handling their work in a conscientious and expeditious manner.
Is the report likely to be presented within six months?
Would the Tánaiste consider appointing a commission to keep the few people who are now employed in employment?
Considering that the Deputy's Party exported 250,000 of them in eight years, it is rather amusing to hear that question coming from the Deputy.
Is the Minister further aware that from Balbriggan to Dublin I was stopped on the road to-day by hundreds of unemployed — hundreds who were in constant employment when Fianna Fáil were in office?
There are less unemployed in Balbriggan to-day than there were when the Deputy's Party was in office.
That is not so.
Is it likely that the Government will have the report within six months?
It is not possible at this stage to say when precisely the report will be available. I am hopeful that we shall get it within six months, and I think the commission is anxious to present the report in that period.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare whether, in view of the serious misunderstanding of the gravity of the increase of emigration during the present year, disclosed by a member of the Government Commission on Emigration in an article published over his name in a newspaper, he will take steps to ensure that the latest and most accurate information on the subject is made available to the commission.
Without accepting the implications of the question I can assure the Deputy that information in my Department, desired by the commission, has been and will continue to be supplied to the commission on the basis of the latest and most accurate particulars available. I feel sure this is equally true of any other Department from which the commission desires information.
If the gentleman indicated in the question wrote the article in the Sunday Independent, which represented emigration as having decreased this year while the facts announced here by the Minister for Industry and Commerce were available to him, does the Tánaiste think he is a suitable member of the commission?
Is not the whole trouble the fact that he is not now writing for the Irish Press?
You can have him—we do not want him. I would like the Minister to reply to my question.
If the Deputy will ask his colleagues on the benches beside him to keep quiet while he is asking the question I will answer it.
In view of the fact that this member of the commission had the information given here by the Minister for Industry and Commerce available to him and nevertheless wrote an article which was published in the Sunday Independent over his name in which he purported to show that emigration had decreased this year by half when, in fact, it had substantially increased, is he a suitable member of the commission?
There is no evidence at all that emigration has increased substantially. If the Deputy would examine the reply he got on that matter he would see that it was clearly indicated there that the figures given for the issue of passports and permits are not to be taken as implying the net emigration.
Mr. de Valera
Except when we were in office.
If there are people going out there are other people coming in; and that has been happening over a number of years.
You denied that when we were in power.
So far as the members of the commission are concerned, it is not my desire to interfere with the discretion of the members of the commission or with the personnel of the commission. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate that it would be most undesirable for me at this stage to express any view on the opinions of any member of the commission on any particular subject. I have to leave it to the good sense of the commission and, in that respect, I have confidence in the general good sense of the commission.
Does the Tánaiste think that there will be any reliance placed on a report of a commission the members of which, while the commission is sitting, publish in the Press articles on emigration which state specific conclusions contrary to the known facts?
The Deputy's leading articles in the Irish Press have not been notable for their accuracy either.
That is not the point.