asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs whether he will state if his attention has been drawn to a letter written by a barrister and published in the Dublin newspapers in which the Minister is stated to have secured the names and addresses of the members of the Árd-Chomhairle Clann na Poblachta for the purpose of circulating to them a document relating to the Baltinglass Post Office dispute; whether this statement is true, and also, whether the documcnt was circulated at public expense.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Baltinglass Post Office.
The answer to the first part of the question is in tne affirmative. In so far as the remainder of the question is intended to suggest that I circulated any document to the members of the Árd-Chomhairle of Clann na Poblachta at public expense, I wish to state that such suggestion is untrue.
Arising out of the reply, is the Minister aware that Mr. Noel Hartnett stated very definitely in a letter to the Press that the names and addresses of members of the Árd-Chomhairle, Clann na Poblachta, were circulated to the Minister? In view of that fact, is it not clear that the Minister must have made application for them, otherwise he would not have been able to circulate them?
Did the Deputy not listen to the reply? I stated that the answer to the first part of the question was in the affirmative. Neither Mr. Noel Hartnett nor anybody else ever made a suggestion that I spent public money wrongfully. If the Deputy makes that suggestion outside the House, I will have him put in the same position as he was in before the Railway Tribunal when he had to apologise to them.
On a point of order, I never apologised to the Railway Tribunal. Would the Minister find out——
Question No. 15.
Mr. Gogan
Arising out of the reply, is the Minister aware that the document was circulated to all members of the Clann na Poblachta Árd-Chomhairle? Is he aware that the document in question was libellous— criminally libellous?
That does not arise.
I was not thinking of the Deputy or of his Black and Tan friends.
The Minister has suggested that some of my friends are Black and Tans——
That is just as irrelevant.
On a point of order——
The Minister's statement was as irrelevant as the Deputy's and I take them as cancelling each other out.