——in an endeavour to deflect the Government from the hard task which has been imposed on them of restoring financial and economic stability to the State. So far as one can sort them out from the pandemonium which the Opposition has been creating over the past three weeks, four issues seem to emerge for which the Opposition think I carry, as Minister for Finance, a particular responsibility.
These are, first, the White Paper forecasting the outturn of the year 1951 on our balance of payments; second, the report of the Central Bank; third, the terms which made the recent National Loan a success—a success which the Opposition apparently found very unpalatable, and fourth, the enforcement of the regulation that civil servants must not identify themselves with particular political candidatures. Perhaps I might add to all these the steps which have been taken to redress our balance of trade and to secure a balanced Budget.
There is one of these matters for which I have no direct responsibility. In fact, I may say one in respect of which I have no responsibility whatever, whether it be direct or indirect. I refer to the report of the Central Bank. That report—and it is well that we should keep this in mind—represents the independent, uncoerced and unintimidated view of the governor and directors of the Central Bank on the financial and economic position of the State.
It is a report which they present to the people on the management of our financial and economic affairs. It is a report not of politicians like Deputy Dillon and Deputy MacBride, who are concerned to cover up their own financial and economic errors, but a report of experienced, independent men, some of whom are business men, some farmers, some labour representatives, some bankers, some high civil servants and some expert economists—men who have considered and weighed the facts as they have emerged and as they have impressed themselves upon them and who, on the basis of these facts and in the exercise of their own good judgment, formulate their conclusions for the consideration of the Dáil.
Section 6 of the Central Bank Act constitutes the governor and board of directors of the Central Bank as the guardians of our currency, our currency which can be damaged by the things which our Governments may do, our credit which can be damaged by the things which our Governments may do and our credit which has been damaged by the things which our predecessors did. Section 6 of the Central Bank Act, a statute passed by this Oireachtas, imposes upon the governor and the directors of the Central Bank the primary duty of safeguarding the integrity of our currency.
Section 8 imposes on them the duty to put their views before the people. Common sense recommends to us all that we should study these facts, that we should consider them carefully and, of course, that we should be guided by them to the extent but only to the extent that they appear to us to be well founded. However, as I have said, I have no responsibility whatever for the report of the Central Bank but since the Dáil has been asked by Deputy MacBride and by Deputy Dillon —who apparently thinking discretion was the better part of valour withdrew a motion which he had earlier put down—to condemn the governor and the directors of the Central Bank, I may later in the debate deal with some of the more jejune statements to which Deputy MacBride committed himself when he was discussing this matter on a motion which he put down on the White Paper.
Before doing that, however, I should like to say something regarding Deputy Dillon's motion asking the Dáil to condemn the White Paper which was issued last October.