I am sorry that Deputy Everett has seen fit to play politics in this matter—very sorry—in view of the Deputy's past record as a member of the Coalition Government. The Deputy has alleged that he is going to oppose this because the person who is affected by this Bill is a person who occupies what is one of the key positions in the State from the point of view of protecting the taxpayer and, accordingly, his salary is commensurate with his responsibilities. The Deputy cannot, like Pontius Pilate, wash his hands of the proceedings of the Coalition Government who, in May, 1951, when they were already trembling on the tight rope, just preparatory to their fall, granted the restoration of the super cut to the higher civil servants under which secretaries of some Departments, without any question of arbitration or anything else, were granted increases of salaries amounting, I think, to about £60 a year. That was not done by the Fianna Fáil Opposition. That was done by the Government of which Deputy Everett was then a member, in which he was then Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, and we did not hear from the Deputy any protest against that.
When the Arbitration Act, 1951, was being considered, the fruits of that arbitration were applied to everybody, even to men who carry higher salaries than the Comptroller and Auditor-General carries and I did not hear the Deputy say that he was opposed to giving general effect to the arbitration award. When the Government came to consider the question of giving effect to the arbitration award of 1952, the Deputy did not get up to protest and say: "You should not apply this principleto the higher-paid officers in the service." On the contrary, the Deputy then attacked us because we were not giving the civil servants in general, including the most highly paid civil servants, enough. He wanted us to distribute another £1,000,000 among the public officers.
Now a Deputy with a record like that should at least not try to do an injustice, because that is what it would be, to an officer who, as I have said, performs very important functions, whose duty it is to see that the moneys voted by Dáil Éireann for carrying on the public services are expended in accordance with the wishes of Dáil Éireann for the purposes for which they were granted, and who in that way exercises a very important control over the actions of the Executive of the day.
I think that the Deputy has not enhanced his public reputation by the line which he has taken to-day. I know that he can go down and try to make some political capital on the platform. But I warn the Deputy that he and the members of the Labour Party who were members of the late CoalitionGovernment have to carry responsibility for the very substantial increases in remuneration which were granted by that Coalition to the higher civil servants, so that the position is now that the higher civil servants are drawing salaries—and have security of tenure and pensionable rights—which are far in excess of the salaries which Ministers enjoy during the period that they hold the confidence of Dáil Éireann.
I do not wish in saying that to detract from the merits of the highest civil servants. I think that as they work hard and carry important responsibilities on behalf of the people of this country and help us to carry on the day-to-day administration of this State, their remuneration is not higher than that which they would earn, and readily earn, outside if they were in private employment. I only wish to stress the inconsistency which exists between the Deputy's past actions, private actions if you like, and his public utterances to-day.
