I made it plain last night that arterial drainage is the rock foundation of the Office of Public Works at present and I also made it clear that people on the other side never had any intention of carrying out arterial drainage in anything like the order it is in at present. Deputy Beegan referred to the dismissal of a man and the appointment of somebody whose name he gave. I gave the date on which I had appointed the man previously and I was coming up to a very important point when the House adjourned—the point as to why this man was not appointed as paymaster under the Office of Public Works. Deputy Beegan and other Deputies on that side read quotations from the minutes of meetings of certain individuals in which it was stated that people called to my house and that I made a promise. The man did call to my house, really down and out, knowing that his fate had been sealed by Deputy Beegan, as he told me himself.
Committee on Finance. - Vote 8—Office of Public Works (Resumed).
He knows quite well it was not.
As he told me himself and as I proved. I told him that I had not got to the office at all yet. He knew me for many years and he knew that I had appointed him and that when I got back, if at all possible, I would reappoint him. When I did get back to the office, I set about finding what the position was and made inquiries about the man. A certain file was handed to me and I am quite sure that Deputy Beegan, in the three years that he was there, saw it and read it. When I inquired about this man, that file from the Special Employment Schemes Office was handed to me. As I said last night, I have now to do something which I dislike doing because a man's name has been mentioned here when he is not here to defend himself. What was in that file? Did Deputy Beegan read it? I ask the House to listen while I quote from the file:
"Generally Mr. Newell gave the impression that at the moment he feels the job of paymaster to be rather beyond him. He tends to magnify difficulties instead of seeking ways to overcome them."
That file was never put before me or brought to my notice.
Would the Deputy like to see it now?
I do not mind. That would not be a barrier to his appointment, at the same time. It is only one man's opinion, anyway.
It is the opinion of an office which you controlled for three years.
Was that why you set up the interview board?
I will deal with that, too—do not worry. That came before me in relation to a small job in the Special Employment Schemes Office. How then can Deputy Beegan compel the Board of Works to appoint a man in face of a report of that type?
Will the Parliamentary Secretary give us the number of the file and will he read the whole file? That is only a paragraph out of it.
I will come along now to a further point. It would not do the Deputy to attack me personally —he had to attack my Minister. He referred to his going down to the Corrib to inspect the scheme there. I want to tell the Deputy and the House that I personally inspect that scheme once a week.
We all know that.
Troth, you do—it is a bitter memory to you.
That is getting away very quickly from the other matter.
When the Minister was in the area, as he was on that occasion, I invited him to come down. As the Deputy and all members of the House should know, the Department of Finance are people who do not want to spend money and the only man I have to fight for me and for the office in the matter of money for drainage is the Minister for Finance. His predecessor, the present Attorney-General, was very helpful, and so is the present man. This year, he has allocated more money for drainage than ever was spent in this country before. He happened to be in my county, right beside that scheme on which he is expending £2,200,000 on one job and where this year alone the sum of £150,000 has been allocated for the work. Next year, please God, there will be twice as much and the year after, four times as much.
And still it will be only £3 a week for the paymaster, I expect.
Why did not you increase it yourself when you had the chance?
I had no "cribbing" about it, anyway.
These interruptions should cease and the Parliamentary Secretary should be allowed to continue.
When the Minister was in the area, it was my duty to invite him to come to see this work. Thousands of people who pass up by Turloughmore from any part of Ireland always pull up to see the work, and what was wrong in my inviting the Minister to come there and see it for himself, so that he would know the work of his officials, and, when more money is required next year, be in a position to say: "I saw this good work going on—it is well worth it"?
Deputy Beegan talks about the Rye. Surely he must know that it is not yesterday or the day before that something cropped up about the Rye river. He must know that the survey of the Rye was ordered under the Land Rehabilitation Act on 2nd March, 1950, by Deputy Dillon, Minister for Agriculture. That work was agreed on by the present Minister for Finance in his oft-advocated policy of useful work. That is what the Rye scheme is. It can now be treated as an independent catchment area, as the Liffey need not be required for drainage work on account of the drainage work on Leixlip and Poulaphouca reservoirs. When Deputy Beegan was going over the priority list, he could not find out anything about the Rye. He said: "Why spend £40,000 on 600 acres?" It is not 600, it is 800—200 more.
Will you read the report?
Why did the Parliamentary Secretary not bring down that £45,000 and put it in the Corrib? It would be a small amount out of the £2,200,000 spent on the Barrow. After all, we do not want everything for Galway. Of course, Deputy Beegan is the Simon Pure in the Party. I am the wrecker of the Fianna Fáil Party; I am the admiral of the navy, out to do the damage and no matter what I do it is wrong, always wrong, including any appointment I make. As I pointed out when I went to that side of the House and the Deputy was over here as Parliamentary Secretary, damn little thanks anyone got. Unfortunately, I am in the position that I have to appoint them, and so was the Deputy. But, mind you, I never made one before its time. I hope the Deputy understands that.
I would like to be enlightened.
You would? Very well. I am not a wrecker at all; I do not go in to do vengeance on anything my predecessor has done. I accept it as best I can. I never go to fire anyone, not even Mr. O'Hara, whom the Deputy appointed as supervising ganger.
What is wrong with him?
I see here where on a certain date this man was appointed —on the 18th September, 1951. Watch the date. On the very same file I see where he writes a letter:
"As I intend purchasing a car in the course of the next week, you might kindly let me know if a third party insurance is sufficient to cover me or will I have to take out a comprehensive policy on same.
I remain,
Martin O'Hara."
That is dated the 12th September, six days before his appointment.
I have no apology to offer. Ask any of the Land Commission officials. Did he not get the highest references from his employers?
I am bewildered. As I say, I do not make appointments before their time.
I am proud of that appointment and the Parliamentary Secretary will hear all about it on the next Vote.
How you tipped him the wink on the sly.
Apparently the man knew eight or nine days before he was appointed and wanted to regulate about his car.
Why should he not know about it, a week or a fortnight before?
He was appointed on a certain date, do you understand, officially? Of course he could not be notified until he was appointed, you understand that? It is after that he is notified, not before it. I know it is impossible to teach the Deputy anything.
We made the appointments in time.
They will not be made before their time.
They are made already.
There are a few more to be made. During his humming and hawing and his display of a certain type of rowdyism last night, Deputy Killilea raised a matter very near to my heart. I looked then at Deputy Beegan to see was there a blush left in him. There was not very much—he was as calm as could be. He said, as far as I recollect, that the drainage of the Corrib is not going to relieve the flooding in the Belclare-Caherlistrane area. That is where the people were flooded out last year, when I went to the Archbishop and asked that a fund should be raised there voluntarily to help those people, when I considered the few pounds I could afford to do so, and on public platforms it was said that Deputy Donnellan stood by and contributed nothing. Then the Deputy came along and said it was the other portion of the scheme, the Black River, that must be done—and Deputy Beegan never blushed. It is a wonder Deputy Beegan did not tell him that I started on a survey of the Corrib catchment area in the year 1948 and it was then one scheme. There was a portion known as the Clare-Dalgan and a portion known as the Mask that Deputy Killilea pretends to be interested in.
Deputy Blowick might be interested also.
When it came to a certain period in 1950—I have the file here—I called in the commissioners and asked them why more progress was not being made. I was not going to carry on the Fianna Fáil business of the plotting and the planning that we heard about recently. They said: "If you want to rush this scheme, our advice is to take the few engineers you have on the far end, known as the Black River, and put them on this side known as the Corrib and when that is done put the survey party across and the engineers can go across."
To give spectacular results in North Galway.
That is what you never did, in any walk of life. Unfortunately, through the coalition of the exiles that have evaporated, the Brownes, the Cowans, the Cogans and the french O'Carrolls—after the general election I did not get back.
You were damn near not getting back the last time.
You came in the back door without a quota and what happened? When the survey was done —I have it here on the file if there is any doubt about it—my successor Deputy Beegan was approached as to what he was going to do. Did he say: "Let the survey party go on the other portion of the scheme"?
He said the very opposite.
Why did you not tell that to Deputy Killilea? You admit it?
I do, straightway.
Therefore, when Deputy Killilea is next in Caherlistrane or Belclare, I hope he will tell the people there that it was Deputy Beegan—the Parliamentary Secretary then of the Party to which he belongs— who prevented that portion of the scheme from going forward.
And that caused the flooding last December? Add that to it.
I must go on to a very vicious business. I am sorry the Minister for Agriculture has gone out. So seldom have the people of Galway seen money spent; all they got were promises and plotting in their time. This year £150,000 is being spent of that £2,200,000 scheme. The people there are wondering about it, but in order to do the damage, what has happened? Certain Fianna Fáil "spouters" are going around to the people and saying: "You will pay for this yet, your valuation is going to be raised. You will have to pay for it. Where else is the money going to come from?"
They said the same about the land reclamation scheme.
I am sorry the Minister for Agriculture is not here. I want, speaking with full responsibility, the House to know that if such a valuation could happen it would happen over my dead body.
Did I ever make a speech in which a reference was made——
Does the Deputy remember the one he made in Garristown about the subscriptions?
I made no such speech.
Of course, Deputy Beegan, when speaking, referred to the visit to the Corrib scheme and said we had a Parliamentary Secretary, Deputy Donnellan, crouching behind the big rock to hoist the Clann na Talmhan flag to its mast. Work of that description occupies No. 1 place in the programme of the Party to which I belong. It forced the Party across the way to bring in the Act. As far as the removal of the rock in that area is concerned, it is a solid foundation for any Party or Government of any country that is doing work of that description. It was a pity it was kept over so long.
Here is something I cannot understand. Deputy Beegan said that I, on the advice of the commissioners, engaged a firm of highly specialised consultants from across the water to plan and design a new bridge over what is known as the salmon weir in Galway. He asked me was that not correct. It is not correct.
Is it not? They were not engaged at all then? They were brought over for sport.
There is no such thing as a bridge over the weir.
It is not over the weir.
There is no such thing as a bridge over the weir.
Not at all.
I know that some consultants came over in connection with the weir, but not in connection with the building of a bridge over the weir.
I think this Vote is confined to Galway.
What about the other 25 counties?
As regards the provision for schools, in 1954-55 £1,350,000 was provided but, as I explained in my opening statement, we were able to expend only £1,000,050. That was due mainly to unfavourable weather conditions for building. There is no intention, as suggested by Deputy Beegan, of anchoring the provision to the £1,000,000 mark. The grants sanctioned by the Department for school buildings have outrun the building capacity of the Office of Public Works. There has been much difficulty in recruiting and getting architectural staff for schools. Efforts are being made to remedy that situation. We do expect this year, weather permitting, to spend much more money.
Many other points were raised, including a shelter for children as mentioned by Deputy Alfred Byrne. That reminds me of another Deputy Alfred Byrne, a member of this House—God rest his soul—who approached me in connection with shelters in the Phoenix Park. I shall look into the matter and see what can be done. Many other points were raised by Deputies but, owing to time running out, I cannot answer them but I will get the office to communicate with Deputies in connection with any points they raised.
As regards drainage generally, the position is that we have a certain number of rivers, such as the Maine and the Moy, and others which were under survey. The survey is completed in respect of many of them and we are going on with the design. As the House knows, our job is to get on with the work as quickly as possible. I do not want to be charged, as I have been charged in the case of Kerry, with getting on with the work before its time, as happened in the case of the Feale.
The biggest charge in Kerry was putting back the Maine.
Anything I did I stand over and I do not want any cover up. I was surprised at Deputy Beegan making the statements he did. Of course, I do not accept for one moment many of the things he said. I had intended to reply to many of them but I will not.
You would be quite welcome.
It may be as well.
The day is long.
I am told that there is going to be a division, that the Galway Deputies are going to challenge a division. This year more money is being spent on arterial drainage than was ever spent before and any man who votes against this Estimate is voting against arterial drainage in this country. The Galway Deputies are voting to prevent me from spending £150,000 this year. They are voting to prevent me from going on with the job that was promised for generations upon generations and from going on with the job in respect of which thanks are due to the inter-Party Government, the Attorney-General and the Taoiseach. They stand behind me but, of course, across the way it is not progress they want. They are green with jealousy and envy. They are smiling. They give the kiss of Judas—the kiss of a traitor. Let them challenge a vote on this Estimate. This year we are providing £416,000 on arterial drainage. I move to report progress.