Vol. 170 No. 4
I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £5,560 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1959, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Secretary to the President, and for certain other Expenses of the President's Establishment (No. 24 of 1938).
According to the Book of Estimates, the figure for the President's Establishment is £8,340. It is only fair that a true picture of the expenditure under this Vote should be make known. The figure of £8,340 may appear in large print at the top of this Estimate, but we find in small print at the bottom of the same page that the total expenditure for this establishment over the coming year will be £50,876. It is time we had a little realistic thinking about this expenditure.
For a number of years, we have heard admonitions from the Taoiseach and from members of the Government that the people were living beyond their means, that certain sections of this community were spending too much and that consequently as a nation we would have to tighten our belts. It is only fair to suggest, when the hairshirt is being put on the very poor sections of the community because they are supposed to be spending beyond their means, that that same hairshirt should be applied to those in the very highest positions in the State. Yet we find that over the past ten years we have spent on the President's Establishment the sum of £476,000. I doubt if any Deputy is in a position to prove that the expenditure of £476,000 in ten years on an establishment of this nature can be justified in the circumstances in which this country finds itself over that period of ten years.
My criticism here is in no way aimed at the individual, for whom I have the greatest regard, who occupies the post of President. My criticism is levelled at the air of unreality that exists as a result of this expenditure. When a visitor comes to this country, is taken up to the Park where that huge expenditure takes place and has a good look there, he undoubtedly leaves under the impression that a country which can afford such pomp and ceremony is a wealthy nation. Any visitor would be justified, if he did not see the rest of Ireland, in leaving this country with the impression that we were a nation that had no serious problems to surmount, that we were a contented and prosperous people and that no skeletons in the cupboard in the line of high unemployment and high emigration existed behind this facade of a presidential establishment which will cost in the coming year a sum of £50,000.
We are told day after day that there is no money available for a number of very suitable and desirable projects. We are told that the people must tighten their belts, but those very same people are expected to keep up this hypocritical front. People are expected to believe in this fraud, this front, that we are a nation that can compare with some of the wealthiest nations in the world. The only comparison we can make is in regard to the facade. We have the front all right that can compare in luxury and in pomp with some of the great nations of the world, but behind that front, we are a nation dwindling in population and on the verge of bankruptcy as well. We can compare in the gilded trappings with other great nations of the world, but we depend on many of those great nations to give a living to the unfortunate people for whom we here are charged with the duty of seeing that work is made available in Ireland.
The time is ripe to have the question of the expenditure on this luxurious establishment examined and pruned forthwith. The public over the years, I am certain, have not been truly aware of the excessive amount of money made available for this establishment and I hope that from now forward people will be told what the exact expenditure will be. The audited expenditure for last year was £47,000 odd and the total expenditure is expected to be £50,876 this year. That shows that there is likely to be an increase by the end of this year of over £3,000 on the presidential establishment. Can anybody in his senses justify that expenditure at present?
I do not think I have anything to say. It is laid down in the Constitution that there shall be a President and an establishment provided for him and so on. I do not know that we could make any great change. Of course, there has been a somewhat abnormal expenditure on the alteration and renovation of the buildings here over the last few years, but I think that is almost complete.
