Deputy T. F. O'Higgins wishes to make a personal explanation.
Personal Explanation by Member.
In the Official Report, Volume 202, No. 3, column 523, Deputy Noel Lemass is reported as having said last Thursday:
Another matter I should like to refer to is that it has been the practice to distribute copies of the Budget Statement to the front benches on all sides of the House. This year, one Deputy did not sit on the front benches but on the second last row and he was surrounded by fellows on the back benches and turned immediately to the provisions for taxation. One of these Deputies having approached him, he went up to the very back seat and a man in the Press Gallery looked over, made a note, handed it to another man in the Press Gallery who immediately went outside. That was a most irresponsible act by Deputy T. F. O'Higgins. Unless he is sitting in the front bench next year, he should not be given a copy of the Statement.
The Deputy went on:
I am making a suggestion. It was irresponsible and the only reason I can think of for it is that it was either irresponsibility that prompted Deputy T. F. O'Higgins to go up there and apparently allow the statement to go to the Press before the provisions were announced in the House, or else there must be some smell in the front benches that he did not like, having been there himself once as Minister for Health.
I was not present when the statements quoted were made. I regard them—if intended to be taken seriously—as a reflection on my honour and integrity and on the honour and integrity of others and I have therefore asked the indulgence of the House to state as follows:
1. I did not disclose the contents of the Budget Statement to the Press Gallery or to any members thereof nor was I a party to any such disclosure nor did I knowingly or consciously permit or allow such a disclosure to take place.
2. My only reason for sitting where I sat was that on my entry into the Dáil Chamber my Party's Front Bench appeared to be full and as the Minister had commenced his Budget Statement, I proceeded to the nearest vacant seat as quickly as possible.
Is this not like a Manchester Handicap?