Reference has been made already to the lack of information in the Minister's statement but there is one matter to which I should like to draw attention and about which we should have some information. It is the amount of money being spent on entertainment. So far as my recollection goes, when the inter-Party Government were last in power, approximately £6,000 was being spent on entertainment and that was regarded as very high for a country of this size. That figure in seven or eight years has reached £23,000.
When the Committee of Public Accounts sought some information in regard to the detailed expenditure of this money, no information was forthcoming. On December 2nd last, Deputy Dr. Browne asked a question in regard to this matter as reported in volume 213, column 303, of the Official Report, as follows:
Dr. Browne asked the Minister for External Affairs what action has been taken by him in regard to the request by the Committee of Public Accounts that he should in common with practice in Great Britain and elsewhere publish the details of expenditure on entertainments; and what details he is at present unwilling to disclose lest it embarrass his guests.
The reply was:
The British Government merely publish a list of the global cost of each Head of State and official visit. We do not propose to follow their example in the matter and as far as we have heard the only country which has done so is South Africa.
When the expenditure on entertainment in a small and poor country like ours can rocket from about £6,000 in 1957 to £23,000 at present, I think it calls for explanation, especially when I have been refused transport for eight mentally defective children at Clondalkin to go to an approved school.
