asked the Minister for Finance why he did not receive a deputation from the Irish Transport and General Workers Union concerning matters relating to the Budget.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - ITGWU Deputation.
34.
The topics on which I was asked to receive a deputation were, because of their far-reaching budgetary implications and the wide public they concerned, of a broad political nature. I did not consider it appropriate to receive a pre-Budget deputation on such topics from an individual trade union.
Could the Minister say what other organisations, which he considered representative, he received before the introduction of the Budget?
I received various trade organisations in connection with matters in which they had a specific trade interest.
Does the Minister suggest that the Transport Union, with 150,000 members, would not have an overall interest in the community as a whole?
I would have thought the function of a trade union was to look after its members from the point of view of trade union affairs and not to usurp the functions of political Parties.
Now we understand why the Minister did not receive this deputation—merely because they had become affiliated to the Labour Party.
Is the Minister aware that he received representations from bodies representing sectional interests?
Only on matters affecting legitimate trade interests.
I do not know if the Minister has ever read the constitution of this particular union but there is provision in that constitution for political action; there always has been.
Provision for opting out.
James Connolly wrote it in.
(Interruptions.)
I have been a friend all my life of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union and I have been of assistance to individual members of that union at all levels from time to time, but I am saddened by the political antics of the present leadership of that union.
(Interruptions.)
Question No. 35.