On the 28th of November, 1973, Deputy Tunney asked the Minister for Education whether he had instructed civil servants in his Department not to give any information to Dáil Deputies except through his private secretary and, if so, why? The reply to the question was given by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister who spoke about an instruction of longstanding in the Department of Education in relation to telephone and written representations or requests made by Members of the Oireachtas. Some time later, in reply to a supplementary question, the Parliamentary Secretary stated that it was an existing instruction which was in force in the period of office of his predecessor and of his predecessor's predecessor. I happened to have been the Minister's predecessor and I would assume that an instruction could be in force only if I decided that it should be in force. I have already stated that I gave no such instruction. Therefore, the argument that such an instruction was in force cannot be sustained.
On the 6th of December, 1973, Deputy Tunney put down a further question to the Minister for Education and I quote:
To ask the Minister for Education when the instruction to civil servants regarding the treatment of inquiries by Dáil Deputies was first issued; and the dates on which it was subsequently renewed.
This appeared at col. 1,215 of the Official Report, vol. 269 of the 6th of December, 1973. These questions were put down by Deputy Tunney when, on telephoning an official in the Department of Education, he was informed that the official was not permitted to reply to the Deputy's query unless the Deputy first telephoned the Minister's office and, more particularly, when Deputy Tunney discovered that any ordinary citizen, on telephoning the Department, could get this information without any need to get in touch with the Minister's office.
In his reply, on that occasion, the Minister stated that he did not know when the instruction was first issued but that it had been brought to the attention of his Department from time to time and most recently on the 2nd November, 1973, presumably by himself. I then stated that, during my term of office, no such instruction had been issued by me. I pointed out that I regarded Deputies on all sides of the House as responsible people and that I considered the officials of my Department quite capable of dealing with Deputies' queries. I should like to add further that during my three and a half years in the Department of Education not only did I not issue such an instruction but I had never even heard that there had ever been such an instruction.
I then asked the Minister, if during my term of office, he had had any discussions with officials of my Department and, if so, whether he had been referred to my office by the officials concerned before they would discuss a matter with him. I understood the Minister to reply to the effect that he had had such discussions and that he had not been so referred and I continued my supplementaries on that basis. Since then I note that he is reported in the Official Report as saying that he had been so referred, so obviously I did not hear him clearly. I want to state emphatically that I know personally that the opposite was a fact and the Minister knows it. I shall not go any further into that particular aspect.