Despite the diversion tactics at which some Members of the Government are adept, namely, of creating a situation, worsening it and then blaming it on somebody else so as to get the Chair on their side to do their bidding, I wish to say these few words lest the Government may move more quickly than we might anticipate in an effort to bring to a closure this situation which, for them, is embarrassing. From a national point of view, if this matter is introduced and put on our Statute Books there will be at hand an immediate and clear recipe which will bring about that which has been avoided on this side of the Border for the past six years and out of which there will be no path, namely, the violence with all its resultant difficulties, hardship and sacrifice that is being experienced in the Six Counties.
I ask the Government whether that is one of the purposes of trying to enact this Bill. Are they desirous of extending the problems and the difficulties to this part of the country so that there may be justified on their part concerted action outside that which, clandestinely, they are doing now— trying to have their little say and to sell out to the British as is their wont and as has been their practice during many years past? Do we want a situation created by way of the Seanad in which some weeks from now there will be before us a proposal which may, after a couple hours of debate, be closured and pushed through? This is conceivable. Indeed, the ground for this may well have been laid by the Minister and by other Members of the Government who have been making the case that because of pressure of business in this House, the matter should go to the Seanad. It must come back here when it is bound to take up as much, if not more time, than it would take now. If there is to be a shortcut in the time devoted to this debate in this House, it can only be at the expense of the right of Members to contribute adequately to the various debates that such a measure might entail.
Can we have an undertaking that there will be no closure if this device of going round by the back door so as to come back here again is used? Will we get an undertaking that there will be no curtailment on debate ultimately? If there is such an undertaking how can there be a justification advanced by the Minister for Justice that it will save time? Time cannot be saved in that way. I challenge the Government as to what this device is being used for? What is the purpose and motive underlying withdrawing this matter which up to now has not been urgent in any degree? Far from it, it has been lying on the Order Paper for weeks and was in the air for a year but now we find that there are not even days to spare to go through the proper procedure of written notice.
What are the Government up to? Why is this happening? Who is putting the finger on the Government and for what purpose is the finger being put on? Are the British Government telling our Government what to do as I assert they told the Fianna Fáil Government what to do in 1970? It is because of my knowledge of what happened then and the British Government's role that I suspect and fear that the real purpose and motive behind the urgency now, and the backdoor methods of enacting this, is because the British Government have the thumb on this Government.