I assumed from the Minister's silence that he was not accepting this. If he is he could tell us and it would save a lot of time, delay and trouble.
I cannot conceive of a more reasonable amendment than this one. Deputy Haughey has clearly pointed out the significance and the nature of it. What must above all else in relation to this be borne in mind is that the amendment, as Deputy G. Collins has said, constitutes, in fact, section 13 of the Emergency Powers Act, 1939. That was passed early in September, 1939. A genuine declaration of emergency had been passed by this House and by the Seanad at that time. I emphasise "genuine" in contrasting it with the pseudo one forced through this House last week because there was a genuine national emergency at the beginning of September, 1939. Europe was just descending into total war which, unfortunately, was to last for six years and this country and every person in it was in terrible and mortal danger and was saved from that danger by the skill of Éamon de Valera and the Government which he led throughout those six years.
Notwithstanding the obvious character and rather terrible nature of the genuine emergency that existed in September, 1939, the Emergency Powers Act, which was passed that day and was so patently necessary, did not contain any section enabling it to be kept permanently in force by order of the Government such as this Bill contains. Instead it contained a provision in section 13 which is reproduced precisely in our amendment which would enable the Emergency Powers Act, 1939, which was a very serious and necessary measure, to continue in force for only 12 months at maximum, or that it would expire earlier by Government order or if the declaration of emergency ceased or went out of effect before then. We had in 1939, in those terrible times therefore, a very definite limitation on the length of time for which that necessary Act of that year could remain in force. The only way it could be continued beyond 12 months was by the Government of the day coming back here into this House and the other House and relegislating through the full legislative process for it to be continued in force for a further period not exceeding 12 months. That process went on right through the war and the last Bill was passed in the summer of 1945 just before the end of the war and it expired on the 2nd September, 1946.
The position with this Bill, if it is enacted with this section 1 as it stands if our amendment is not accepted, means that, without coming back to the Oireachtas for consent or permission, the Government by order made privately can continue it in force and the only way that the Oireachtas have of even attempting to discuss it here if these orders are made is to put down a resolution seeking to annul the order within 21 sitting days of when it is made. We had experience here that if orders are made during the summer recess 21 sitting days not infrequently can bring us virtually up to Christmas and there is no obligation on the Government to provide time for discussion of the motion until the 21st day. Of course when we come to the 21st day and the Government, because they cannot avoid it have to provide time for the discussion of such an order, it is not unreasonable for us to assume in the light of history over the last three years that that motion will be guillotined, that perhaps two or three hours will be allowed for it and if the discussion is not finished in that time, even though the Opposition and Deputies generally might want to discuss it further, the Government will come in here, as they have done on dozens of occasions over the last three years and guillotine it and that is the end of it—and that is democracy.
Why, if at the beginning of a terrible war and right through the whole six-year history of a terrible war the Government of the day could put in their Emergency Powers Acts provision for relegislation every year in order to give both Houses of the Oireachtas the fullest opportunity to discuss the operation of the Act, why if at a terrible time of mortal danger like that, that could be done, why can it not be done now in this pseudo emergency we are now living under? The Government give no answer to that. The only answer is that the Government have not the guts to come back in here and ask this House to renew the extraordinary provisions which are in this Bill for the detention of citizens without charge or trial and for the removal of the protection which the Constitution of Ireland grants to all its citizens. They want to have the minimum discussion and they want this Bill and the very unusual and serious powers that are contained in it renewed and renewable every year by the private act of the Government themselves, by affixing their seal to a short order keeping it in force for 12 months.
There is no justification at this time for this. There was never any justification even in the horrors of the Second World War for not seeking legislative renewal, and that was a very real and terrible emergency. The Government of the day had the guts to come back here and face the Parliament and the representatives of the people to renew those powers. They were not ashamed to ask for renewal because when that Bill was put through the House the Government knew that the powers would not be abused, and they were not abused. They were very stringent powers, but they were necessary. We now have this so-called emergency and we have this Bill which may contribute nothing to the solution of the problem and may even exacerbate the somewhat delicate situation, but the Government feel that it is not right to come back to the Oireachtas to ask for a renewal of this after 12 months. It can all be done privately by the Government making an order, and all the Oireachtas can do is put down a motion within 21 sitting days which will be guillotined down to a couple of hours to prevent a discussion of it. The net effect of that is to continue in force more or less permanently the abrogation of the constitutional rights of the citizens of this country.
The constitutional rights of citizens should only be taken away in extreme circumstances. There is only one other occasion on which it was done, the 2nd September, 1939. That sort of situation was what was envisaged by Article 28 of the Constitution. The framers of the Constitution would, no doubt, be horrified if they saw the one loophole they left a Government for use in time of grave national crisis being abused as it is today in order to introduce legislation at a time when there is no national emergency arising from defects in our law. Certainly there is a national emergency in relation to the economy. I cannot accept that the Government are genuine in the protestations they made when this legislation was originally announced, and that they have made subsequently, if they do not accept this, which must surely be the most reasonable of amendments ever proposed to any measure in this House. It is patently proper that it should be accepted and that this limitation should be there, and that if it should be necessary in the opinion of the Government of the day to extend these extraordinary powers and the derogation of the citizens' constitutional rights for longer than 12 months, then it is this Oireachtas that should legislate for a further 12 months' derogation of the constitutional rights of our citizens.
In column 275, Volume 264 of the Official Report for the 29th November, 1972, an amendment was put down by the present Minister for Justice to the proposal that the Offences Against the State Bill, 1972, be read a second time. The amendment read as follows:
That Dáil Éireann declines to give a Second Reading to the Bill on the ground that it contains matter which is unnecessary and excessive and which is repugnant to the basic principles of justice and liberty and the long established rights of citizens.
I do not think any one sentence could more clearly or more succinctly express what is being done in this Bill. That description is very true of what the present Minister for Justice asks this House and this country to accept so unnecessarily. The whole country knows it is unnecessary, and still it is being steamrolled through, with a display of arrogance which we have come to expect, unfortunately, from some Ministers, but which I thought that the present Minister for Justice would at least have the intelligence not to exhibit. Unfortunately, the characteristics of some of his colleagues seem to be rubbing off on the Minister. If this House is to allow the derogation of our citizens' basic rights and liberties as guaranteed in the Constitution of Ireland to be permanently derogated from, as this section proposes, then I think that this country can look forward to a very difficult time in the years to come. If there are not enough people of principle in this House to stand up and to stop this permanent derogation of the rights of our citizens, I am afraid the outlook for this House and this country is a sorry one, not just in this field but in many other fields.