Under a Standing Order that was adopted by the Seanad many months ago it is unnecessary that any request should be made to me as a condition precedent to my right to address the Seanad. I have the right conferred upon me under that Standing Order subject only to the condition that I vacate the Chair while addressing the Seanad. Personally I have up to now deliberately avoided taking any advantage of this privilege which the Seanad thought fit to confer on the Chairman not at my request nor at my invitation. I did so deliberately because I think it is in the interests of the Chair not only for its present temporary occupant, but for those who will fill the position hereafter that they should be as little as possible identified with current politics and controversies of the day. It is on that account that even to-day I should not for a moment have thought of intervening in this discussion had it not been for the request that has come to me from the Seanad itself.
Of course it is perfectly obvious that anything I say to you is purely by way of suggestion, not by way of dictation. I have no right to dictate to the Seanad in any way, and I certainly have no desire to do so, but in as much as the Seanad think that I may be, perhaps, in a position to explain clearly to them the constitutional position at which we have arrived and possibly from a lengthy experience to make suggestions to them I have without hesitation acceded to their request. Of course I am not in any way involved with the policy of the Government. I am not a member of the Government. I have no voice in their counsels. I have no responsibility whatever for their policy. At the same time, speaking with the utmost candour, I think it is greatly to be regretted that owing to a certain want of foresight on their part we and the country should find ourselves faced with this grave constitutional position. I do not venture to say anything more by way of criticism because it is very easy to be wise after the event, and I think one has very little cause for surprise when one realizes the tremendous amount of responsibility and work, the difficulties and dangers which beset their path during the last six months. Perhaps we have more cause for surprise that the mistakes they have made should be so few.
The position before the Government to-day as I understand it is that they have passed a Bill—the Public Safety Bill—in the interests, as they believe, of the safety of the general community, and in a matter of this kind it is perfectly obvious that as in other well-regulated communities and countries we have to take that on the credit of the responsible Ministers of the day. We in this Seanad and people outside have neither the opportunity nor the knowledge that they must possess as to the internal conditions and the dangers involved to the public safety.
Therefore, responsibility is cast upon the shoulders of the responsible Government of the day, and under normal conditions and in ordinary days it seems to me that not only this House but the country have to give them credit for their intentions, and have to assume that in their conjoint wisdom they have arrived at the solution which fits the situation. Accordingly they passed this Public Safety Bill which apparently looked as if it was sufficient to deal with the situation, but unfortunately they overlooked a rather evident, as I would have thought, patent Section in the Constitution, Section 47, which practically prescribes an interval of seven days before any Act of the Oireachtas can come into force, the seven days being plainly inserted with a view to enabling steps to be taken to have a referendum on the question should the community so desire.
In order that that interval of seven days should not be allowed to interfere with the public safety in days of difficulty and danger, the Constitution goes on to say that this interval of seven days can be voided by a resolution passed by the Oireachtas that the Act in the interests of the public safety is to come into operation at once. Had such a resolution been passed by the Oireachtas at the time when the Bill was going through its final stages this Constitutional question, in my opinion, could never have arisen, but, as I say, unfortunately that provision seems to have been overlooked by the Government and its advisers, and it is for that reason we are faced with the position we are in to-day. Naturally advantage is taken of this by those interested in obtaining the discharge of political prisoners at present under detention, and application was formally made for what is known as a writ of Habeas Corpus to obtain the release of those men on the ground that there was no Act of Parliament which justified their detention, once the Courts came to the conclusion that a state of war no longer existed because as you know the only justification for the detention of any citizen without trial is the fact that a state of war is existing in the country.
There is an old Latin maxim which illustrates what I am explaining "Salus reipublicæ suprema lex” which, shortly translated, means that the public safety is the paramount and supreme law of the land and all other considerations of law have to give way to it. But as I have said once the Courts came to the conclusion that a state of war ceased to exist it thus became inevitable that if the powers of detention were to be preserved even for the shortest period, an Act of the Oireachtas was necessary. That Act was the Act known as the Public Safety Act, and if, as I say, a resolution was passed in both Houses at the time it was going through its final stages certifying that in the interests of the public safety the Act should come in at once, the seven days interval would have been wiped out and the position would be normal and regular. That not having been done the Government is faced with the position in which they cannot during the seven days and until the expiration of seven days detain in custody men and women who have not been put on trial in the ordinary way
The Government tell us it is for them to decide. Certainly I for myself would not venture to suggest I had any opinion on the subject or was in any position of any kind either to say to myself or to say to you that the existing conditions demand and require a measure of the kind. I say that in every civilised community we have got to trust our Ministers for that. If the Seanad believes as the President has told us that it is essential to the public safety that the powers conferred under this Act having regard to the recent decision of the Court should come into operation at once then, it is for them to bring before us and ask us to pass the measures they think would rectify the position and bring about that. I am not here and it is no part of my duty as Chairman of the Seanad to give legal advice to my colleagues. All I would say is that they should act with deliberation and care in this matter. They should tread very warily and should be satisfied that the proposals the Government now make will close down the curtain on the last act of what I may call this tragedy of errors, that within the last few weeks enveloped the Constitution, and was mainly due to the extreme haste and pressure by which we are compelled to discharge our work.
I must again repeat my regret that with this position present in their minds as it must have been the Government did not introduce the Public Safety Bill and other measures at an earlier stage so as to enable not only the Dáil but this Seanad to give them the consideration and deliberation that they require. However that is passed and again there is no use in regretting the past. We have to provide for the future. If we get the assurance of the President that he is advised by his responsible legal advisers that the present proposition he is making to us in this Bill we are asked now to pass together with the resolution which will be submitted to you under Section 47 of the Constitution, will be the position normally and constitutionally, and that we shall not be asked to repeat the proceedings we are going through to-day by reason of some other gap or defect in the Government's policy, then all I can say to you is: take the Government in the faith of those assurances and let us give them the additional protection they require, leaving the responsibility upon themselves.
