I thought that it would not be necessary to intervene at all in this debate, and my intervention now will be very short. The Bill has been received in a spirit that, I think, was admirable, and Senator O'Farrell's opening words, even when he was objecting to the introduction of a measure of this sort at all, were, for the greater part, in a spirit that could not have been better. His expression of sympathy with the men who had lost their lives and his protest against the brutality—I think he said—or the stupidity of those who thought that this type of attack would help a certain political movement to success were also in a very proper spirit. But I do not think that the House should leave without entering its protest against one aspect of the matter that Senator O'Farrell introduced towards the end of his speech. It might go out, if left unnoticed, that nobody had taken cognisance of this complex that the Senator has with regard to the general election. There seems to be a sort of insinuation—I do not say that he at all went the length of suggesting it, but it might be interpreted in that way—that this incident, with the loss of the lives of two people, had been staged in order that a particular Party might go to the country in a strong position.
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Does the Minister seriously state that I made that suggestion?
I say that it was not suggested, but that it might be interpreted in that way. But I do say that the Senator has, at any rate, left it open to the interpretation that we were seizing hold of a deplorable incident of this sort in order to bring in a measure which was unnecessary in the circumstances, simply in order to avail ourselves of better political ammunition in the future. I want to protest against that. I doubt if the Senator really meant it, and I would point out, in answer to it, that for a Party going forward later in the year, having as its main plank the security of life and the preservation of law and order, to a certain extent this Bill is a small condemnation of such an attitude, because if law and order had been absolutely and completely established there would be no necessity for this. President Cosgrave stated in the Dáil that he would much prefer, when going before the electors, to have a state of things in the country in consequence of which a measure of this sort was not required, but that he was prepared to go forward, even with his record to a certain extent blotted by the necessity for this measure, rather than to have it left to the few blackguards, to whom Senator O'Farrell has referred, to bring about such an emergency as they brought about last Sunday night. That is the amount of intervention that I wanted to make.
I move:—"That it is hereby declared that the Bill entitled the Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Bill, 1926, which has this day been passed by the House is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace and safety, and that, accordingly, the provisions of Article 47 of the Constitution of Saorstát Eireann shall not apply to that Bill."
I second the motion.