I have given Deputy Count Plunkett permission to move—
"That the Dáil decrees the feast of St. Patfrick to be a public holiday and that all business houses and public houses be closed on that day."
FEAST OF ST. PATRICK.
ACTING SPEAKER:
I only wish to put this formally because I take it for granted that it will be agreed to.
And hotel bars. I do not see why the rich people should not be kept off their drink as well as the poor.
I suggest that Saint Patrick's Day is a holiday at the present time. People who are out for a holiday do not want to walk around the streets. If you let out people for a holiday, they ought not to be debarred from getting refreshments. It was tried in the Gaelic League and the result was a popular revulsion against the Gaelic League. You will make it a most unpopular thing if you do that.
I have some experience in this matter. I was speaking to somebody in the licensed trade—I think it was a member of the Assistants' Organisation—last week, and asked him was it possible to bring into effect a public holiday this year and he informed me that they had come to some arrangement—that they would open their houses from 9 to 11 o'clock and in the evening from 6 to 8 or 9 o'clock. He said that was their suggestion—that they were agreed to do that. If this matter were left to the Cabinet to see and issue an order to that effect, would it meet with the approval of the House?
I have no objection as long as the idea is carried out. Whenever a public holiday has been declared this provision has been added and it has not been found that the public suffer. There is also the other side of the question—merely making the closing of public houses ostensible instead of actual. One reason I brought this matter forward is that I had letters from various country towns stating that the publican has sometimes shut his front door and left his side door open. That of course is not what we want. I would be against any unreasonable interference with food and drink for the people. But in this matter the example would be a good one and I do not think it would be ineffective.
There is a story told about the late Sir Thomas W. Russell. He suggested that the people should get in a gallon of beer at night. "Get in a gallon of beer," a person in the crowd said, "Who would go to bed if he had a gallon of beer in the house?" If this motion of Count Plunkett's be left to the Cabinet, saying that the Cabinet be instructed that the Feast of St. Patrick——
I will not accept anything telling the Cabinet to ask the licensed houses to close on the poor people. If you leave a free hand to the Dáil Cabinet, I am willing to accept it.
If a free hand to the Dáil Cabinet means that this idea is not going to be accepted——
I will not accept the idea of penalising a man because he is poor. If you are going to give the poor man a holiday and refuse to allow him refreshments——
I hope this will not be made a Party question. Surely to goodness everyone can do without intoxicating liquors for one day. The statement has been made that the Gaelic League attempted a thing of this kind and, as a result, that it became very unpopular. Now, I have been connected with the Gaelic League much more intimately than the gentleman who made that statement and I repudiate such a statement. I am not aware—I never heard it stated before—that the Gaelic League became unpopular as a result of attempting things like this. It gained adherents. It did not succeed as well as it should but it was not the power in the country that this Dáil is even at the present date. I believe that if the Dáil decide that this thing be done, it will be done and it will not become unpopular.
This is another of those motions that do not impress me. Some of us have been working very hard during the past three or four weeks among the owners and assistants to get certain arrangements made about hours, not for St. Patrick's Day alone but for every day of the week, by which we will do good. We could have done more if we had been able to meet them than by passing any pions resolutions. That is the way we will get over the difficulty of arranging between the owners and assistants. Some of us have been doing our best to come to an agreement by which we will do away with a lot of the evils from which the liquor trade is suffering, and if we are allowed to carry on that we will do as well without resolutions as with them.
I agree with President Griffith about the poor man being cut off. I do not agree with it as to private houses. It would be just as easy for the poor man to bring in his drink. But I do think that half the trouble in Ireland comes from hotels and clubs. I would ask this Committee to take into consideration the hotels and clubs.
ACTING SPEAKER:
If the President will accept the idea in this way it may meet the case:—
"That it be an instruction from the Dáil to the Cabinet to consider the closing of business premises and public houses on St. Patrick's Day."
What do you mean by considering?
To ask the people.
That refers to Dublin. Nothing will be done in the country.
We will see what we can do about the St. Patrick's Day holiday. But I object to the thing being further discussed. Now, A Chinn Chomhairle, I wish to move the adjournment of the Dáil.
THE ACTING SPEAKER:
I have to get that disposed of.
You cannot bring it up. I object to it. I move now that Dáil Éireann adjourns for six weeks and I move that because we here have certain work to do. It was impossible to do it for the last four or five days. We require all the time at our disposal to justify ourselves to our friends and opponents. I move that for the period of six weeks this Dáil adjourns.
I second that.
I would ask the President to increase it to two months.
I would object if he said two months. Leave it six weeks. I would ask the President if he is making a change to make it under not over.
It will be under, not over.
I hope we will have an opportunity, when the Dáil meets again, to discuss the question of the policy of the Ministers and that we will have reports to consider, which we can in a regular way deal with. At the present time there is one thing which I for one think most improper for the Cabinet; that is, the formation of a police force, which is bound not to have the confidence that is necessary for a police force, if it is to work effectively. I suggest in connection with this, as we will not have an opportunity of meeting again, that the Ministry take carefully into account—that is, the members who are acting definitely as Ministers on this —whether by appointing such a force they are not going to cause the very trouble which the police force is intended to obviate. If you have given the safeguarding of public order to the Army, that is all right, because the Army still is the Army of the Republic. But if you set up a force giving allegiance to any other Executive then I can only tell you, from my knowledge of the feelings of those who want to see Dáil Éireann maintained and no rival force put up against the forces of Dáil Éireann until the Irish people's will has been properly ascertained, it is going to be a source of trouble and not of public order. So I would suggest to the Ministry to keep the machinery and not at this time anyhow form a new police force. I understand that the police force of the Republic is being somehow disbanded, and I think it is a great mistake. I think it is not keeping to the spirit of the agreement, when it was said that Dáil Éireann should continue to function as before the agreement. That is before the Agreement was signed in London. Dáil Éireann functioning means that the Republic functions, that the Republic is still the form of Government which the people will give adherence to. When I have said that this Dáil is supreme, I mean that it is the supreme governing authority in Ireland until the people decide otherwise. That the people themselves are the ultimate source of authority, I would be the first to admit. That the people are above their representatives, I admit. I do not question it for a moment. Therefore I suggest that in the interests of public order the President and Cabinet do not sanction the formation by some other authority at this moment of a police force. If a police force were formed at the present moment, it should be formed under Dáil Éireann, which would give it authority all over Ireland. If there is no intention to form it under Dáil Éireann, it should not be formed at all. The Army should be continued as a police force. I hope, when the Dáil comes back, that we will have the opportunity of dealing with this matter in the regular place. I would like to protest in the strongest manner I can, as representing nearly half of the Assembly, against the almost scandalous haste with which estimates were passed here without discussion. There was no other opportunity except on the estimates to discuss this, and I think it most unfair and most ungenerous on the part of the majority to closure debate.
I would like to move also——
I am not to be taken as in agreement with what Mr. de Valera has said.