I move:
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £4,367 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íochta an Mhuirir a thiocfidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na blíana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1927, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Teaghlachas an tSeanascail fén Acht um Thuarastal agus Theaghlachas an tSeanascail, 1923.
That a sum not exceeding £4,367 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1927, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Governor-General's Salary and Establishment Act, 1923.
Deputies will see that there is a very slight change in this Vote. The matter has been discussed in previous years, and I think last year, in order that the expenditure might be restricted as much as was reasonably possible, I said we held the view that future Governor-Generals should have their residence in what was the Chief Secretary's Lodge rather than the Viceregal Lodge, which is a very big house and which is costly to maintain. The actual costs of running it and keeping it clean and in a proper condition are considerably in excess of what they would be for a smaller house. That matter has been considered further during the year, and I can say very definitely that that is the policy of the Government, and I assume that it will be carried out by whatever Government is in existence when a change takes place. But we do not feel that we could or should make a change at present.
The present Governor-General was not anxious to live in the Viceregal Lodge. We urged him, and I might almost say obliged him to take up his residence there, and we feel that it would not be right or fitting that he should be evicted now and put into another house. We do not feel prepared to take any such step. But we do feel that in the future the Governor-General should take up his residence in what has been the Chief Secretary's Lodge, and if that is done, certain savings can be effected. Some public use can possibily be made of the Viceregal Lodge, and there will be a saving on this particular head.
I do not think that Deputies should consider that there would be all the savings that some people indicate. I have never been anxious to take the line that we should, as it were, attack the office of the Governor-General by refusing a reasonable amount for the establishment. I think that there would be no national economic gain by it. We would offend susceptibilities that would not benefit us to offend. Again, I think we can take it that we have definitely established a new thing in the British Commonwealth of Nations; we have got one of our own citizens, one of our own people, as Governor-General. I regard that as a very definite step forward which we should not recede from. I think it may be taken as being established that the Governor-General in future will always be one of our own people, one of our own citizens, and it might well be the case that it would be bad economy to do anything that would lower the status of the Governor-General's office. I certainly do not take the view that the Governor-General is in any way the representative of a foreign power. He represents one of the elements of the Oireachtas. He stands here as a representative of the Crown, but the Governor-General cannot be appointed without the assent of the Government of Saorstát Eireann. The Governor-General will, in future, as I say, so far as Saorstát Eireann is concerned, be one of the citizens of the State, and the office may serve a very practical utility in the future.
I am as much against lavish displays or lavish entertainment as Deputy Johnson is. I think that we do not want people to adopt a line that was supposed to be characteristic of Ireland a century or so ago. I would be very much against that. On the other hand, I think that a dignified establishment is necessary. It will serve, perhaps, without any lavishness, to keep some of our citizens from turning their eyes elsewhere, and the holder of the office, if he is, as he will be, outside the political arena, may, if there is great stress in the future, provide a centre where people who are very much in conflict might come together. In any case, I think it is a narrow and a short-sighted view to take of the matter to attempt unduly to reduce the dignity of the office. We all, perhaps, have not been able to think as much about the political evolution of the State as we would like, but I certainly would like to put forward the view that the people who simply think that the Governor-General is somebody with whom we have no concern and who might be made the mark of all shafts of attack, are not looking at the thing with a great deal of vision.