I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £9,334 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1927, chun Seirbhísí Sicréideacha.
That a sum not exceeding £9,334 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 Secret Services.
I will just read the various figures which have been voted since the State came into existence, and the actual expenditure out of these Votes. In 1922-23 the amount voted was £220,000, and the amount expended £118,762.
In 1923-24 the amount voted was £50,000; amount expended £39,236. In 1924-25 the amount voted was £35,000; amount expended £19,665. In 1925-26 the amount voted was £20,000; the amount expended £8,995. We do not expect to spend any such sum as is down in the Estimates, but as was explained in a previous year, this is a sort of Vote that if there was any threatening development which meant that a greater amount than had been anticipated was likely to be required it would be probably undesirable, impolitic and dangerous to have to come to the Dáil and ask for more. We think that even as matters stand at present, with no danger threatening, it is necessary to ask for a sum which gives a fairly substantial margin beyond what is likely to be required. We do know that there are people who are anxious to create trouble and who maintain a sort of organisation which all reports indicate is gradually falling to pieces and is gradually losing its morale and is, month by month, less likely to be a threatening source of danger to the State. But on the other hand we cannot forget that it is only two or three years since we had a great anti-State movement in arms. We cannot forget that there are many men still who think that they might succeed in overthrowing the State if a suitable opportunity arose by a renewal of tactics that were defeated before. It is essential that the Government should have in hands a sum which might be employed if occasion arose.
There will always be—apart altogether from the Irregular movement, which will, I think, very soon cease to be a matter about which we need trouble ourselves at all—a certain demand for some small sum for what we might call the more normal police purposes.