asked the Minister for Defence whether he can produce the agreements arrived at between certain ex-members of the Railway Protection Repair and Maintenance Corps (Class 1) residing at Inchicore, Dublin, and referred to by him in the Dáil on Friday, 29th April, 1927; also pay books and pay sheets of the men concerned, and whether he will give the date on which the discharge papers referred to on same date, were scrapped.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - RAILWAY MAINTENANCE CORPS.
In regard to the agreements with the men referred to, the Deputy presumably refers to the forms of attestation signed by these men. A copy of such attestation form will be furnished on request. The pay books and receipts of the men concerned can be inspected at the Army Finance Office, Griffith Barracks, Dublin. The alteration in the form of a discharge certificate of N.C.O.'s and men was made in July, 1925.
In view of the answer which the Minister has just given, would he explain how he came to make this statement in reply to a supplementary question which I put to him on the 29th April last: "The discharge paper that was then in existence was found to contain an error and it was scrapped. The result was that these men, some of them, did get paid." From that answer I assume that when the discharge paper was found to contain an error it was scrapped, and the result of that was that the men were found to have been paid wrongly and the payment was stopped. The Minister, in his answer now, states that the discharge papers were found to contain an error roughly two years after the money had been stopped from the men.
The Deputy, I think, made some inquiries from the Army Finance Officer about this matter. I have gone into the whole question very carefully and have seen all the documents. The discharge, in some cases, is not on the form that I have spoken about here. If the Deputy wishes I will arrange to meet him at my office on any day he names when we can go into the whole matter. I think I can satisfy him that everything is right.
I will do that.