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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Friday, 20 May 1927

Vol. 19 No. 25

PRIVATE NOTICE QUESTION. - RETIRING CIVIL SERVANTS.

TOMAS MAC EOIN

asked the Minister for Finance if he can now say when the Chairman of the Committee set up for the purpose of assessing compensation to retiring civil servants in accord with Article 10 of the Treaty will be appointed, or what decision the Executive Council has arrived at on this subject.

This matter is still under consideration and I am at present unable to make any statement as to what the action to be taken will be.

Could the Minister give any idea as to when that decision will be taken? Will it be taken before the Executive Council ceases to exist?

I think it will be some time. The judgement in the Wigg and Cochrane appeal raises not merely financial but constitutional questions, and I think that a quick decision is not to be looked for.

I did not catch the Minister's reply. Do I understand the Minister to say that it is a subject for the next Parliament?

No, I said that it raises not merely financial but constitutional questions that we will require some time to consider, and that a speedy decision need not be looked for.

The Minister for Finance would like to make a short statement in connection with the question that was put to him regarding the appointment of the Committee concerning establishment and other expenses which would admit of possible reduction.

Following the intention announced in my statement when introducing the Budget on 21st April, the Executive Council have now approved of the setting up of the Committee on Economy in Government expenditure. The Terms of Reference to the Committee are:—

"To investigate current national expenditure on supply services and establishments, and to make recommendations to the Minister for Finance as to reductions which appear to be possible. The Committee will not concern itself with questions of policy, but it will be open to them to indicate economies which might be effected if particular policies were modified, adopted or abandoned."

The officials on the Committee will be:—

Mr. Diarmuid O'Hegarty, Secretary of the Executive Council.

Mr. Henry O'Friel, Secretary, Department of Justice.

Mr. J.J. McElligott, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Finance; and

Mr. James J. Healy, a Commissioner of Public Works.

The first few meetings of the Committee, which will be occupied in settling procedure and making the preliminary arrangements for statistical and other returns necessary for the inquiry, will be presided over by the Minister for Finance, and the subsequent meetings by a Minister who will be nominated for the purpose.

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