Deputy Hall has consulted me with a view to having an opportunity afforded to him to-day of making a personal explanation with regard to certain proceedings yesterday. I intend to afford Deputy Hall that opportunity, but it seems to me a very undesirable practice that we should begin each day's proceedings with personal explanations arising out of the proceedings of the previous day. It would, I think, be very undesirable if we fell into any such habit. A personal explanation should be, I think, of such a nature as not to cause in any way any debate or give reason for any other Deputy to make further explanations. It must be clear that we cannot go over the proceedings of the previous day; they must be regarded as finished. It might be worth while to say that when a Deputy takes exception to something that has been said in the Dáil, the attention of the Chair must be drawn to that before any other Deputy has intervened, or before the Chair itself has proceeded to make any statement or to take any other business. I will hear Deputy Hall, very briefly.
A DEPUTY'S EXPLANATION.
In yesterday's discussion on Section 15 of the Public Safety Bill certain statements were made by me which went to show that there would be a possibility, in the near or distant future, of having people in the Gárda Síochána who would be morally undesirable, and, that being so, that they would act in a manner prejudicial to ordinary moral decency. I made that statement, and, having made it, I wish to say that I was not charging the Gárda Síochána with being an immoral force, or any section of the Gárda Síochána with being immoral. They are a force that to my mind command the respect and the confidence of every citizen who is law-abiding. There is no member of the Gárda Síochána with whom I have come in contact but that I have the highest respect for, and I agree that they are a force that this State would be badly served without.
The Minister made a charge against me yesterday, as I take it, from the report in the "Irish Times" this morning, which apparently is so uncharitable as to fail to publish my statement as an introduction to the discussion, but of course the uncharitableness of the Press has not become known to me only to-day; I knew it years ago. The Minister said that "he did not place any member of the Gárda on as low a level as the two Deputies who had spoken. Deputy Hewson, in a quite irresponsible manner, had talked very lightly of there being very little difference between agents-provocateurs and the C.I.D." Mr. Hewson said: "I repeat that," and the Minister later said: "If we had men of the types of Deputies Hall and Hewson in the Gárda I would be very loth to give them these powers. We have respectable people in the Civic Guards." I am sure, if the Minister had any respect at all for the Assembly or for the Deputies in opposition, he did not mean to infer that when I entered on this question I was one of those immoral individuals whom, possibly, he would find in a force of 7,000 people, and I ask the Minister to accept my statement that I have made no charge that would entitle him to put me on the same level as some person, out of a number of 7,000, who might be serving the State and who might misuse that service for the purpose of satisfying an immoral inclination. I realise how yesterday's happenings will be read down the country—not by the Gárda; I am not concerned about the Gárda, but I am concerned about the way the ordinary public will read it. I made no such charge as was levelled yesterday and sanctioned, I might say, by the declaration of the Minister, against the Gárda Síochána. For every member of the Gárda Síochána with whom I am acquainted I have the highest respect. The Gárda are a force, whether they be plain-clothes men or men in uniform, that I feel demand respect of every decent and honest citizen in the State. It is uncalled-for to charge me with being responsible for making a statement that infers, as the Minister put it, that I would be if placed in the same power as they are, guilty of immoral practices in enforcing Section 15 of this Bill. In conclusion I think the Minister should withdraw as far as I am concerned.
I do not want to be taken as accepting all that Deputy Hall has alleged I have said. I would rather leave all that out of the discussion. I do regret that certain remarks of mine might be held to impugn the Deputy personally or Deputy Hewson either.