Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 8 Nov 1928

Vol. 26 No. 14

IN COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. - VOTE No. 2.—OIREACHTAS.

Mr. BLYTHE

I move:—

Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £38,436 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, 1929, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí an Oireachtais.

That a sum not exceeding £38,436 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, 1929, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Oireachtas.

The only substantial difference in the Vote this year as compared with last year is the increase of £2,550 in the provision for travelling expenses. Heretofore provision has been made in the Estimates for allowances to the full number of Deputies, so that there is no change in that respect, but allowance was not made heretofore for the travelling expenses that would be required in case all the Deputies took their seats.

Mr. DE VALERA

May I ask the Minister for Finance whether he would give an idea of the organisation of the administrative, clerical and subordinate staff and particularly the administrative and clerical staff, and to whom they are responsible? I want, roughly, the main sub-division and who is the ultimate authority in each case.

Mr. BLYTHE

Of course, the staff of the Oireachtas are responsible to the Ceann Comhairle and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad. The Clerk of the Dáil is the Civil Service head of the Oireachtas staff. The Clerk of the Seanad is, of course, responsible to the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad. The staff below the Clerk, and the Assistant Clerk, of the Seanad, and the Clerk and the Assistant Clerk of the Dáil are a common Oireachtas staff working under the Clerk of the Dáil as Civil Service head, and the Clerk of the Dáil, of course, answers to the Ceann Comhairle.

Mr. DE VALERA

So that for all practical purposes the Clerk of the Dáil is head of the staff. The Vote under this head falls into three main divisions. There is a sum of close on £60,000, actually £59,800, for Teachtaí allowances and travelling expenses; £24,730 for Senators and their travelling expenses; a sum approximately of £30,000 for the administrative staff. I understand we will not be permitted, here, to criticise the main items, in as-much as they are statutory, so that I will have to reserve what I would like to say on this as regards possible reductions, until the Second Reading of the Appropriation Bill. The points I wanted to refer to would be the possibility of reducing the main items by sums amounting to from £27,137, and considering that the sums involve about £116,000, I think when we do come to the Appropriation Bill that the members will be prepared to support the action we would suggest in that case. We intend voting against this Estimate mainly because of the fact that we have here the Seanad body which it is the policy of the Government to maintain at its full strength of sixty. As I said, it would be probably out of order to criticise in detail and indicate what our attitude is, so we will have to confine ourselves to voting against the Estimate.

Question put.

The Committee divided: Tá, 77; Níl, 57.

Tá.

• Aird, William P.
• Alton, Ernest Henry.
• Anthony, Richard.
• Beckett, James Walter.
• Bennett, George Cecil.
• Blythe, Ernest.
• Bourke, Séamus A.
• Brodrick, Seán.
• Byrne, Alfred.
• Byrne, John Joseph.
• Carey, Edmund.
• Cassidy, Archie J.
• Cole, John James.
• Collins-O'Driscoll, Mrs. Margt.
• Doyle, Peadar Seán.
• Duggan, Edmund John.
• Dwyer, James.
• Egan, Barry M.
• Esmonde, Osmond Thos. Grattan.
• Fitzgerald, Desmond.
• Fitzgerald-Kenney, James.
• Good, John.
• Gorey, Denis J.
• Haslett, Alexander.
• Hassett, John J.
• Heffernan, Michael R.
• Hennessy, Thomas.
• Hennigan, John.
• Henry, Mark.
• Holohan, Richard.
• Jordan, Michael.
• Keogh, Myles.
• Law, Hugh Alexander.
• Leonard, Patrick.
• Lynch, Finian.
• Mathews, Arthur Patrick.
• McDonogh, Martin.
• McFadden, Michael Og.
• Mongan, Joseph W.
• Colohan, Hugh.
• Conlon, Martin.
• Connolly, Michael P.
• Cooper, Bryan Ricco.
• Corish, Richard.
• Cosgrave, William T.
• Craig, Sir James.
• Crowley, James.
• Daly, John.
• Davis, Michael.
• De Loughrey, Peter.
• Doherty, Eugene.
• Dolan, James N.
• Doyle, Edward.
• Mulcahy, Richard.
• Murphy, James E.
• Murphy, Timothy Joseph.
• Myles, James Sproule.
• Nally, Martin Michael.
• Nolan, John Thomas.
• O'Connell, Richard.
• O'Connell, Thomas J.
• O'Connor, Bartholomew.
• O'Donovan, Timothy Joseph.
• O'Hanlon, John F.
• O'Leary, Daniel.
• O'Mahony, Dermot Gun.
• O'Reilly, John J.
• O'Sullivan, Gearoid.
• O'Sullivan, John Marcus.
• Rice, Vincent.
• Roddy, Martin.
• Sheehy, Timothy (West Cork).
• Thrift, William Edward.
• Tierney, Michael.
• Vaughan, Daniel.
• White, John.
• White, Vincent Joseph.

Níl.

• Allen, Denis.
• Blaney, Neal.
• Boland, Gerald.
• Boland, Patrick.
• Bourke, Daniel.
• Brady, Seán.
• Briscoe, Robert.
• Buckley, Daniel.
• Carney, Frank.
• Carty, Frank.
• Clery, Michael.
• Coburn, James.
• Colbert, James.
• Cooney, Eamon.
• Corkery, Dan.
• Corry, Martin John.
• Crowley, Fred. Hugh.
• Crowley, Tadhg.
• Derrig, Thomas.
• De Valera, Eamon.
• Fahy, Frank.
• Flinn, Hugo.
• Fogarty, Andrew.
• French, Seán.
• Gorry, Patrick J.
• Goulding, John.
• Hayes, Seán.
• Holt, Samuel.
• Houlihan, Patrick.
• Jordan, Stephen.
• Kennedy, Michael Joseph.
• Kent, William R.
• Kerlin, Frank.
• Killane, James Joseph.
• Killilea, Mark.
• Kilroy, Michael.
• Lemass, Seán F.
• Little, Patrick John.
• Maguire, Ben.
• McEllistrim, Thomas.
• MacEntee, Seán.
• Moore, Séamus.
• Mullins, Thomas.
• O'Dowd, Patrick Joseph.
• O'Kelly, Seán T.
• O'Leary, William.
• O'Reilly, Matthew.
• O'Reilly, Thomas.
• Powell, Thomas P.
• Ruttledge, Patrick J.
• Ryan, James.
• Sexton, Martin.
• Sheehy, Timothy (Tipperary).
• Smith, Patrick.
• Tubridy, John.
• Walsh, Richard.
• Ward, Francis C.

Tellers:—Tá: Deputies Duggan and Peadar Doyle. Níl: Deputies G. Boland and Allen. Question declared carried.