asked the Minister for Finance if he will give a return showing the total amount paid in County Sligo by way of compensation or indemnity under the Indemnity Act, 1924, and the names, addresses, and occupations of the persons in County Sligo, who received compensation or indemnity under that Act, and the nature of the claims under which such compensation or indemnity was granted in each case.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Payments under Indemnity Act, 1924.
The compilation of the information asked for by the Deputy would involve an amount of labour which I do not think would be justified. In any event, I could not see my way to give the names and other particulars asked for in the second part of the question.
Surely it would not impose any undue labour on the staff of the Department to prepare the information asked for in the question? I think that the House and the country have a right to know the names of those who received compensation and indemnity under the Act and also to know the nature of the claims under which compensation or indemnity was granted.
Would it not be possible for the Minister to get that information from the election posters issued by Cumann na nGaedheal?
Perhaps so. If that is all that is required I will give it.
This is an important matter, and I think that the Minister should devise some method of communicating the information, either by way of letter to Deputies or a statement in this House.
I do not see any grounds for which the Deputy would require such information. I know that the Indemnity Committee itself sat in private. There were a certain number of cases, the nature of which caused the Committee to consider that it would be desirable to sit in private. Unless some very strong case were put up, I would not be prepared to make any publication of the particulars asked for.
This matter involves a considerable sum of money, and surely the Minister is not prepared to hand out large sums of money secretly to a very large number of applicants in much the same way as money was handed out to Southern Loyalists by the Irish Grants Committee set up by the British Government?
Is not this a question of public funds and are not the people to be told how public funds are spent?
Not necessarily.
Suppose that persons who received compensation were not entitled to it, what means have Deputies or the public of obtaining information about these grants if the Minister refuses to disclose any information regarding the names of the persons who receive them?
A certain procedure was laid down for dealing with this matter, and an Indemnity Act was passed, and a committee was set up under it to examine applications. It had a judicial officer as chairman. Claims were inquired into, and payment was made on foot of its decisions, and therefore I do not think that anything further can be done.
The Minister should take some steps to communicate the information to the House. It is common property in the country that some of the people who received compensation as Southern Loyalists also received compensation from the Minister.
If the Deputy has any case in mind in which he thinks that money was wrongfully secured, or if he has heard any rumours to which he would attach credence, that the money was wrongfully paid, and if he will communicate that particular information to the Department, such cases will be examined.
If I had ground to suspect that money was received under false pretences I could not communicate the information unless I had the names of those who received compensation. If I had the names I could communicate the facts to the Department.
I do not think that we could conduct an inquisition of that sort at this stage.