In this connection we on these benches are not prepared to accept this Estimate without discussion and without opposition because of the fact that it forms part of that notorious agreement known as the Ultimate Financial Settlement. There are several heads of that agreement which we think are unjustifiable not only from the national, but from the moral point of view. We feel that under the first head, under which the Government, purporting to act on behalf of our people, undertook to pay to the British Government the land annuities accruing due under the Land Acts, 1881 to 1909, is not an agreement that any Party standing for the historic principles of Irish nationality could assent to.
I do not propose to revise or reopen the land annuities controversy on this Estimate, but the fact that it is part of the agreement under which the amount now to be voted is to be paid is one of the reasons why we do not propose to allow this Estimate to go through without a division. In addition to the proposals relating to the land annuities there is also the provision under which the Free State Government undertook to recoup the British Government up to 75 per cent. of the amount expended in payment of pensions and compensation allowances to ex-members of the Royal Irish Constabulary. We have satisfied ourselves that even under the terms of the Treaty and in view of the subsequent procedure under the Treaty in regard particularly to the R.I.C. this money is not justly payable by this country. For that reason we regard the whole contract known as the Ultimate Financial Settlement as not binding and one which should not be kept.
I do not know what case the Minister is going to make to the House for the repayment of these local loans. I presume that he will say that as these moneys were provided originally by the British Treasury and were loaned to our local authorities for public purposes we are bound to repay them, but in that connection I would like to remind the Minister that the resources of the late United Kingdom were the joint resources of this country and of Great Britain, that they were held by us in common, that everything which derived from them, all the profits and all the assets which ultimately were created by the use of those funds and those resources were in the joint and common ownership not only of the people of Great Britain but of this country, and that, therefore, in view of that we were entitled, in any final account which might be made between this country and Great Britain under Article 5 of the Treaty, to a fair share and a just proportion of the amount of money which was to be repaid to the British Exchequer on foot of these local loans. I know that the Minister is going to say that this Ultimate Financial Settlement was a fair discharge of our liabilities under Article 5 of the Treaty. I would like to read that Article for the consideration of the House:
The Irish Free State shall assume liability for the service of the Public Debt of the United Kingdom as existing at the date hereof and towards the payment of war pensions as existing at that date in such proportion as may be fair and equitable, having regard to any just claims on the part of Ireland by way of set-off or counter-claim, the amount of such sum being determined in default of agreement by the arbitration of one or more independent persons being citizens of the British Empire.
By Article 2 of the schedule to the Treaty appended to the Treaty (Confirmation of Amending Agreement) Act of 1925, it is provided that the Irish Free State is "hereby released from the obligation to assume the liability therein mentioned." The real point in that connection is this, that by the Amending Act we are told that any obligation which we have under Article 5 of the Treaty has been cancelled and that we are relieved of the responsibility for fulfilling such obligation. If we were released from that responsibility and those obligations, how does this provision for £600,000 yearly by way of annuities in repayment of the amount of the advances from the British Local Loans Fund come about? We are told by Article 2 of this Agreement that our responsibility under Article 5 of the original Treaty had been wiped out, but here under sub-head B of the Estimates we find that an annuity amounting to £600,000 is payable to the British Local Loans Fund under Article 5 of the Ultimate Financial Settlement in respect to the agreed amount of the advances to that fund outstanding on the 1st April, 1926.
Surely if we were to assume liability for the service of the public debt of the United Kingdom, as it existed at the date of the Treaty, and if we are entitled to put forward, by way of set-off or counter-claim, any just claims we may have had, these two items would cancel each other, and the Minister acting on behalf of the Executive Council should not have accepted any responsibility whatever for what was really portion of the National Debt under another form. The Local Loans Funds were advanced out of British resources. They were provided in the main by the National Debt Commissioners. It is possible that a large part of those resources was provided by the creation of public debt in Great Britain. If part of that public debt has been occasioned by the fact that advances would have been made to the funds of the local authorities in Ireland prior to the Treaty, and if our obligations in relation to that public debt were to be wiped out, surely there is no ground and no justification for redeeming in an indirect and roundabout way that part of the National Debt which was represented by advances from the Local Loans Fund?
I feel that Article 5 of the Treaty is a very remarkable one. It will be noticed that the specific obligation it imposes on us is to assume liability for the service of the public debt of the United Kingdom, and whilst that was an entity which was quite capable of being defined and was defined in the terms of the Treaty in such a way as to impose a considerable burden upon us, nevertheless, in drafting the Treaty no care was taken to state in the same definite way under what heads we could advance claims as a set-off against the liability which this Article imposes upon us. It would seem that in this regard the interests of the people have been altogether overlooked. It would seem that the main thing to be considered was the amount of the British public debt which could be unloaded upon the pockets of the Irish people, although that debt had been annually created by Britain's foreign wars, by the Great War, and by the preceding wars in which she had conquered her Colonies and Dominions, and as a result of which Britain had benefited by increases in wealth of a considerable magnitude. There was not in this Article an attempt to establish the rights of the Irish people to a share in the territories, trade, commerce and other tangible assets that had been created as a result of the expenditure of the money borrowed to create this public debt.
That is merely by the way. To get back to our original position. The provision made under this Estimate is part and parcel of what is known as the Ultimate Financial Settlement, which we feel is disadvantageous to this country, and which we know is positively injurious in its effect upon our whole credit and financial structure. We think it is contrary to the historical principles of nationality, contrary to the principle that the land of Ireland belongs to the people of Ireland, and was given to them for their use and benefit. We are opposing the provision of the £600,000 for Local Loans.
