I asked a question to-day of the Minister for Education relating to the appointment of a school attendance officer for the borough of Cork. To my question, which I divided into four or five parts, the Minister made a reply which I considered unsatisfactory. I want to be as brief as I possibly can consistent with the rather important issue which this matter raises in connection with local appointments. I do not wish to quote all the Minister's reply, but merely some excerpts from it. The Minister admitted that Mr. McGiff "was proposed for appointment with the approval of the city manager. The proposal was not sanctioned as, from official inquiries made, my Department was satisfied that Mr. McGiff did not possess the necessary qualifications in Irish." I propose to read an extract from the advertisement that issued from the offices of the Cork Corporation in relation to this appointment. The advertisement set out amongst other things that candidates must "(a) be not less than 21 years nor more than 35 years of age on the 1st January, 1931, and (b) possess, to the satisfaction of the Committee a competent knowledge of the subjects of Irish, English and Arithmetic." That is the text of the advertisement, and I want to stress these words, "to the satisfaction of the Committee."
I want further to remind the Minister that in a communication from the Cork Corporation to Mr. McGiff, dated the 16th December, 1931, a copy of which I hold here, the statement occurs:
With reference to your appointment by the School Attendance Committee as a School Attendance Officer, I am directed by the City Manager, whose function it is to approve of the appointment, to request your attendance at his office." etc.
There is a further letter from the City Manager dated the 29th December, 1931, which says:—
I beg to acquaint you of your appointment as School Attendance Officer under the County Borough School Attendance Committee on the terms and conditions set out in the recent advertisement. Your appointment, which has been approved by the City Manager, is awaiting the sanction of the Minister for Education.
The Minister got over that word "approved" in a very ingenious manner I must say. I will quote again from his reply.
It would appear that some of them (that is, the candidates) possessed the required knowledge of Irish, and were suitable types of candidates for the post.
I have no doubt at all that there were a number of suitable candidates, but surely it must be conceded to the Cork Borough School Attendance Committee that they can discriminate, and are able to discriminate, as to who is or is not a suitable candidate for the position of School Attendance Officer for the Borough of Cork. That Committee comprises many educationists besides some other persons remotely connected with education. Surely they should be the best judges as to who is the proper person to appoint to the post.
Now we come to the most amazing part of the Minister's reply. The Minister says:
The provisions of the School Attendance and Cork Management Acts were not complied with inasmuch as the Cork City Manager did not approve of the Committee's selection.
Again I would refer the Minister to the letter which emanated from the Town Clerk's office and which stated:
Your appointment, which has been approved by the City Manager, is awaiting the sanction of the Minister for Education.
That was signed by the Town Clerk. So much for these portions of the Minister's reply.
I want to know what does the Minister mean by that portion of the reply: "The provisions of the School Attendance and Cork City Management Acts were not complied with inasmuch as the Cork City Manager did not approve of the Committee's selection"— in view of the letter which I have just read and which I offer to hand over to the Minister when I have finished. Does he mean to tell the School Attendance Committee of Cork that they do not know the meaning of words? The communication which I have read for the Minister states in very definite terms that Mr. McGiff's appointment had been approved by the City Manager and only awaited the sanction of the Minister. I have given the date of that letter, the 29th December, 1931. What I want to know, what many people in Cork want to know and what many more people in other parts of the State outside Cork will want to know at a later date is, what transpired or happened between the 29th December, 1931 and the 28th September, 1932? What happened? Perhaps the Minister will, when he is replying, let us know, but I, too, propose to enlighten the Minister and incidentally the House as to some of the things that did happen.
From the moment this young man was selected for the position a campaign of calumny, a filthy campaign, a very filthy campaign, indeed, was waged against him. First of all it was stated that he was a Black and Tan.
When that kind of propaganda was found not to cut any ice with the Department here in Dublin and when it was proved to be false, without any foundation whatever, resort was had to another and perhaps a filthier line of action. It was suggested that his aged father, who had left the constabulary as a pensioner in 1912, was engaged in the murder of a former Lord Mayor of Cork. That is the kind of propaganda that was used against this young man. I agree that no decent citizen of Cork believed or took any part in that kind of propaganda but the fact is that it was indulged in and gained a good deal of currency, if it did not gain much credence amongst the ordinary, decent-minded people of the city. When that propaganda was met and denied, publicly challenged, as a last resort they had to fall back on the fact that his brother served in the R.I.C. Having failed in the attempt to establish that McGiff himself, the applicant for this position, was a member of any force, military or quasimilitary, having failed to establish that his aged father, who left the R.I.C. years before, had any part in the murder of the Lord Mayor they had to fall back on the fact that he had a brother in the R.I.C.
I could quote from a letter sent to the Minister's Department by Mr. McGiff in which he relates most of these facts. I do not want to read it any great length because I want to give the Minister a chance of reply so I shall hand the letters over to the Minister. I am not aware, however, whether the Minister replied to this communication sent to him by Mr. McGiff because I understand from this young man, whom I met for the first time a week ago, no reply was received to his communication. The Minister replying to the last query in my question, whether he was aware that representatives of the Catholic and Protestant Bishops of Cork, namely Dean Sexton, and Dean Babington, resigned from the Committee as a protest against the refusal of the Minister's Department to sanction the appointment of this young man, said he was not aware that there had been considerable discussion in Cork City with reference to this matter. That there has been considerable discussion is evidenced from the fact that there have been 12 meetings of the Cork Borough School Attendance Committee at each of which mention was made of the McGiff case and it has hung fire ever since. While this appointment was under discussion much Press correspondence has taken place about it, and leading articles have appeared in the Cork local Press dealing with it. That is sufficient to justify my statement that the matter had caused considerable discussion in Cork if one is to understand common or garden English.
I want to know what did the Minister mean when he said that the divisional inspector in a report, to the Department of Education, said that Mr. McGiff had not sufficient knowledge of Irish. Surely it cannot be suggested that a School Attendance Officer, whose business brings him into contact with children up to 14 years of age—the average school-going age of children of the seventh standard—would talk advanced Irish to the children up to that standard. He would not need to speak simple or difficult Irish to the parents of such children, because not one per cent. of them understand Irish at all. Why therefore advanced Irish for children of this class where a man has to deal with boys and girls under 14 years of age? I may be asked to define the seventh standard. I understand there is no standard, but it is a question of boys and girls learning up to that age, approximately, the same standard of Irish as that for the Leaving Certificate. If that is so Mr. McGiff passed that examination very creditably. Furthermore it is said by the Dean who was his professor in College that he was a very good student of Irish and continued his studies in Irish long after leaving College. And all this was not enough for a School Attendance Officer.
