Somebody will have to tell us to-night, or at some other time, what is the purpose of the recruitment of these people. It is on record that the purpose is to put down a gang of ruffians who have perfected a technique of terrorism. These are not my words. I am quoting the Minister for Industry and Commerce. This estimate covers 220 men. Deputy Linehan referred to this as the third special force. The people who preceded them were an experiment in the way of a special force. They were called "harriers". They were known throughout the country in odious and derisive fashion by that name and they richly deserved the odium and the derision cast upon them. So bad were they that we had it from a judge of the High Court that three of them were guilty of attempted murder, and he asked that the names be sent forward to the Attorney-General with a request that they be prosecuted. When, under the Emergency Powers Bill, I asked about these three men, I was told that one had certainly left the Guards. The then Minister for Justice thought that a second man had left, too, but I got the impression that the third man was still in the force. I hope that is not so. I would like to have an assurance, which would help to restore the confidence which was definitely shattered by the "harriers", that these three persons have been kicked out of the Guards.
That judge did make a distinction between the special force and the ordinary force, and it is a distinction which still prevails in the minds of the country people. It is recognised that the Guards have to attend to their duties. There is some doubt as to whether the duties they are asked to give attention to are worth all the attention which is showered upon them. In any event, however, it was not their duty to decide that; they simply did what they were told to do and they did their work effectively, but again this special squad came in and everybody knows that it was initiated for political purposes. Everybody knows that it was one way of getting political adherents for the Party, and possibly it was also one way of buying off a certain number of people who had paraded themselves as republicans, and perhaps it was thought that their republican sympathies could be diverted or merged easily into gathering particulars about licensed houses and into gathering statistics about crops and so on. That, of course, did not work, and the judge who decided the Marsh's Yard case did say that, while the citizens as a whole, he thought, had every right to have confidence in the force as a whole, they certainly had lost that confidence because of the infusion of these alien elements into their ranks. Something at least, it would appear, has been done, if, as is laid down under the Emergency Order, these people are to be appointed and recruited by the present Commissioner of the Gárdaí, because he has the confidence of the people.
I think it can be said that the present Commissioner absolutely has the confidence of the people, and if he is going to be allowed to recruit these men I think there is very little danger of any bias being given because of the political views that may be held by these people, and certainly there is going to be no bias in his mind in connection with people who have temporarily abandoned a career of something in the nature of roguery in order to become members of the police force and guardians of the people. Apart from that, however, there is no doubt that the force did suffer very much from the infiltration of these "Harriers." It certainly did, and I think nobody can deny it. They were a demoralising influence on the force and I think that they certainly led to a certain break-up of the morale of the Government themselves. At any rate, so far as the Guards are concerned, we have not yet had the spectacle that arose in this country the other day where a member of the Defence Forces had to be dragged to his feet in court, then saying that he did not recognise the court, and still allowed to go around with his uniform on him. As I say, we have not yet got to that stage so far as the Gárdaí are concerned, but we have the case of these three men who were before the High Court and who had the castigation thrown upon them by the judge that they were attempted murderers. Nobody can say that that was just a matter of one wing of the force, or that there was no question of the possibility of weakening confidence in the force as a whole. However, I hope that that kind of thing is a thing of the past and I hope that the Minister will give a precise answer to Deputy Linehan's request that the present Commissioner will be allowed to recruit these men entirely on his own, without any trouble and without any question of political bias, and that he will be enabled to make his choice on the standards that he thinks will best suit the force.
With regard to these forces themselves, the Minister knows very well that there must be a certain restraint of language in dealing with such matters. One comes in here and states certain things, and then one is challenged as to whether one knows that things are so or not. The Minister can always drive one further by asking for proof, and then when it becomes clear that the allegation is true, one is blamed for having brought it up here. Does the Minister think it wise to ask me or other Deputies to give him day and date as to people who have been dislodged from the Guards because something they did was repugnant to the Government? I shall give him some of these cases, if he likes. The Minister may not wish me to do so, but they are to be had. If the Minister likes to put a definite challenge to me to mention these cases in the House, I shall do so, but I should prefer not to be asked to speak of them in the House openly. Possibly, however we can leave that.
Now, the Minister is going to get a couple of hundred people, and I should like to find out from him, simply as a matter of curiosity, who drafted the oath that these people have to take. It is set out in the Emergency Orders. The judges have to take an oath in accordance with the Constitution, and that oath runs to about five lines, but these people have a double mouthful to swallow. They have to swear and affirm their good faith doubly, and apparently there is no appreciation of, let us say, the Quaker element or anything else in it. I think that, even prior to solemnly pledging their oath and making their affirmation, these people are made to promise certain things on their word of honour. I do not know whether that is supposed to catch out people who might have the "empty formula" conscience—it probably is—but I cannot understand the things that are to be put into the mouths of these people who, apparently, are to get £2 5s. a week and who are to be recruited by and under the control of the Commissioner. As I say, however, as a matter of curiosity, I should like to know who it was who drew up that oath. I do not think it was the Minister himself.
