There was never an occasion to my mind when the rank and file of the Fianna Fáil Party spoke with clear outspoken voices on the problems that confronted this House. I have repeatedly myself from these benches challenged the seats of silence behind the Fianna Fáil Ministers and asked them individually and collectively to play the part in this House that they were sent here to play. Week after week and month after month, through very difficult times here, I appealed to those on the Fianna Fáil Benches to be outspoken on Irish affairs. One of the most sinister, disturbing and destructive things in our time has been the silence of the Fianna Fáil Party. However, I did not rise to go into that matter here. I am anxious to state the case simply. I do not desire to go into the past. Deputies on the other side may, by interruption or otherwise, desire to lead the discussion further than I do at present but I shall try to avoid that. Deputy Kennedy has indicated that he does not want to go into the past of the Taoiseach. Nobody wants to do that. Nobody, realising the critical circumstances of the world, having regard to our function here and to the critical situation which may lie in front of the country, ought to want to go into the past. When I speak of our lack of confidence in Eamon de Valera as Taoiseach, I necessarily base my lack of confidence on the happenings of the past but I do not bring my mind to bear on that past. It is in relation to the present and the future, and because we want to be outspoken and clear, that I make the statement that we have no confidence in the Taoiseach as leader of a Government. Though that statement is based on happenings in the past, I have no desire to go into the past. The Government of to-morrow will have very big jobs to do and will have a very serious responsibility. But, in my opinion, the job that will fall to the lot of the Opposition Parties in this House will be bigger and graver and may easily be more responsible.
No Government in any country has greater powers than the Government here has. With two exceptions, every single power that any group of men serving as a Government might require the members of the present Government have. As regards the two exceptions, they are explicitly prevented from imposing taxation without reference to Parliament and they are explicitly prevented from imposing conscription, industrial or military, without reference to Parliament. These are the only two powers they cannot exercise without reference to Parliament. I anticipate that a Fianna Fáil Government will be set up under the leadership of Eamon de Valera. That Government will have a majority in this House. There will be nothing to prevent them from imposing, by weight of that majority, either taxation or conscription, so that, so far as the Government is concerned, they will have all the powers that any set of men could have. They will, therefore, have the fullest possible facility for tackling their work. They will have the complete support of the people in doing anything that will be for the good of the country. Ever since this emergency occurred, that has been made perfectly clear from every side of the House and that support will continue so far as this side of the House is concerned. In the case of a Government equipped with such powers, a Government that may in the future show the spirit that the Fianna Fáil Government has shown in the past, occasions may arise upon which a very serious responsibility will fall upon opposition Parties to defend the liberties and the interests of the people generally. We hope that those occasions will not arise.
There is one fundamental difference between our Party and the Fianna Fáil Party. The Fianna Fáil Party in the past, and in its presentation of matters during the election campaign, developed, by propaganda and otherwise, the idea of one-man government. Serious and necessary criticism either by members of the Oireachtas or by persons outside was represented as personal. Normal, natural, called-for criticism in the public interest is degraded by propaganda and it is suggested that it is inspired by personal motives. Most of us have been long enough in the public life of the country and have engaged in pursuits ourselves and called upon others to carry out work of so serious a kind that we should be given credit for being above mere personalities. We should be given credit for being concerned with the real interests of the country. When we get up and criticise here, I hope that we will get away from certain difficulties which arose in the past and that we will be given credit for offering definitely-stated opinions on definitely stated facts entirely in the public interest. If we have any sense of personal dignity or personal responsibility and if we have regard for the difficulties of our own people and the shocking difficulties under which other people are labouring, we should be completely lifted above personalities of any kind. When I say on the part of our Party, and on my own behalf, that we have no confidence in Eamon de Valera as Taoiseach, I do not say that in a merely personal way but as a matter of grave public policy and as a warning, if warnings can be of any use that those things which inspired that want of confidence in the past on our part ought to disappear. If he, and the other members of the Fianna Fáil Party, were fully sensible of the position which requires to be dealt with and of the fact that only the people as a whole can deal with it, I believe they would rise above the feelings, actions and policies which have caused that want of confidence and which have led to loss of opportunity for the country.
Whatever assistance we can give to the Government, by advice or otherwise, we are prepared to give. I think that every member of the Fine Gael Party has in the past given full and complete proof of that. We believe that a Government lifted up to a sense of the Christian and democratic dignity of life and its responsibility should deal with our present situation here. We have been recently concerned for the safety of Rome. Why? Our concern for the safety of Rome is only convention and humbug if we do not relate it to our Christian faith. We believe that the policy which Fianna Fáil have run with regard to one man is contrary to the Christian and democratic way of life and outlook on life. Propaganda is used to dull and obscure the minds of our people and to demean them in their own opinion. While it is customary on the part of some Fianna Fáil leaders to charge other people with being Communists, the whole technique on the political side of the Fianna Fáil Party has been to breed in the minds of our people that lack of confidence in themselves, that lack of appreciation of Christian and human dignity, which our faith should keep clearly before us, which goes to create Communism.
The main difference between us is that we stand for a democratic way of life, for the democratic lifting of our people, by making them face the facts of Irish life and realise that they have their part, either as individuals or in communities of one kind or another, to play in both defending and building up the country. The attitude of the Fianna Fáil Party is the other way, to make it a one-man Government, and through Party favouritism of one kind, and Party patronage in business, in commerce, in the Civil Service, and in every other way, to build up a machine that will serve the one man, controlling the national life. It is for that reason that in a formal and clear way we desire to show our lack of confidence in the Taoiseach as Leader of an Irish Government, by voting against this motion.