This resolution asks the Dáil to declare that it is expedient to authorise the payment of money for the promotion by the Minister for External Affairs of a limited company to be called the Irish News Agency for the collection, dissemination and publication of news and information inside and outside the State. It relates to that feature of the News Agency Bill which we regard as most objectionable. We, therefore, have to oppose this resolution. It would be inconsistent on our part to assent to its adoption by the Dáil, having regard to our attitude to the features of the Bill and, particularly, to the sections dealing with the proposal to establish a limited company.
If the Minister had come to the Dáil with a proposal to vote money, even to the extent of the £25,000 which it is proposed to make available to this company, to finance the publication through his Department of information concerning cultural matters or trade matters or other information of general interest about Ireland, while we might have had doubts as to the value of the expenditure we would have had much less objection to the proposal than we have to this Bill. We would have had less objection because we would have felt that there was no pretence about that proposal. We would have been able to assess, without prejudice, the value that might result from the expenditure and we could consider sanctioning it for one year or more, knowing that if the value proved to be less than the proposer of the motion had expected we could terminate the expenditure without difficulty.
Instead, however, of a simple proposal to provide money for cultural propaganda or other forms of national propoganda outside our territory, or for the straightforward dissemination of information about our country and its people which other countries might be glad to receive, we have a Bill which is designed to establish what is described as a company—a pretence of creating a commercial organisation similar in character to commercial news agencies such as exist elsewhere. We have that company established in this Bill, which contains a number of provisions which are senseless except for the purpose of leading the House to believe that this company, called the news agency, masquerading under a commercial form, will be able to earn revenue, will be able, in the course of time, to establish a position for itself in which subventions from the taxpayer will not be required and even to repay the amounts advanced in its earlier years. We do not like that pretence.
When the Bill was before the Dáil on its Second Reading I described the organisation which it proposed to establish as a fake company and, having re-examined the Bill for the purpose of dealing with it in Committee, I do not think that description is unjustified. I do not know what were the motives of the Minister, or the Government, in deciding that this cultural or trade propaganda which they are desirous of undertaking abroad should be conducted through a fake company of this kind rather than through a Government Department. The Department of External Affairs does, as we know, undertake certain duties at the present time, bearing upon the work proposed for this company and involving the distribution—on a limited scale, it is true —of information concerning events here. What practical advantages, from the Minister's point of view, follow from his decision to do this work through a company established in the manner proposed by this Bill rather than through his Department? Perhaps he will tell us that. I may say to him that it seems to us that the advantage which he can gain by proceeding on the lines of the Bill rather than on the more straightforward line to which I have referred are threefold. First, he may be able to escape personal responsibility in the Dáil if the work done by the company abroad is of a character which brings it under public disapproval here. I do not think he can be very optimistic of escaping that personal responsibility, but we know that in so far as the work is to be done by a company to be established under the Companies Act there will be a possible loophole by which the Minister can hope to dodge responsibility if it does happen that the work of this organisation is unsatisfactory in the public view or less beneficial to the national interests than the Minister claims to hope.
Secondly, by doing this work through a company of the kind proposed in this Bill rather than through his Department, he secures the advantage of being able to appoint staff to the company on his own initiative and not through the machinery established by the Civil Service Regulations Acts. Any extension of the activities of his Department involving, as is contemplated here, the employment of staff, would be brought to the attention of the Civil Service Commissioners and through the competitive machinery of the Civil Service Regulations Acts the Civil Service Commissioners would find that staff on the principle of selecting from those who apply for advertised posts the applicants who, in the opinion of the Commissioners, were best qualified for the work. There are, of course, no similar restrictions upon the company that is to be established under this Bill. Thirdly—and it seems to me that this may have been the predominant consideration—at the time the Minister planned the Bill and got Government approval for it, Government policy was still one of economy—at least it was so described—and there may have been in the minds of Ministers some anxiety that the purity of their economic policy would be damaged if they came to the Dáil with proposals to spend £25,000 a year upon this work as a straightforward grant. Instead, therefore, they devised this elaborate system of a company to be established under the Companies Act for the purpose of disguising the expenditure, not as grants, but as repayable advances, and therefore to give the illusion that no real cost to the taxpayer was likely to result because he could hope that in the course of time the money now provided to the company would be restored to him out of the profits the company is going to make. We know that this company cannot, in fact, earn enough money to pay its operating expenses, much less pay interest on the advances or repay the advances at any time. If there are any other reasons why this expenditure is to be canalled through a company of the kind proposed in this Bill with a capital of £100 rather than through the Department of External Affairs, I would be glad to know them. The advantages to which I have referred, a possible escape from responsibility for work done, greater freedom in the selection of staff and the pretence that the money may be repaid, are considerable, but it does not appear to me that there can be any others. If the Minister withdraws this Bill because of the objections that have been voiced and because the Dáil dislikes establishing companies of the type proposed here which are really intended to do work proper to a Government Department and which can have no likelihood of having a commercial future and if he substitutes for the Bill a straightforward proposal to extend the information service of his Department, even to the extent represented by an increase in the Department Estimate of £25,000 a year, and does, through that information service of his Department, the work which he proposes should be done through this company, then we are prepared to consider that proposal on its merits.
The proposal in the Bill, however, appears to be in essence fraudulent and it has aroused among us suspicions as to the real motives of the Minister. While these suspicions remain unallayed we must oppose the Bill. We have suggested certain amendments which would make it less objectionable but the essence of our opposition to it is based upon its form and upon this pretence that a commercial organisation is being created which can earn money and which can repay the amount provided out of the Exchequer for its establishment. We know that that will not happen and therefore we are not prepared to agree to the establishment of such a company and in so far as this financial resolution is mainly the result of the proposal to establish this company, then we must oppose the financial resolution also.
