I put down the following question for answer to-day:—
"To ask the Minister for Finance if he will state (a) the number of men who were dismissed from the Board of Works in the week preceding Christmas, 1949; (b) the number of those men who were since re-employed; (c) the average period of employment, prior to dismissal, of those who were re-employed; (d) the average period of employment, prior to dismissal, of those who were not re-employed; and (e) whether some men were refused re-employment who were members of the I.R.A. and had not National Army discharge papers."
I put down that question for answer principally to find out what was the position of men who served in the Republican Army from 1916-1949 as regards employment in Government or semi-Government institutions. The Parliamentary Secretary, in his reply, as far as I am concerned, made it perfectly clear that the only people who get preferential treatment are men who have had certain service in the Defence Forces and men with military service in the period 1916-1923. Consequently, I am entitled to assume, as far as the present Government is concerned, that men who took up arms in 1916, who helped to proclaim the Republic in 1916, who accepted and swore allegiance in 1919 to the first Dáil which was elected by the people, who remained loyal to the Republic and their oath of allegiance throughout the years that followed right up to 1949, when all Parties in the Twenty-Six Counties accepted the position and the political principles that those men stood for—that, in the Republic which is now generally accepted by all Parties in this country and all Governments outside the country—whose loyalty and steadfast determination was responsible throughout those years for maintaining a republican position, are to be deprived of earning their livelihood in what is generally accepted now as the Republic of Ireland. I am not satisfied with that. I believe that the people who were responsible for maintaining that position should at least get the same recognition as the men who served from 1916 to 1923.
In the first instance, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not raising this matter on the Adjournment because I have any objection at all to men who served in the Defence Forces in any period being offered and accepting special treatment or getting employment in the Republic of Ireland. I have no objection to the men who are described in the answer to-day as men who served from 1916 to 1923, who have military service medals or who are getting pensions or employment in this country. I would point out, however, that in every country of Europe —with the possible exception of Ireland—the people who were steadfast to an ideal and who lived to see that ideal coming to be accepted were not pushed aside. My complaint to-day was that certain men who were employed in the Board of Works for a number of years lost that employment. I had in mind one case in particular of which the Parliamentary Secretary is well aware—that of a man named Kirwan who was never a member of the Regular Army in this country. All his life, from the time he left school, he was a member of the Republican Army. As a member of that army, he served terms of imprisonment in England for what he believed was the best method of bringing home to the British Government the knowledge that while Ireland was unfree she would never be at rest. When he returned to this country he found himself again arrested and interned under a native Government in a native prison camp. On release from prison he applied for and secured employment in the Board of Works. He was there, I understand, for a period of one and a half years. Last Christmas, with a number of other men—some of whom were in a similar position to himself—he was dismissed. The Parliamentary Secretary does not accept the word "dismissed"; he said he was "let go" because of redundancy. It was all the same to Mr. Kirwan and those other men who found themselves idle on Christmas Eve, whether they were "dismissed" or "let go". I cannot see any difference in it. To them there was no difference. The fact of the matter was that on Christmas Eve they had no jobs. In the ordinary course of my duties as a public representative I made representations in writing to the Parliamentary Secretary in connection with some of these men. One of them possessed some of the qualifications that were specified by this Government or the previous Government in respect of 1916 to 1923 service. I understand that he was re-employed about six months later. The other man, in whom I am particularly interested, was sent for last February and told to report to the labour exchange for work. When he went there he was asked for his discharge papers. He explained that the only discharge papers he had were discharge papers from Brixton Prison and the Curragh. He was told there was no employment for him. It was not pointed out to him that if he had a military service medal in respect of the period 1916 to 1923 he might be considered.
I want the Parliamentary Secretary to tell us what the actual attitude of the present Government is towards men who continued loyally in the Republican Army and towards men who possibly dropped out of the Republican Army and took no part in any political organisation outside that during the years 1916 to 1950. Some of them—in fact, quite a number of them—have no medals and no pensions. They did not apply for them. They volunteered and gave service to Ireland when it was needed. They are satisfied that a genuine attempt is made in the Twenty-Six Counties to establish the republican position, having broken the last link which bound this part of the country to Britain. The men who remained on and who still remain on in the Republican Army are not asking for any special favours. They do not want pensions or medals, but they feel, and I feel, that they are entitled to the ordinary privilege which every Irishman should be entitled to, namely, the right to secure employment in his own country, wherever employment is offered.
One field of employment which is sometimes temporary, but which very often becomes permanent, is through the Board of Works, a Department that comes under the jurisdiction of the Parliamentary Secretary. In this Department, as I have already pointed out, some of these people secured employment. During a period of 18 months it is only reasonable to expect that if there was not some vendetta against them they might have been appointed to permanent positions. As my information would tend to indicate, other people who went into the Department afterwards were appointed to permanent positions. If it is the policy of the Government that these men should be accepted on the same terms as other Irishmen, then, when opportunities of permanent employment in the Board of Works present themselves, it is only reasonable to expect that they would have been pushed forward for that employment.
I have made inquiries into this matter and I have challenged the Parliamentary Secretary to make inquiries also as to their suitability as workmen, their character, and their ability to carry out all the duties that were imposed on them during their period of employment there. I think that the Parliamentary Secretary will have to admit that the foremen or supervisors, or whoever would be over those men, have no complaint, good, bad or indifferent, to offer in regard to them.
The position is that we who were colleagues of theirs through that quarter of a century feel that a great advance was made here when all Parties accepted the republican position. We did not want to shout or boast, as we might have, that we won, because naturally, while we were defeated in arms in 1923, those of us who survived to keep the fight going on and who saw the republican position accepted by everyone in 1949, could honestly say: "Well, we have won that round, even though we know there is another one yet to come." But, in winning that round, we feel that we have created a position in which all the forces of the Twenty-Six Counties can be and should be directed together for the purpose of completing the job that was taken in hand in 1916.
It is, however, a deplorable position to see that, far from that, the men who created, through their steadfast loyalty to the republican position, the enmity of their political opponents during those years, should now be deprived of the ordinary privilege of securing work, especially work that is offered in Government or semi-Government institutions.
So far as I am personally concerned, I am taking this opportunity to draw the attention of the Parliamentary Secretary and the House to this position. I want the Parliamentary Secretary to convey my views to the Government, that I believe this vendetta is unjust. I am not quite sure whether it is this Government, the previous Government or the Government before, that was responsible for making this regulation, but in answer to a supplementary question to-day the Parliamentary Secretary said that this was a Government regulation. I put it to him, is the present Government responsible for making this regulation, and I want him to tell the present Government that if that is so, and that if this regulation continues to deprive the men who fought for the Republic throughout the last quarter of a century from getting ordinary employment in that Republic, I will seriously have to consider what loyalty I can continue to give to the Government while that regulation remains on their books.
