On the occasion of the adjournment last Wednesday, I was dealing with the performance of the present Minister for Education, then acting-Minister for the Gaeltacht, when he had to come into this House after he had spoken on the Estimate for the Gaeltacht, to make a correction. The goods which I alleged, and truthfully alleged, had been supplied to Shannon Airport in contravention of the terms of his agreement about tweed by the Dublin agent, had been supplied, according to the Minister in the debate on his Estimate, by Aer Rianta. The Minister for Education, who, on public occasions, mainly in the opening of schools, reminds the young to be faithful to the ideals of this country and to be particularly protective about the truth, had to come into this House the day afterwards to tell the House and the country that the statement he had made, with his advisers at his elbow, in his closing speech on the Estimate was not in accordance with facts, was, in fact, a falsehood and untrue and the reason he had to do it was, as I said, that Aer Rianta at Shannon Airport got on to the Department of the Gaeltacht the next day and told them that such was not the case.
He came into the House to explain that what he meant was the goods had been supplied to the Great Southern Hotel in Galway and that naturally they were supplied after having been purchased by the Central Purchasing Office of C.I.E., at Thomas Street, and alleged that that was always the practice, that that was then the practice and would continue to be the practice. So far is it from the truth that, within the last three months, the western areas agent has been appeased to this extent, by being given an order and by being allotted the commission on it in that very same hotel which the Minister's predecessor alleged always purchased, in accordance with practice, from the C.I.E. Central Depot in Thomas Street, and I want the Minister, when replying, if he does reply, to deny that, if he can.
That was one of the reasons I gave in writing, before leaving the Department, for the dismissal of this agent, that he sold goods in other agents' areas and that he sold a commodity, namely, tweed, within the Twenty-Six Counties in respect of which he had a very solemn agreement with Gaeltarra Éireann that it was for export only.
There will be a distinction made, I have no doubt, between the agent qua agent and the agent as the principal owner of a company that exports things, but I want to tell the House about the company. I want to give certain little facts about this company, and this is no hearsay; these are figures extracted by me in the Companies Office in Dublin Castle from the file relating to the company of which this agent is the sole owner, because I took the view, as did the permanent head of the Department, that, being sole owner of a business of this magnitude, he could not give the time that was necessary and the time that was stipulated as necessary, namely, full time, in the performance of his duties as an agent for a State Department.
There was a company of capital £9,000. There was no information to show whether that capital had been fully subscribed or not, nor is there any information to show whether it is yet fully subscribed; but, on 10th December, 1956, one partner left and, if the inquiry such as I seek were given, it would be interesting to hear the reasons why the partner left that company. The shares were transferred on 10th December, 1956, and the agent himself informed the management of Gaeltarra Éireann that he was as from that date the sole owner of this business. He informed me in the presence of the principal officers of the Department of the Gaeltacht that he was the sole owner. Yet, the Minister's predecessor, the Minister for Education, who adjures us often to have respect for the truth says: "No, he is not," because, as he says, an additional director was appointed in December, 1956. Listen to this: on 19th of December, of the 4,500 shares relinquished and sold to the surviving partner by the outgoing partner, 4,499 were added to the existing 4,500 of this agent, leaving him with 8,999 shares in this company and the one share was transferred to his typist in order to comply with the Companies' Acts—one share of the £9,000 capital.
The agreement between Gaeltarra Éireann and this company was that Gaeltarra Éireann would supply him with tweed for export only. Everybody in the tweed trade or in the clothes trade in this country in any shape or form knows that that agreement was violently broken on every possible occasion by this agent, and, by subterfuge and by all kinds of secret deals with traders all over the country, he sold the tweed within the country and, in one particular case, it was proven to the hilt. Still, they say it does not mean anything.
Perhaps Deputies would like to know, and the country would like to know, that the warehouseman in Gaeltarra Éireann who operates during the day there is the employee by night of the company which this agent owns, and it will be interesting also to know that people who work in Gaeltarra Éireann by day and elsewhere by night, earning relatively low salaries or wages, can afford to live at a rate higher than even the senior officers of the Department. How is it done? You may well ask yourselves how it is done.
On the 27th November of last year, I raised on the Adjournment the subject-matter of a question which I had asked the Minister at Question Time on 21st November, arising out of the reply which I then received. As I said that evening on the Adjournment, I framed that question deliberately in order to see how far the present Minister would use his legal knowledge to protect this agent and withhold the whole truth from the House and from the country. I asked the Minister if he would state the amount due and owing to the Gaeltarra Éireann section of his Department by a firm (name supplied) on each accounting date in the months of June, July, August, September and October, 1957, and, further, if he would state whether goods were still being delivered to the said firm, and, if so, whether on a cash or credit basis.
The Minister replied that, as the answer was in the form of a tabular statement, he proposed, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to circulate it with the Official Report. The tabular statement consisted of five lines comprising the months June, July, August, September and October, and, against each of these five months, a sum of money. The reason the Minister's reply to my question was framed in the form of a tabular statement was that I could not raise the matter immediately afterwards by way of supplementary question.
Everybody accustomed to trade practices knows that amounts of money for goods supplied are not due until the discount term has passed, but, of course, it is owing all the time. In my question, I used the expression "due and owing". I used that phrase deliberately in order to see how far the Minister was prepared to go to protect this individual and, at the same time, to withhold vital information from the House.
I am not so sure that these are the figures, from my experience of the accountancy department of this section of Gaeltarra Éireann. My experience of it and of its head was recorded in that office in writing before I left it. I considered him a person who operated efficiently under difficult circumstances. I deliberately left that in writing because I recognised the difficulties which confronted an honest man, however efficient he might be. I am not at all satisfied that these were the figures supplied to the Minister to answer my question. I am satisfied that the figures were altered by the Minister in order to bring them into line with the phrase "due and owing".
Of course, not having then been in office and, possibly, not then having any idea that he would be given charge of this Ministry, the Minister could not—by way of interesting himself or by way of being careful—have referred himself to the speech of his predecessor at the end of the debate on the Estimate for the Gaeltacht on 25th June, 1957. As reported at column 951 of the Official Report, Volume 164, No. 6, the Minister told us that the amount this gentleman owed to Gaeltarra Éireann on the accounting date in June was £591 6s. 9d. Listen to what his predecessor said in this House —under pressure—on 25th June, 1957, as reported in the Official Report, Volume 162, column 1207:—
"The current amount due by that company to Gaeltarra Éireann is, I understand, £9,370. I am told that credit is allowed to companies and individuals who deal with Gaeltarra Éireann on the basis of reports from trade associations and banks. That was done in this case just as in the cases of other customers.
Mr. Lindsay: The amount of credit is greater than the actual capital of the company. The Minister, I am sure, does not know whether that capital has been fully subscribed or not."
You see, this agent, having been restored by the Minister's predecessor —no doubt, on the advice of the Government and after very solemn discussion about it in Party circles—had to be protected; but the present Minister forgot, when he was giving a figure of £591 6s. 9d., that his predecessor had acknowledged for the same month and for what, I take it, is the same accounting date, a figure of £9,370.
