Vol. 191 No. 7
Tá Teachtaireacht faighte agam ón Uachtarán á chur in iúl gurb é breith na Cúirte Uachtaraí nach bhfuil an Bille Toghcháin (Leasú), 1961, in aghaidh an Bhunreachta ná in aghaidh aon fhorála de agus, dá bhrí sin, gur chuir sé a lámh leis an mBille.
I have received a Message from the President stating that the Supreme Court has decided that the Electoral (Amendment) Bill, 1961, is not repugnant to the Constitution or to any provision thereof, and that he had accordingly signed the Bill.
I hope the Fine Gael Party will account for the misspent money.
What did the Tánaiste say in that connection?
I hope that the Fine Gael Party will account for the money misspent in challenging the validity of the principles on which the first Bill was framed, now that they have been confirmed by the Supreme Court.
Has the Tánaiste the brazen faced audacity to say that this money was misspent by having the Bill referred to the Supreme Court?
I am informing the Deputy what the reasonable people in Ireland may now deduce as regards the first Bill.
And I am informing Dáil Éireann that the Tánaiste expressed the view that this Bill should be referred to the Supreme Court. Does he deny that?
I should like to underline the point that the Tánaiste is now expressing the view that the Supreme Court was wrong in turning down the application made with regard to the first Bill. Is there any other interpretation that can be put by the Dáil on the statement originally made by the Tánaiste but that he questions the judgment of the Supreme Court in respect of the first case?
The squabble in the Fine Gael Party over the first Bill has cost the people £15,000.
It is a great abuse that the Tánaiste should intervene in this sense seeing that he himself as a member of the Council of State requested the President of this country to refer the Bill to the Supreme Court.
We have become completely silent on the cost of Fianna Fáil to this country.
I am asking the Leader of the House——
He is not the Leader of the House, thank God.
I must protest against the constitutional impropriety of which the Leader of the Opposition has been guilty. The advice tendered by the Council of State to the President is confidential.
It is not. There is nothing in the Constitution to say that it is.
That confidence has been broken by the Leader of the Opposition.
Whether it is or not, you will not be allowed to prostitute our constitutional procedure by denying your own action in public.
Or institutions of Parliament.
The Minister tried to break them up before and he will be prevented again. The wrecker in chief, Seán MacEntee.
Order.
I am sorry that I had provoked the Opposition into this unparliamentary conduct.
You well may be. Your conduct reflects no credit on you.
