The Minister for Transport and Power wishes to make a personal explanation.
Personal Explanation by Minister.
A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, Deputy L'Estrange at Question Time in the House yesterday said, and I quote from the Official Report of the Dáil Debates:
Mr. B. Lenihan: It is not possible to cast aspersions on Deputy L'Estrange's character.
Mr. L'Estrange: Do not talk about people's character. The Minister paid his own father-in-law £700 that he should not have paid him when he was Minister for Justice and I will produce the file on that if the Minister wants information about it.
Mr. B. Lenihan: Let the Deputy produce the file.
Mr. L'Estrange: The Minister's father-in-law when he was superintendent and was transferred to the west——
Mr. B. Lenihan. I would ask the Deputy to produce the file.
Mr. L'Estrange: The Minister paid him £700. Do not talk to me about character. I will place it above yours and the Lenihans any time.
Mr. B. Lenihan: Let the Deputy produce the file.
Mr. L'Estrange: The Minister is a disgrace. He has reduced the name of this country to that of a banana republic. I will produce the file and give a copy of the allegations——
Mr. Colley: The Deputy should not run away from them again as he did when he made other allegations.
The facts are that my father-in-law, Joseph Devine, was appointed Superintendent in January, 1925. He served as Superintendent in Cavan, the Depot, Fermoy, Kanturk, Swinford, Loughrea, the Depot, Ballymote, Athlone and Killaloe. In September, 1962, he was promoted Chief Superintendent and assigned to Castlebar, County Mayo, where he continued to serve as Chief Superintendent until he retired on reaching the age limit of 63 years in September, 1965. He received the gratuity and superannuation entitlements appropriate to his rank on his retirement.
Over two years after his appointment as Chief Superintendent in September, 1962, I was appointed Minister for Justice in November, 1964. As I have stated, Joseph Devine was Chief Superintendent in Castlebar at that time, and remained as such in that town until his normal retirement ten months later in September, 1965.
I did not pay Joseph Devine £700 as alleged by the Deputy or, indeed, any moneys of any kind either as Minister for Justice or in any other capacity, public or private, at any time. He did, of course, receive from the Department of Justice the salary and emoluments appropriate to his rank.
In the circumstances, I would ask Deputy L'Estrange here and now to withdraw the allegations he has made. In the event of his not doing so I challenge him to repeat his allegations outside the House where appropriate action can and will be taken against him in the courts.
A Leas-Cheann Comhairle——
This does not arise.
I have the file here which was refused to the Comptroller and Auditor General by an order of the present Minister and I want to put the truth on the record.
The Deputy may not pursue the matter.
I was challenged yesterday by the Minister for Finance and the Minister, and here is the file that came out of the office of the Minister for Justice through an official who did not agree with the Minister's carry on.
The Deputy must resume his seat.
I want to ask the Minister did he not, in tears upstairs, ask me not to produce that file three years ago?
That is a lie.
It is the truth.
The Deputy will have to leave the House.
The Minister asked me in tears not to produce the file.
(Interruptions.)
The Minister's late father asked me not to produce it and I told him upstairs that I would not produce it unless the Minister made an attack on me and if he did I would produce it. He asked me with tears in his eyes.
The Deputy will resume his seat.
He asked me with tears in his eyes not to produce the file.
That is a confounded lie.
I have the file here now and 25 copies which I will give to the Press.
I want the file.
I will give one to the Taoiseach if necessary and he can hold an investigation.
The Deputy will resume his seat or leave the House.
I want the file.
There is the file that I was challenged to produce and I am prepared to put it on the records of this House. Am I not to be given an opportunity——
The Deputy is a liar and I will not withdraw that.
The Minister came to me with tears in his eyes and said: "For God's sake do not produce the file" and I said I would not unless the Minister attacked me.
The Deputy never saw me with tears in my eyes.
I said that if the Minister ever attacked me I would produce it. The Minister called me a liar but I am no liar.
Questions.