I want to preface my remarks here tonight by quoting an extract from a speech made by Mr. Peadar O'Donnell at a Fianna Fáil victory rally in College Green, Dublin, in January, 1932: He said:
The policeman who puts his head between the head of Mr. Cosgrave and the heads of angry Irishmen would be well advised to keep his head at home.
No doubt, a Cheann Comhairle, you are familiar with this quotation. I strongly suspect the same attitude prevails today in the minds of some Fianna Fáil Deputies and Ministers in relation to members of the Garda Síochána. Do the Government and the Minister for Justice, I wonder, appreciate the efforts being made by the gardaí, especially in Border areas, to supply them with on-the-spot reports of British Army aggression.
Now, my reason for endeavouring to put down this question as a Special Notice Question today was because I was on the spot on Sunday last and I saw the conditions under which the members of the Garda Síochána were forced by the Government to act. They were without proper equipment. It was not until yesterday evening that I knew they were acting without this proper equipment because the Government had failed to supply them with it. I know full well that they will be called on to act again under the same, or maybe worse, conditions next Sunday. Since tomorrow is the last day of the parliamentary session I had no alternative but to try to table my question today in the form of a Special Notice Question. I did not mind if the question was taken in the normal way tomorrow, but I was told by you, Sir, that this question was ruled out for Special Notice and that it would not be taken as an ordinary question tomorrow. It is for this reason that I take exception to your remarks here today, a Cheann Comhairle, in describing my question as "a typical Deputy Fox mischievous question". I certainly take exception to that phrase and to the use of those terms.