Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 28 Apr 1994

Vol. 442 No. 2

Adjournment Debate. - Gaeltacht Grants.

Mr. McCormack

I raise a very serious abuse of his position by the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. I hope I have done him a favour by highlighting this abuse and that the practice has now ceased. I was pleased to facilitate the Minister by agreeing to postpone the matter until he could be present.

This matter was brought to my attention by a number of alert constituents in the Gaeltacht area of west Galway.

Is é seo an saghas litir a bhfuil an tAire ag seoladh amach gach seachtain go mhuintir Gaeltacht Chonamara.

I will read a translation of the letter:

A Chara,

About your application for a grant under the Gaeltacht Housing Act, you will be glad to hear that a grant of £2,300 is granted in your case.

My Department will send you an official letter shortly.

Sincerely,

Michael D.

The extraordinary aspect of the letter is that the Minister sent it to people who never contacted him in the first place. It is obvious he uses inside information to write to people whom he feels might be convinced he is in some way influential in getting them a grant. It is incomprehensible that he would send out in the same prepaid envelope an accompanying slip asking the people to vote for a Labour candidate in the European elections. This states "Please Vote — No. 1 GALLAGHER, Ann". So much for the candidature of his colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of the Gaeltacht, who is also a candidate in Connacht-Ulster for the European Parliament.

It is unbelievable that the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht should engage in this and similar tactics on joining Fianna Fáil in Government. In Opposition he strongly condemned such practices and often castigated politicans engaged in lesser types of clientelism or gombeen politics. He has surpassed Fianna Fáil in his practice of attempted deception of the electorate.

Where are the ethics in government of the Labour Party? Where is the Deputy Michael D. whom we all knew, and some loved? Where is the Michael D. who wrote the pamphlet on "Clientelism in Irish Politics"? I read a copy of his booklet and it is unbelievable that one who so abhorred and condemned such practices should now become a master of the art. He should read again his own publication. I have found many suitable quotations from his work which would condemn his present pursuit of gombeenism in Irish politics. There are many notable quotations one could use from the Minister's own publication, if time permitted. I will make it available to any interested students of political clientelism but I will quote only two small passages. On page 121 he states:

Clientelist politicians in the opinion of the author rarely objectively influence a decision. They create the illusion of assistance however.

In the last paragraph on page 138 he says:

I am convinced that the clientelist approach seriously sells as short and distracts attention from the real basis of economic exploitation, political domination and ideological manipulation in Irish society.

This flowery language is a direct quotation from The Limits of Clientelism — towards an assessment of Irish Politics by Michael D. Higgins.

Those were the days my friend, I thought they would never end. I hope I have achieved some good in correcting the Minister in the error of his ways and perhaps nipped this serious matter in the bud.

Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht (Mr. M. Higgins)

Dírim aire aird an Teachta McCormack ar an bhfeagra a thug mé sa Teach ar an ceist seo uaidh faoin ábhar chéanna ar an 26 Aibreán 1994.

As I stated then arrangements are in place in my Department whereby individuals, committees or organisations are informed of decisions in regard to grants which have been approved as a result of applications submitted by them. I have made inquiries with regard to the reference the Deputy has made to canvassing material for the European elections and I communicated this to him in the reply to his parliamentary question, which he now chooses to ignore. It appears that during Easter when I was absent from my office due to illness, a member of my staff inadvertently included in a small number of letters referring to departmental matters a canvassing card for Ann Gallagher. A small number of letters were inadvertently placed with letters addressed to members of the Labour Party and as I was absent she signed them on my behalf.

Mr. McCormack

My branch chairman got one.

Mr. M. Higgins

I have explained this to the Deputy. Let me assure him once more that this was done in error. The member of my staff correctly pointed out her error to me and I apologised for it. I understand that there may have been five or perhaps six letters involved. I regret that the Deputy has chosen to seek to sensationalise what appears to amount to, in fact, a clerical error. If he had contacted me directly on the matter, the facts of the situation would have been explained to him fully and indeed to his informant. I am sure the people of Galway West, whom we both have the honour of representing, would prefer to see matters of greater import being raised in Dáil Éireann.

Deputy McCormack referred to my previous writing and work as a political scientist of over 20 years. I have never published a pamphlet unless the pages from the book to which he refers have been torn or reproduced. I have contributed chapter V1 to a book on European politics. It is one of a number of contributions I was proud to make during my time as a political scientist in the employment of University College Galway. The book, edited by Christopher Clapham and published by the Cambridge University Press about 1982 has references to the Irish political system where I point out that communications have less effect than many people think. Later works, following my own research, took a different view.

An error was made by a member of my staff, for which I apologised when she pointed it out to me, involving five or perhaps six letters. This has been magnified out of all proportion by a Deputy who chooses to concentrate on this kind of thing rather than the significant achievements we are able to make in Galway West.

On the question of communications from my office, if the Deputy writes to me on behalf of any person who has made an application to my Department he will be courteously informed in exactly the same way. No letter has ever issued from my Department which suggests that a person's entitlement under a scheme has been due to me and I have never asked for political loyalty. I make this point because it is very important. When I became an tAire Ealaíon, Cultúir agus Gaeltachta I defended and kept scéim na tithe in the Gaeltachts. I later was privileged to be able to increase it. I am anxious also that it be operated efficiently in the administrative sense. People frequently write to me about delays in the allocation of grants. All communications from my Department are proper; an error was made in five or six for which I apologise. A member of my staff has also apologised. I would have much preferred if the person involved had communicated either through Deputy McCormack who is a member of his party or directly to me and I would have arranged for an apology to be issued directly. In the absence of any other efficacious item to report in the local newspapers Deputy McCormack chose to sensationalise this matter out of all proportion. Our constituents can judge at the appropriate time which of us has been using the time of the Dáil best.