Special Committee Defence Bill, 1951 díospóireacht -
Thursday, 13 Mar 1952

SECTION 23.

Question proposed: " That Section 23 stand part of the Bill."

Captain Cowan

I have indicated that I opposed this section and I do so for the purpose of finding out something about it. The wording of the section to me is unusual. The section reads :

" The Minister may by regulations declare that any military body (being a staff, unit or other element organised under Section 22) or any combination of such military bodies shall be a service corps for the purposes of this Act and assign to that service corps such title as he thinks fit.

There is a definition of " service corps " which says :—

" the expression ‘ service corps ' means any military body or combination of military bodies declared to be a service corps by regulations made under Section 23 and for the time being in force."

Do I understand that a service corps means the old corps?

Chairman

A case in point is that the British in modern times found it necessary to bi-sect the corps of engineers, and to a certain extent the ordnance corps, and found a corps of mechanical engineers. It could happen that the Minister who has a certain number of corps on his list traditionally established might find it convenient to set up a corps of mechanical engineers or a chemical warfare corps, and it is in order to be sure that he would have the power to do so that the section is included. With regard to groups, there was a case during the emergency where a rather heterogeneous group was welded into one unit and if the project had developed it might even have become a chemical corps.

Mr. Traynor

The section enables various elements of the Forces to be declared service corps for the purposes of the Act. Sections 60 and 61 provide that men may be enlisted in or appointed to a particular service corps and have the right to remain in their own service corps unless they themselves consent to a transfer. It is, therefore, a very important section continued over from the 1923 Act. In practice all the combatant corps are declared to be service corps for this purpose and, in fact, we could not operate without this section.

Captain Cowan

I put down a note of opposition only for the purpose of having an explanation of what exactly this meant and if there was anything new.

Section agreed to.