I think that just before I moved the Adjournment last night I had been dealing with Section 3 of the Bill and the reasons, why, because of this section, the Bill has been made the target of so much criticism. I had been dealing with the question of labour unrest and I had expressed the hope that the sanest of counsels would prevail when the whole question of wage adjustment, prices and profits had been investigated. Is it too much to ask of the acting Minister that we should be given some idea of Government policy in regard to this question of wages and their adjustment? The public, I pointed out last night, is not alone suspicious, as Senator O'Brien said, but the public is disgusted at the conduct of the present Government. As soon as a problem arises a commission or committee is established or a new board is appointed. The country has suffered and individuals have suffered severely because of Government policy in regard to certain industries. Emigration got a new fillip on the advent of the Coalition.
The Government has failed, and failed miserably, to deal with this question of transport. Just 12 months ago we were handed the Milne Report. On the release of that report, a campaign of vilification was launched against the then management of Córas Iompair Éireann. The Government declared that it had a way of solving the transport problems of the country. What has happened? Transport charges have gone up. Transport charges affect everybody in the country. They affect the industrialists, the merchant, the trader and the worker. They affect the housewife; they affect school-going children. Transport costs have gone up and certainly transport services have not been improved. The company is faced with heavy losses and the public is still left to shiver on the quays for the want of adequate shelter.
To-day we are on the brink of a transport crisis; we are actually into that crisis. I do not know how many men have gone on strike but I understand there is something like 7,000 out. The first thing we notice about it is that it is not a lightning strike. We may thank God for that. The issues involved in this strike have been known, it appears, for a considerable time. Trouble has been brewing for a long time. When the campaign for the reorganisation of the transport system of the country was launched, we were assured that the old board was antagonistic to the interests of the workers, that it was because of that antagonism, because of the indifference of the then management to the workers, that there was so much unrest amongst the servants of the company. Some of the people, one at least a member of this House, who were most vocal on that occasion and who denounced the old board for its indifference to the interests of the workers have since been pitchforked into directorships of Córas Iompair Éireann. Nevertheless, the country is now plunged into this crisis.
There is no use in the Minister saying that Córas Iompair Éireann is no longer the responsibility of the Department of Industry and Commerce. What is the policy of the Board of Córas Iompair Éireann with regard to labour? What is the Government's policy with regard to labour? I would like to know to what extent it is differing from the policy of the board that has been sent down and replaced by the nominees of the Minister for Industry and Commerce.
I realise the gravity of the situation and I regret, as does everybody in this House, that strike action has been taken. These men must feel some grave sense of injustice or they would never, to the extent that they have, have taken the action they have taken, particularly at the present time. How that difficulty is going to be resolved, I do not know, but I think it is the duty of the Minister, in view of the gravity of the situation, to indicate what steps the Government feel they ought to take to end this deadlock.
Senator O'Brien, Senator Douglas and Senator Baxter held forth last night on the seriousness of the situation that is developing out of this dissatisfaction over wages. The House fully realises the gravity of the situation, but it is very little the House can do. Might I make this suggestion to Senator Douglas and to Senator O'Brien and, if I might throw in Senator Baxter for good measure, that they might approach their colleagues in the Coalition who happen to be paid organisers in the union involved in this dispute, the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs and the bunch with him who were formerly known as National Labour, and ask them to use their influence with the members of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union who are now on strike. These paid organisers, persuasive gentlemen as they are, ought to be able to convince the workers that the cost of living has not gone up and that the conditions offered them by the management of Córas Iompair Éireann are conditions that they ought to accept without question.
Will the Minister appoint an advisory board under this Bill to inquire into the conduct of the management of Córas Iompair Éireann in introducing diesel traction on to the rails? We were told of the inadvisability of such a step. We know the serious view the Minister took of it and we know how the Minister in that view with regard to diesel traction was supported by front benchers on the other side and by back benchers, by benchers to the right and by benchers to the left, on that matter. I understand that the directors of Córas Iompair Éireann now approach their offices holding their noses in order to avoid the smell that is arising from the pollution resulting from the placing of a diesel on the tracks of their company. Someone suggested last night that it was all a mistake, that that engine is a concoction of Senator Quirke on the part of Fianna Fáil and while the directors were out enjoying their elevenses he stole in and placed it on the rails.
Senator Quirke denies that; Senator Quirke's explanation is that it was Dada Christmas, as the children call him, who placed it there as a Christmas gift for the Minister for Industry and Commerce, that he might take the officials of the transport section of his Department and the other sections who now have nothing to do in view of all the committees that have been set up, for joy rides in order to pass all the time they now have on their hands. Will an advisory body be set up to investigate the conduct of Córas Iompair Éireann in that regard?
No wonder people are suspicious; no wonder people are critical of the Minister and critical of this Bill. When a problem arises we get a new committee or a new commission. Here is just one other type of committee or commission, the type provided for in Section 3 of this Bill. The Minister will, I hope, indicate to us what his policy is with regard to labour unrest in general and in regard to the unrest in the transport services in particular.
The Minister, in his opening address, dealt with the troubles that have developed in consequence of devaluation and of the Korean war. He seems to think that a good deal of our troubles have developed because of devaluation, and he is right in that. The only thing I regret is that when the Government were warned, as they were warned from these benches, of the possibility of the £ slumping and of the necessity to take measures in time, they did not heed our advice—instead, they sneered at us.
You will remember that on the occasion when the grave statements denouncing devaluation were made in Britain, the members of the Government were out somewhere gorging themselves at a big dinner. No wonder the public feels dissatisfied.
The Minister has talked of the effects of the Korean war. There are Senators in this House who will remember when in the summer of this year we, on these benches, drew the attention of the Government to the grave international situation that was developing. There are Senators in this House who guffawed at our mention of the possibility of war and it was suggested actually from the front bench on the other side that by our adverting to the possibility of war we were merely engaging in a political stunt and that, in fact—the words were used—"we were playing the communist game." A week later the Seanad met, and by the time the Seanad had met war had broken out.
Senator Baxter last night asked Senator Quirke did he think there would be war. Senator Baxter has not yet realised that there is war in many parts of the world. There is a war in Korea. There is war in Malaya. There is war in Tibet and there is war in Indo-China. When he discovered there was a war in Korea he asked whether Senator Quirke was going to go out to it. Now that Senator Baxter has discovered that there is a war in Korea, I have no doubt that himself and the Minister for Agriculture will lose no time in running for their woollies and their claymores and hie themselves off to play their part in that war. We warned of the dangers that were threatening and the response to our warnings consisted of jeering and little-making. We are now paying the price. Let us hope that we will not have to pay a heavier one.
May I take this opportunity to protest once more against Senator Baxter's conduct in this House? He accused Senator Quirke last night of failure to attend to his public duties as far as membership of the Oireachtas is concerned. The House has met three times in this Session, that is to say, since the Summer Recess. Senator Quirke, to my knowledge, has attended on each occasion. Regarding the recording of attendances of members at Sessions of the Seanad, I suggest that if whatever register is kept is examined it will be found that Senator Quirke's attendance in the Seanad is at least as good as that of Senator Baxter, and I think if Senator Baxter has not been here on occasions, he had good reasons. He has been acting for some time as International Monetary Adviser to the nations of the world and because of that he has found it necessary to go on the Continent on occasions. We can excuse his absence while he is engaged on such important work, but while he was absent Senator Quirke was in the Seanad attending to his public duties. Senator Quirke is a man who carries a good deal of responsibility. He is Mayor of Clonmel, the duties of which must call for a considerable amount of his time. He has wide business interests. He is a practising farmer and horse breeder. He takes a prominent part in the political life of this country and, considering all his responsibility, there are few men in this House who attend to their duties as members of the Oireachtas as well as does Senator Quirke.
The cost of living has been a trouble to the people not since August but for a considerable time. The trade unions have been protesting continuously for the last three years, demanding controls and adjustments of prices and wages. Housewives, as individuals and through certain organisations, have been protesting that costs have been mounting against them. Senator Hawkins last night gave a list of commodities the prices of which have risen and which enter very largely into the budgets of working people. I agree that where there is a grown-up family the shoe does not pinch too severely. Where the family have grown into young men and women and these young men and women are out earning, then the burden is not so irksome, but we must remember the case of the men and women with young families and for them, in particular, the last year or two have been crucifixion, if ever there was a crucifixion in the sense in which that word is used so often by the Tánaiste of the present Government. No doubt, statistics will be advanced to prove to these people that they are wrong just as, I am sure, statistics will be produced to prove to us that the diesel has not made its appearance on the rails of Córas Iompair Éireann: that we are suffering from some illusion or another: that it is merely what we call a trucal sidhe. We have had something in the nature of a statistics surplus let loose. Old-time top liners in the circus should include Mr. De Blacam, who proved to us statistically that emigration ceased in 1948 on the advent of the Coalition.