The New Irish Constitution Part 3

DEPARTMENTS, ETC., NOT CONTROLLED BY THE IRISH GOVERNMENT.

(1) The Judiciary.

(_a_) The Supreme Court of Judicature and its officers.

(_b_) Recorders.(65) (_c_) County Court Judges.

(2) Registry of Deeds.

(3) Local Registration of t.i.tles.

(4) Railway and Ca.n.a.l Commission.

(5) Commissioners of Public Works.

(6) General Valuation and Boundary Survey of Ireland.

(7) Treasury Remembrancer's Office.

(8) National School Teachers' Superannuation Office.

ENGLISH CIVIL DEPARTMENTS WORKING IN IRELAND AND NOT UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE IRISH GOVERNMENT.

(1) Customs.

(2) Inland Revenue.

(3) General Post Office.

(4) Board of Trade (Dublin and other Ports).

(5) Quit Rent Office (Woods and Forests).

(6) His Majesty's Stationery Office.

(7) Civil Service Commissioners.

(8) Inspector of Mines.

(9) Inspector of Factories.

(10) Registrar of Friendly Societies and Trades Unions, Building and Co-operative Societies.

(11) Ordnance Survey of Ireland.

(12) Public Works Loan Commissioners.

(13) Exchequer and Audit Department.

It is thus apparent that at present the Irish Government exercises control over only a small portion of the official agencies working in the country.

Many of these agencies-some of first-cla.s.s importance and dealing with strictly Irish business-are uncontrolled by the Irish Government, while the supervision exercised over them by the Imperial Parliament is of the most shadowy character. The congestion of public business in Westminster effectually prevents attention being paid to any Irish business-at least to any Irish business out of which party capital cannot be made.

In these circ.u.mstances, the first duty of the new Parliament will be to co-ordinate, and establish its control over, the _disjecta membra_ of Irish Government. To that end it will, presumably, group into cla.s.ses or departments the various "Boards," "Offices," and other official agencies enumerated above on the principle of common or cognate functions. Such a cla.s.sification is an essential preliminary to the establishment of effectual Parliamentary control over the transaction of public business. I proceed to suggest such a scheme of cla.s.sification, but a preliminary word is necessary.

Some controversy has taken place as to what is, and what is not, business of a "purely Irish nature," with which alone, the Irish Government is to be concerned under the promised Bill. In my opinion, the following Departments, out of those enumerated above, namely:

(1) Customs, (2) Excise, (3) Post Office, Telegraphs, etc., (4) Treasury Remembrancer's Office, (5) Civil Service Commissioners, (6) Exchequer and Audit Office, and (7) Public Works Loan Commissioners,

can not be so cla.s.sed, for the following reasons.

The control of the levy of Customs and Excise Revenue by the Irish Legislature, would imperil the fiscal solidarity of the United Kingdom, and be destructive of the further extension of Home Rule on federal lines.

The Imperial Parliament should continue to control these all-important Departments, but power may be usefully reserved to the Irish Legislature to vary, under certain defined conditions, the duties on particular articles or commodities, without, however, any reservation of power to vary the articles themselves. For such a reservation, there is a precedent in the Isle of Man (Customs) Act of 1887, as I explained in an address delivered before the Irish Bankers' Inst.i.tute last November. The suggestion was further developed in an Article on Irish Finance, which I contributed to the _Nineteenth Century and After_ for January, 1912. In this connexion, it should be remembered that Mr. Gladstone's Bills of 1866 and 1893, excluded the Customs and Excise Revenue from Irish Control: and that the present Leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, following, in this respect, Mr. Parnell's example, has recognized the propriety of the exclusion.

The suggestion I make preserves the principle, thus confirmed by high authority, while it allows to Ireland, working in concert with Great Britain, the opportunity of adjusting her taxation to her own special necessities.

The Administration of Posts and Telegraphs in Ireland is intimately a.s.sociated with the Department's Administration in Great Britain; and though Ireland has an indefeasible claim, which can be readily conceded, to the great bulk of the patronage within her sh.o.r.es, (patronage mostly of a petty and purely local character) I fail to see in that claim sufficient justification for localizing the Irish part of the business and thereby incurring the risk of dislocating the working of a great Imperial Department. And my objection to transferring the Postal Department to the new Government is emphasised by the fact that in Ireland this Department is worked at a loss of about a quarter of a million sterling annually.

There would, therefore, be a tendency on the part of the new Irish Government to curtail expenditure on the Post Office, to the detriment of the public convenience of the United Kingdom, in order that the expenditure on the Department should balance the income.

The Treasury Remembrancer's Office will probably disappear with the system of which it is the symbol: but the Civil Service Commission calls for further consideration. As I am, at present, Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, I feel myself precluded from writing on this important matter with complete freedom; but this much I may say-in recruiting her Civil Service Ireland will be well advised to follow the same general system of appointment, promotion, and conditions of service as prevail in Great Britain, (though this uniformity need not be taken to apply to scales of emolument). The enforcement of this principle will not militate against the establishment by the Irish Parliament, if so advised, of an Irish Civil Service as distinguished from the service which now exists for the United Kingdom as a whole. But I earnestly trust that if a separate Irish Civil Service be established there will be no limitation of candidature to Irish-born subjects of the Crown. Ireland would, in my opinion, commit a fatal mistake-fatal in more ways than one-if she imposed any impediment to the free compet.i.tion by British-born subjects for appointments in the Irish Service, should one be created. She will gain far more than she will lose from reciprocity in this connection.

a.s.suming for the purpose in hand that the present general policy of recruitment for the Civil Service will continue, the question arises whether there should be an independent Civil Service Commission established in Dublin: or whether the Irish Government should ask the Burlington Gardens Commission to hold examinations in Ireland for the Irish service, a.s.sociating with themselves some distinguished Irish educationalists. Personally I am strongly in favour of the latter alternative, on the ground of economy; and because of the advantage of using experienced British agencies for common purposes. Good feeling and mutual understanding will be thereby promoted.

Turning to the remaining Imperial Departments, I think the Exchequer and Audit Office should relinquish its Irish functions to a similar office restricted in its operations to Irish finances only(66); while the Public Works Loans Commissioners would probably cease to do business in Ireland.(67) Loans to munic.i.p.alities and other public bodies in Ireland would, under the new dispensation, be probably made by the Irish Treasury acting on the advice of the Irish Board of Works.

I had, at first, thought of adding the Department of "Woods and Forests"

(Quit Rents) to the list of excluded Departments, but I trust that, following the treatment proposed in Clause 24 of the Bill of 1893, this source of income may be made over to the Irish Parliament. If not, the Department should swell the list of exclusions. In the same way I had at first intended including the Land Commission in the excluded list, because of the imperative necessity which exists of retaining the Finance and Administration of Land Purchase under the control of the Imperial Treasury. I need not labour this point; all intelligent persons are agreed that the use of British Credit is essential to the furtherance of Irish Land Purchase, that Ireland, of herself, could not finance her great Land Purchase undertaking, because the cost would be prohibitive and would bring to an end that great scheme on whose successful accomplishment the peace and prosperity of Ireland so greatly depend. If the Government decides to exclude the Land Commission permanently from the control of the Irish Legislature no Irishman need object; but, for reasons to be stated in the sequel, I am disposed to think that the Land Commission might be better placed in a temporarily reserved, than in a permanently excluded, list.

With these exceptions I think that all the other public Departments and Offices enumerated may be regarded as dealing with business of a purely Irish character, the administration of which may be localized to Ireland.

All of them, with the important addition of "Finance" and of certain other minor subjects which are known officially as "Votes," I would group into Departments of Government in the following way, premising that I do not pretend to give an exhaustive list of "sub-heads," which, indeed, must vary with changing circ.u.mstances and the growth of work. As I have said, the object of this grouping or cla.s.sification is to facilitate the introduction of parliamentary control over every branch or kind of public business in Ireland.

SUGGESTED SCHEME OF ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENTS OF THE REFORMED IRISH GOVERNMENT.

_Group I.-The Treasury._ (1) General Finance.

(_a_) Taxation, Bills before the Legislature.

(_b_) Budgets, Recoverable Loans, Local Taxation Account.

(_c_) Courts of Law, Legal Establishments, Legal Business.

(_d_) Other Civil Departments, Pensions, Valuation and Boundary Surveys.

(_e_) Trade and Commerce.

(_f_) Exchequer and Audit.

(2) Local Finance.

(_a_) Munic.i.p.alities, Urban Councils.

(_b_) County and Rural Councils.

(3) Registry, Receipt and Issue of Letters.

_Group II.-Law and Justice._ (1) Supreme Court of Justice and its Officers.

(2) Recorders.

(3) County Court Judges.

(4) Resident Magistrates.

(5) Crown Business.

(_a_) General.

(_b_) Law Officers.

(_c_) Crown Prosecutors, Crown Solicitors.

(_d_) Petty Sessions Clerks.

(6) Police.

(_a_) Royal Irish Constabulary.

(_b_) Dublin Metropolitan Police.

(7) Prisons, Reformatories, Criminal Lunatics.

(8) Miscellaneous.

(9) Registry, Receipt and Issue of Letters.

_Group III.-Education, Science and Art._ (1) Primary.

(2) Secondary.

(3) University.

(4) Technical.

(5) College of Science.

(6) National Gallery, Public Libraries, Museums.

(7) Registry, etc., of Letters.

_Group IV.-Local Government._ (1) Rural.

(2) Urban.

(3) Sanitation.

(4) Medical Relief, Hospitals.

(5) Poor Law Relief, Orphanages and Asylums.