FROM THE ARCHIVES:Among the main issues during the 1948 general election, which ended 16 years of Fianna Fáil rule, was the always reliable one of ministerial pay in a time of austerity. The main winner of the election was Clann na Poblachta, whose leader, Seán MacBride, had this to say about the pay question and taoiseach Éamon de Valera's technique for answering awkward questions.
Mr. Sean MacBride, leader of Clann na Poblachta, declared at Drumshambo, Co. Leitrim, yesterday, that the recent increases in the salaries of the leader of the Government, Ministers and T.D.s were unjustified.
Mr. de Valera, he said, had explained that the increases represented only one-tenth of a farthing in the price of a loaf of bread.
“The leader of the Government and his Ministers have in the last year pointed out the necessity for tightening our belts and have indicated a period of austerity.
They urged all sections not to seek increases in their wages. Now the primary duty of the Government is to set an example at a time of crisis but what did the Government do?
They gave themselves, when everyone else was being urged not to seek increases, an increase of £10 a week in their salaries.
“I would now like to know what justification the leader of Fianna Fail advances for the increase in salaries to himself; Ministers and T.D.s.
Why should the people of this country be called upon to pay increases in Ministers’ salaries even if they amount to only one-twentieth of a farthing in the price of a loaf of bread? It seems to me that these increases are unjustifiable.”
Referring to a speech by Mr. de Valera, in which, he declared, the Taoiseach had given as an example a man earning 45s. a week keeping 5s. for pocket money, Mr. MacBride said: “Since he made that statement he has complained that I misrepresented what he had said. I state that, in complaining that he was misrepresented, it would have been much more to the point if he had answered two questions I posed to him.
“I would now like to put two more questions to Mr. de Valera. The first is: Does he consider 45s a week is an adequate family wage in a Christian State; and, secondly, will he state in £ s d what, in his view, is an adequate family wage in a Christian State?
Mr. MacBride said that if Mr. de Valera was anxious to know what a family wage might be, he could read it in the current issue of two Catholic newspapers, which set out that the living wages should be £ 4 10s. [90 shillings] a week for a family of five.
Mr. de Valera had stated that Mr. MacBride was a novice. “I do not mind being referred to as a novice,” he continued. “Mr. de Valera is no novice.
“He is a past master in the art of politics, and he is noteworthy for two things. Firstly, for never answering any question he is asked, and, secondly, for being able to weld a number of words together without their meaning anything.”