§ MR. FLYNNI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can say when the Report of the Ireland Development Grant Fund will be available; and if he can explain how it is that particulars of this Report appeared in the London Times of 26th ult., but have not been issued to Irish Members or other Members of this House up to the present date.
§ MR. ATKINSONThis Report was laid on the Table on May 26th, and a summary of it appeared in The Times of the 27th, as it might have appeared in any other paper. I understand that copies of the Return are now available to Members of the House.
§ MR. FLYNNThere is a growing practice of ignoring Members of this House and supplying documents to the London Press at the earliest possible moment.
§ MR. JOHN REDMOND (Waterford)As a matter of practice of some importance, I would ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, when a Paper is laid on the Table of the House, it is available for the Press. It is not circulated amongst Members, and if it gets to the Press it must do so in some illegitimate way. I want to ask how this occurred, namely, that a summary of a Paper laid in dummy on the Table appears in the newspapers before hon. Members receive it?
† See page 344.
§ MR. ATKINSONThis Paper was not laid in dummy. I understand that the Report was laid in its complete form; but of course this is not a matter over which the Irish Office have any control. I cannot say how any person gets access to a document after it has been laid. The Report was not communicated by the Irish Office.
§ MR. JOHN REDMONDMr. Deputy-Speaker, as this is a matter of some importance, may I ask you who is responsible? The Minister representing the office from which this document emanates says that he is not responsible. A document is laid, not in dummy, apparently, but in full on the Table of the House; it is not circulated amongst hon. Members, but the next morning The Times newspaper has a copy of it. If the Minister responsible for the office from which it emanates is not responsible, who is responsible? There must be some way of dealing with this unfair preference to certain journals in this country, and with the contempt shown to the House in the publication of official documents before Members have received them.
MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKERI was not aware that this question was going to be raised, but from the information which I have just received it appears that the customary procedure is as follows:— When a Minister lays a document on the Table of the House it becomes technically the property of the whole House. What then happens to the document, I understand, is that it is sent to the Journal Office, and when it reaches the Journal Office it is open to any hon. Member of the House to inspect it. I presume that it was in that way that the document was seen.
§ MR. JOHN REDMONDThen, apparently, what must have occurred is that some Member went down to the Journal Office and transcribed it and sent it to The Times. Is that a proper proceeding?
§ MR. JOHN REDMONDThe importance of this matter is very great. If 715 what has been hinted ah really takes place, what will happen is that for its own protection every journal in London will be obliged to have a Member of the House as its agent to obtain this information for it in the Journal Office.