No. 283 NAI DFA Secretary's Files P12/14 iii(a
Memorandum by Michael Rynne
'Deputy Coburn on "Secret Agreement" with England'
Dublin, 31 January 1947
- Deputy Coburn, speaking on the Defence Forces (Temporary Provisions) Bill in Dáil Éireann on the 29th January, suggested that this country was 'in secret agreement with England and in constant consultation with her' concerning national defence. Insofar as the Deputy was hinting that a secret defence agreement had been concluded and was operating between the two countries, his statement amounted to charging the Government with a serious breach of the Constitution. It also amounted to accusing the Taoiseach of letting down a political doctrine with which he has always been most prominently associated.
- As far back as 1932, when the Taoiseach first took office, this matter of 'secret agreements' became a question of the first importance in both Houses of the Oireachtas. Occasion for many statements on the subject derived from Governmental criticism and the Opposition's defence of the 'Ultimate Financial Settlement' which had been made with Great Britain in 1926.1 The Constitution of 1922 had given a free hand to the Executive in this country to conclude agreements without any reference whatsoever to Dáil Éireann. Only in 1926 was this state of affairs recognised to be so undesirable that (then) President Cosgrave2 himself proposed a resolution in the House (26th February, 1926) to the effect that 'Saorstát Éireann could not be committed to or bound by any agreement with an external Government without the prior sanction and consent of the Dáil ...'. Referring to that resolution in a speech in Dáil Éireann on the 15th November, 1932, (Debates Vol. 44, col. 1726), the Taoiseach declared his absolute support of the principle it laid down:-
'That is the principle which we are standing by. It was recognized by the Dáil in 1926 on the motion of Deputy Cosgrave himself. We stand by that principle. We think it is a right principle and that the Dáil were right in standing by that principle. It is the only right principle ....'.
- The principle which the Taoiseach and his Government supported in 1932 was specifically embodied in the Constitution which he and they recommended to the people in 1937. 'Secret agreements' are now definitely outlawed - not merely disapproved of by a Dáil resolution without the force of law. Article 29.5.1° of the present Constitution says:-
'Every international agreement to which the State becomes a party shall be laid before Dáil Éireann.'
To this fundamental rule the only exceptions are 'agreements or conventions of a technical and administrative character' (Article 29.5.3°). Clearly, an international defence agreement, commonly called an alliance, could not be considered to rank among the classes of agreements excepted from the general rule. Since3 an agreement, if it were ever to be made by the Government, would probably involve a charge on public funds and, in that case, would not alone have to be laid before Dáil Éireann, but would not bind the State in constitutional law without the express approval of the Dáil (Article 29.5.2°).
- In relation to the foregoing arguments against Deputy Coburn's innuendo, it should be remembered that, as a matter of international law, the Government has power to bind the State in an alliance, even if it were to do so in the utmost secrecy. The point is that such action would be unconstitutional and quite inconsistent with the Taoiseach's own declarations of policy.