Page:The Gaelic State in the Past & Future.djvu/80

 finance. The only council which the Minister of Finance could consult or advise would be the Assembly of Representatives, as drawn directly, well or ill, from the people's choice. All direct money arrangements, such as taxes, the creation of debt or credit, the purchase of properties or monoplies [sic], and so forth, would lie in his care, would arise at his initiative and would be solved by the Assembly. The Senate could claim the right to debate any such measure, and to suggest alterations, but whether the Assembly accepted or rejected these alterations would lie at its own discretion.

There would be other matters of the same nature. The creation of new forms or units of government, for example, or changes in the constitution, where rendered necessary by changing conditions, or any matter outside the range of the councils, or transcending their capacity, or any new legislation at the initiative of one council that would demand some independent measure to bring it into co-ordination with the working of some other council, would all be of this kind, and would lie at the initiative of the Chief Minister of State, who would be responsible for the State to its elected President and would be chosen by him to create the Ministry.

Such business would naturally be more frequent at the beginning of the working of the State than when it was in complete movement. For example, the first work of the State would inevitably be the re-creation of its local government in order to bring it into conformity with practical necessities on the lines of the stateships of the old State. Nothing