User:Jnestorius/Commission on Vocational Organisation

The Commission on Vocational Organisation was a 1939–43 body in Ireland to suggest structures for the organisation of Irish civil society by "vocation" (occupation). The Commission's 1944 report was largely the work of its chairman, Michael Browne, the Catholic bishop of Galway, who was heavily influenced by the Catholic social teaching of Rerum novarum and Quadragesimo anno, though at pains to distinguish its proposal from corporatism. Browne was suspicious of civil servants and held the professions in high regard. The Fianna Fáil government largely ignored the report upon its publication. Though the opposition parties expressed more support, they did not implement much of it when they gained power in 1948.

1938 Seanad motion by Frank MacDermot and Michael Tierney:
 * That, in the opinion of the Seanad, a small commission should be appointed by the Government to examine and report on the possibility of extending vocational organisation by legislative or administrative action.

Appointed 10 January 1939; delivered report 4 November 1943; report published ZZZ 1944.

No major or Seanad-related recommendations were implemented. Minor influence on: Hire Purchase Act, 1946; the Industrial Relations Act, 1946; the Auctioneers and House Agents Act, 1947; Consultative Medical Council. Reffed in 1941 Seanad debate on 2nd amend const.

Dáil questions 1943, 1945, 1947.

1946 estimates debate: Mulcahy raises report (council of education, council of health; quote Min for Ag James Ryan "as a source of information on vocationalism there was no question of its value but he must reserve the right to question some of its deductions and conclusions") De Valera replies "One of the principal difficulties we saw there was the question of organising the rural population—how were we going to get that done? I do not think that anybody would hold that the scheme that has been suggested there is really a workable scheme. I do not think so myself. I do not think it would work out. It is much too complicated and too cumbrous. [...] We are in favour of co-operation and of the development of a vocational organisation of the type that I have mentioned, but, again, we feel that we should not impose it. [...] The trouble is that it is not so easy to get a single group. The Minister [of Education] at the moment has the assistance of a number of groups."

Lemass was hostile and offended by the report's criticism of Department of Industry and Commerce: Seanad 1945: "I have read the report of that commission on more than one occasion and I have been unable to come to any conclusion as to whether the querulous, nagging, propagandist tone of its observations is to be attributed to unfortunate drafting or to a desire to distort the picture. The commission spent a great deal of energy upon its researches, and a very long time in preparing its report, and I think it is unfortunate that the report, when published, should be such a slovenly document. I think that that is a fair description of it, because it contains an extraordinary number of mis-statements of fact which [1324] could easily have been rectified by a telephone inquiry to the Department or organisation concerned. In some respects, its recommendations are self-contradictory." The report was marked by the same distrust of civil servants and adulation for professions that motivated opposition to the Mother and Child Scheme, and was buried in the face of opposition from the civil service.

Offered "an eccentric blueprint".

MacBride in particular and 1947 opposition in general supported it.

Garvin endorses earlier commentators.

Members
List:


 * 1) Michael Browne (chair)
 * 2) Louie Bennett
 * 3) H P Boland (civil servant, father of Frederick Henry Boland )
 * 4) Seán Campbell
 * 5) Edward Coyne
 * 6) George Hugh Cecil Crampton (Crampton's, one of Dublin's largest building firms)
 * 7) Luke Duffy (replaced Foran)
 * 8) Thomas Foran (resigned April 1939)
 * 9) Lucy Franks (Irish Countrywomen's Association)
 * 10) Patrick Gallagher (?Paddy "the Cope" Gallagher?)
 * 11) Arnold Harvey
 * 12) John M. Hayes
 * 13) James Alexander Hamilton Irwin (Presbyterian minister and republican)
 * 14) Dr Henry Kennedy (secretary of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society)
 * 15) Jim Larkin ("ceased to be a member before the Commission completed its work")
 * 16) F. A. Lowe (director, Hely's stationers; member Dublin Mercantile Association)
 * 17) C. P. McCarthy (accountant; 1943 president of Cork Chamber of Commerce)
 * 18) Maureen McGeehin (teacher; later Maureen Wall, UCD history dept)
 * 19) Sir Alexander Maguire (?Alexander Maguire?)
 * 20) Algernon A. Odlum (of Odlums Group)
 * 21) Timothy O'Mahony (?Dún Laoghaire borough manager?)
 * 22) Stephen O'Mara
 * 23) Alfred O'Rahilly
 * 24) Michael Tierney
 * 25) James J. Walsh
 * 26) Richard Wilson (?Richard Wilson (Irish politician)?)
 * P. A. O'Toole (secretary; civil servant)