Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 25 Apr 1924

Vol. 7 No. 1

COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. FINANCIAL RESOLUTIONS. - RESOLUTION No. 8.

Mr. BLYTHE

I move:

"That a Customs duty of an amount equal to 10 per cent. of the value of the article shall be charged, levied and paid on all soap, soap substitutes, and soap powder imported into Saorstát Eireann on and after the 1st July."

This date has been fixed so far back because of the actual difficulties of administration that these new duties will involve. I believe that the staff will be put to the pin of its collar to deal with the other duties that come into operation at an earlier date. The amount of protection is not very much, but there is no possibility of making the duty operative sooner than the date fixed. The imports of soap are valued for something like £200,000 per annum, and it is not anticipated that a very considerable revenue will be obtained. A revenue may be obtained on the fancy varieties of soaps. The various types of toilet soaps may still continue to be imported. It is not anticipated that the imports of ordinary household soaps will continue to be very large after the imposition of the duty.

Major COOPER

The President spoke with great eloquence on the last Resolution about people who have made money by importing goods in anticipation of a duty, with the result that only three or six months' revenue was obtained. As a result of the postponing of the coming into force of this duty until the 1st July, I can prophesy that the Minister will get no revenue at all. Soap is not perishable. There is ample time between now and the 1st July for the retailers of the country to import the whole of the soap that is needed for the next twelve months and to store it here. But though the State will get no revenue and the manufacturers will get no protection, the retailers will put on the price and say: "Of course, there is a duty now." Really, I think if the Minister's machinery is not ready he should not introduce these duties. He should prepare his machinery and introduce the duties next year. It is absolutely farcical to say we are going to start levying a duty more than two months hence. That duty will be forestalled and anticipated, and the revenue will not gain. The only person that will gain is the middleman.

Mr. BLYTHE

As a matter of fact the principal importers of soap to this country are the people who have factories here or who control them. I see no reason at all to anticipate that they will bring in a year's stock of soap and store it here rather than make it in their own factories.

Mr. HEFFERNAN

In view of the fact that the Minister is confident that very little soap will be imported, and that the manufacturers will manufacture sufficient for the requirements of the country, does it not follow that the traders should be obliged to sell the imported soap at the same price as they paid for it before the duty was put on? That is that the duty would not affect the price of soap at all. That is the argument we have been hearing all night, and should it not apply in this case?

Major COOPER

If a manufacturer can manufacture soap here as cheaply as the imported stuff, why does he not do it now? He would save the cost of transport. He obviously imports soap because the soap is cheaper, but what he will do will be to import a whole year's supply without paying the duty, and he will reap an additional profit. That may be one way of encouraging Irish manufacture, but I submit it is a very bad way.

Mr. O'MARA

I would like to know the sources of the information from which the Minister has picked soap out of a thousand and one other things that could be selected. The soap industry is in the hands of Lord Leverhulme and Lever Brothers. They have, I think, bought up a soap factory in Cork, they bought up two or three in Dublin, and they have bought them all over the place. A tax of 10 per cent on soap means putting 10 per cent. into Lord Leverhulme's pockets. The number of men employed in making soap is very small. Why should soap be picked out over and above a hundred other articles, in the manufacture of which a number of men could be employed and unemployment could be substantially relieved, in order to put 10 per cent. into the pockets of a trust? As I understand the soap industry, there is only one real competitor for this firm, except the small soap boiler, of which we have one or two here, who pick up fats from the local butchers, and that is the manufacturers of the soap so largely advertised, Palm Olive, made in America. There are two world-wide trusts, and the effect of this tax will be that it will put 10 per cent. into the pockets of one trust in order to keep up the other.

Mr. JOHNSON

I think there is some point in Deputy Cooper's statement. The Dáil as a whole would be reassured if it could have some prophecy as to what was to be contained in the proposed Profiteering Bill. It may be that the Minister has in mind that that will be the method of preventing these excessive charges being imposed upon the community in this interim period. If he has not intended to do so, I hope that the hint will have effect. I believe in the case of soap manufacturing this, again, is a wise imposition. I take it that the Minister is satisfied that 10 per cent. will effect his purpose. I am told that, as a matter of practice, while certain of the soap factories in the Saorstát belong to the same firm as Sunlight Soap, the factories in the Saorstát are merely used as a means of preventing anybody else manufacturing; that they are used for by-products, and so the best use is not being made of them; that they have been kept at a kind of trade which is not to the advantage of the Saorstát, and have only employed one-fifth of the people formerly employed when they were in the hands of Barringtons. The effect of this tariff may well be to turn the scale as to whether the soap shall be manufactured in Cheshire or in Dublin. I think it will have the latter effect, and as a consequence this country will benefit. It is not an amount that will make much difference to the actual consumer. I think it is a small tax which will have the effect of improving the output here without adding much to the consumer, and I commend the Minister for this proposition.

Resolution put and agreed to.