Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 25 Apr 1924

Vol. 7 No. 1

COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. FINANCIAL RESOLUTIONS. - RESOLUTION No. 13 (CUSTOMS).

Mr. BLYTHE

I move Resolution 13:

Where, on or after the 1st day of June, 1924, the Customs duty on any individual class of goods liable to any customs duty, contained in the one consignment or parcel would, when computed according to the laws for the time being in force in relation to customs duties, amount to less than two shillings and sixpence, such customs duty shall be charged on such goods at the fixed minimum sum of two shillings and six pence.

It is hereby declared that it is expedient in the public interest that this Resolution shall have statutory effect under the provisions of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, 1913.

I think I explained earlier in the day that the number of dutiable parcels coming in on which the duty collectable is less than a shilling, means about one-fifth of the whole. It is very undesirable that Customs Officers who have to be highly paid should have to spend the amount of time that is necessary in dealing with these very small packages of dutiable goods, and it certainly is very desirable in the interests of the revenue, in the interests of the State, and in the interests of economy, that some tax should be levied that would induce the sending of larger consignments, and that would give some recompense for the trouble that is involved when a dutiable parcel has to be dealt with.

Mr. McGOLDRICK

I assume this tax is largely applicable to the Border. I would think it would be very advisable for the Minister to consider the question of imposing a real Border tax, instead of the ordinary tax on the Border-land. I think you will require to have a prohibitive tax on the Border while leaving the ports open. I cannot see anything-wrong as to the question of half a crown being deemed as a standard in trifles, but I think you must have a prohibitive Border tax if it is to be effective, and leave the Saorstát Ports, which are to serve the mercantile community, open, because if you have the Coastal access free and the Border taxed, you would remove from the Border much of the pressure that is presently operative there, and keep the trade in the areas within this State. I think the Government will find it will be in their own interest that this should be done. I think it is necessary for the Minister to take it into account, and consider and carry a really prohibitive Border tax on the land frontier.

Mr. HEWAT

I think we are losing sight largely of the fact that all these import and export duties are detrimental to trade. There is no doubt that these things cannot be taken at their face value. Trade, as a whole, is a very sensitive thing, and if you are going, as the Minister for Finance seems determined to do, to pin-prick trade in every possible direction, such as is done here, it may be a very serious matter. I do not object to 2s 6d. as an extension if it should be necessary, but I do object to the interruption of the facilities of the flow of trade which is indicated by the spirit in which the thing is to be done. What in years past we have been trying to develop is the free flow of trade and commerce between different areas and different countries. Now we are going to go back of everything in that line, and as one Deputy said, we are trying to surround the Free State with a stone wall where nothing will come in and nothing will go out, and where we will live by taking in one another's washing.

Mr. BLYTHE

I do not want, in regard to this particular tax, to restrict the flow of trade and commerce, but simply, so far as the tax will be effective to have that trade flow in some substantial volume, and not to have it between Great Britain and this country coming in sixpenny parcels. If we are to keep our trade statistics recorded and examined, and to protect our revenue, these small parcels are undesirable. In the altered circumstances, where trade comes in in substantial consignments, this tax will not affect these substantial consignments that will take the place of these smaller parcels.

Professor THRIFT

Will this affect trade samples in any way? That is a very important point.

Mr. BLYTHE

Arrangements can be made for trade samples, if necessary.

Mr. HEWAT

I would like to emphasise to the Minister for Finance that all these trade restrictions are bad. Even at the present time, with all the new regulations and all the bother they entail, in the getting in of different commodities, a great many merchants and other people, as well, have come to the conclusion that the game is not worth the candle, and the more we embark on a policy of putting restrictions on our trade, the less trade we are going to do.

Mr. JOHNSON

I am surprised at Deputy Hewat—that he who has been voting for these Resolutions the whole day should now come up at half-past ten and say that there must be no restrictions on trade and upon the flow of trade, as if trade were a demigod that had to be upheld above everything, as if the principle that a man across the water must supply a man here, and a man here must supply a man across the water for the sake of trade, is to be considered sacred. I deny that at once. I say unless trade is going to facilitate the better living of the people here let it go. Deputy Hewat's proposition is to revive trade for the purpose of maintaining traders who may be doing nothing useful at all. The fact is that Deputy Hewat wants really to maintain trade by taking stuff out of one pocket and putting it into another and vice versa, as if that was any good in itself. Deputy Hewat has been quite sensible all day, but now he is going back upon himself; he is going back to his vomit. This proposition of Deputy Hewat, that he makes so frequently, is that trade is something that must not be affected by a single breath of opposition or opinion of any kind, that it is something sacred and must not be touched.

Mr. HEWAT

May I say it was not a proposition; it was a warning.

Mr. JOHNSON

Deputy Hewat has been denying his own warning the whole day. I had given him credit before now for being consistent, but he has been most inconsistent here to-day. I had hoped he had learned some little lessons; now I find he is going back upon them, too. I want to make that protest, because it is essential to make it. Sometimes from the Government benches we hear echoes of the same bad doctrine, although they have improved on that by the proposition now before us. If Deputy Hewat is allowed to make these statements without protest we may find next week the Government saying, "trade is a thing that is sacred and must not be interfered with."

Question put and agreed to.