During the election campaign there was a statement made with regard to a sub-committee set up by my Department. This has given rise to a certain amount of misunderstanding. The statement was made by Deputy Gorey, and, as the election is now over, I presume he will have no objection to having the statement corrected. The statement was to the effect that I have set up a Committee to deal with the taxing of motor vehicles, and that, first of all, I had given no representation to the farmers on that Commission; secondly, that the Committee had reported in favour of the petrol tax and that I was going to refuse to entertain the report of the Committee.
With regard to the first part of the statement, it is untrue to say that I set up this Committee and did not give the farmers representation on it. That Committee was set up by the Roads Advisory Commission, which was set up over a year ago. Farmers were given representation on that Committee. Now the Roads Advisory Committee has appointed a sub-committee to inquire into the question of motor taxation generally throughout the Saorstát. The sub-committee was appointed by the Roads Advisory Committee and I had absolutely nothing to do with that. Deputy Gorey had an informal conversation with me, and in that conversation we both argued the merits of different kinds of motor taxation, but in that conversation I said nothing to Deputy Gorey to leave him under the impression that I was going to turn down the report of this Advisory Committee. That Committee has not reported to the General Committee yet. That is to say, the sub-committee which was appointed by the Roads Advisory Committee to inquire into the subject of motor taxation has not reported to that Committee. When it does report it will be open to the Committee either to accept its recommendations or to reject them, and, if it accepts the recommendations, it can modify them. If the recommendations of the sub-committee are accepted by the Roads Advisory Committee then they will be submitted to me, and it will be for me, in conjunction with the other Ministers concerned, to accept or reject the proposals, but until the report comes before me formally I have no right to express any view on the matter. I have an open mind on the subject. I think it well to make that statement. as the statement made by Deputy Gorey has given rise to considerable difficulty to the Committee concerned.