Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 7 May 1925

Vol. 11 No. 10

FINANCIAL RESOLUTIONS—REPORT. - DAIL RESUMES.

The Resolution, with amendments, reported and agreed to.

Amendments 29 and 30 not moved.

Major COOPER

I move:—

In paragraph (1), line 32 to insert after the words "glass bottles" the words "other than medicine bottles."

This is not quite covered by the supplementary resolution. I am relieved of the burden of making a speech, as my speech has been more or less made for me by Deputy Doctor Hennessy. I believe this is the first speech I have heard from him. I hope he will continue to point out to the Government when they are going in a wrong direction. I would like to supplement his speech. He spoke of the different shapes of bottles. There are other factors besides the shapes. There is the material. Some medicine bottles, particularly those that contain poison, are made of blue and amber glass. That is a considerable protection to the public. Is there any prospect that in the near future Irish bottle manufacturers will make this kind of glass?

Mr. McGILLIGAN

Yes.

Major COOPER

I am glad to hear that. The other question is the accuracy of the size. That is a matter of enormous importance to the doctor and to the patient. The doctor prescribes some very potent drug, and he must know the exact amount of liquid in which it is going to be dissolved. If the bottle is too small and the liquid in it too little, the amount of drug he prescribes might be very harmful to the patient rather than beneficial. If the firm the Minister referred to is the same firm I heard of, I believe the bulk of their trade in the past was in bottles in which accuracy of size was not of great importance, such as bottles for cod liver oil. It is a matter of very great importance to the physician, the chemist, and the patient, that there should be perfect accuracy in these matters. I hope no impression will get about in the trade that anything will do in this matter, that you have only to make the medicine bottle, and that its size does not so much matter. The Irish glass trade is the most optimistic, and the most fortunate in the world. Every demand is going to be fulfilled in six or seven weeks.

Mr. BLYTHE

I think you misunderstand me. I said they agreed to do certain things in a specified time, and I believed that they would fulfil their promise, but that if they said six weeks, it might be seven.

Major COOPER

I do not want to misrepresent the Minister. They are not only optimistic in the trade, but they have made the Minister optimistic, which is a miracle. We are having this discussion over an industry that a year ago employed 25, that six months ago employed 125, that at present employs 300, and is never likely to employ more than 1,000. I cannot help congratulating that industry.

Mr. BLYTHE

I cannot accept Deputy Cooper's amendment. His amendment covers a very considerable range of bottles, and it is also an amendment which, perhaps, would admit more bottles than he intends. Certainly a great variety of sizes of bottles might be classed as medicine bottles, and a great deal of possible trade for Irish manufacturers would be removed by this amendment. On the question of accuracy, I cannot speak for the factories. That is not a question I am familiar with at the moment. I do say that even if bottles, where great accuracy was required, were imported, they could be sold at the price at which wholesale druggists sell them at present and leave a very handsome profit for the druggist

Mr. McGILLIGAN

As I have been to a certain extent the fount of optimism of the Minister for Finance in this regard, I want to say that the optimism is justifiable. I make this simple statement: that during the period of the war the druggists obtained all the bottles they required from one firm. That firm is at present closed down, but is going to re-open. The moulds are there, and I do not see why they should not again supply them.

Amendment put and declared lost.

Amendment 32 not moved.

Major COOPER

I beg to move:—

In paragraph (1), line 33, to insert after the words "glass jars" the words "other than self-sealing jars used for the bottling of fruit and vegetables."

This deals with a special type of jar that is used for bottling fruit and vegetables, and is fairly widely sold throughout the Saorstát to housewives who want to preserve their fruit and vegetables. It is made under patent. At present Irish glass manufacturers have no control over that patent. They may possibly, under the Bill that the Minister for Industry and Commerce has had on the Order Paper for some time, acquire that power in due time. But will the Minister, if he is still infected with optimism, give me a pledge that that Bill will have become an Act, and the machinery contemplated by it set up, before this year's fruit is ripe—in other words, within six weeks? If not, it means that this cost is going to be passed on to the consumer and is going—I am almost weary of using the words—to increase the cost of living. It has been a real economy to people who have gardens to be able to bottle their own fruit in this sort of self-sealing jars. They are specially made by an English firm under various patents, and there is no prospect of our being able to make them this year. Apart altogether from the legal question, it would need special machinery to make the jars. I would urge the Minister to consider this amendment, if the words themselves are not too general, because last year he was urging us, and everybody was urging us, to revive the bottling of fruit. When we were taxing confectionery we were told: "We may make some concessions for tinned fruit, but we want to revive the Irish bottling of fruit." Now we are going to put 33? per cent. on the machinery necessary for bottling fruit, and it scarcely seems consistent.

Mr. BLYTHE

I do not know whether there are two separate classes of bottles used, but I think there are bottles used for domestic bottling and bottles used by manufacturers or factories in which fruit is bottled. In regard to the domestic bottles, it is possible, if the housewife is expert, to use them a great number of times; if she is inexpert, not so often. In any case the people who used bottles last year will have them again this year, and will be able to bottle as much.

Major COOPER

What about those who set up house since?

Mr. BLYTHE

We are giving them such concessions in the tea and sugar duties that they will be able to bear it. In any case, they will be able to bottle their fruit much more cheaply on account of the remission of the sugar duty. The same applies to confectionery. There is a sugar confectionery duty of 3¾d.—an effective duty of 3d. on bottled fruit coming in. That gives a considerable advantage to the firms bottling fruit here. The decrease in the sugar duty increases the protection that they actually have, and they certainly will be able to afford to pay a little extra for the bottles that they may use.

Amendment put and declared lost.

Amendment 34 not moved.

Mr. DARRELL FIGGIS

In respect to Amendment 35, and I may say 37, I imagine that I have expended my rights to speak on this resolution, having spoken already three times in respect to three amendments. If I have not expended my rights I have expended my inclination, because I think the Minister's statement has more or less met the points I have raised in this Amendment 35 and Amendment 37 which I shall not move.

Amendment 35 not moved.

Mr. HEFFERNAN

I am rather inclined to withdraw Amendment 36, because the part dealing with containers for medicine has already been dealt with by people who know more about it than I do. I simply put that down without any instigation from any source. I also see that the latter portion of the amendment referring to containers for milk has been met by Deputy Duggan's amendment.

Amendments 36 and 37 not moved.

Question—"That the Dáil agree with the Committee in Resolution No. 9, as amended"—put and agreed to.