I move:—
Go gceaptar Coiste Speisialta, a bheidh có-dhéanta d'ochtar Teachtaí a hainmneofar ag an gCoiste Roghnathóireachta agus 'nar leor ceathrar díobh mar quorum, chun féachaint ar mhaith an rud aon luíodú eile i nDiúité Máil do dheona do lucht tobac do shaothrú sa tSaorstát ach, i dteanta nithe eile, aire a thabhairt do thácht an cheárdais sin i gcomórtas le ceárdaisí eile, do mhéid agus do nádúir na fostaíochta a ghabhann leis, d'aon fhás is dóichí a raghaidh don éileamh ar thobac a saothruítear agus a hoibrítear sa tSaorstát, agus do conus oibreoidh sé ar an Ioncum aon atharú do dhéanamh ar an Diúité atá anois ann;
Go mbeidh comhacht ag an gCoiste chun fios do chur ar dhaoine, ar pháipéirí agus ar bhreacacháin;
Go dtuairisceoidh an Coiste don Dáil ar dháta nách déanaí ná 23adh Márta so chugainn.
That a Special Committee consisting of eight Deputies, who shall be nominated by the Committee of Selection, and of whom four shall form a quorum, be appointed to consider whether it is desirable to grant any further remission of Excise Duty to growers of tobacco in the Saorstát, having regard, among other things, to the relative importance of the industry, the amount and nature of employment given by it, any probable development in the demand for tobacco grown and manufactured in the Saorstát, and the effect upon the Revenue of any alteration of the existing Duty;
That the Committee have power to send for persons, papers, and records;
That the Committee report back to the Dáil not later than the 23rd March next.
When the Finance Bill was under discussion last June, an amendment was put down by Deputy Mulvany, I think, asking for some increase in the preference to home grown tobacco. On the information before me I believed that no increase could be justified. I believed, in fact, that there was no future before the industry, if it could be called an industry, of the growing of tobacco in this country. On the other hand, there is no doubt that a great deal of interest has been taken in this particular topic for some twenty or twenty-five years past. In the early days of Sinn Féin a great deal of attention was paid to the matter, and it was believed that there was a great future before it. The people, as I said last June, who have carried on the growth of tobacco are perhaps even more expert in propaganda than in growing tobacco. The result is that while officially it is not believed that there is any future before the industry, a great number of people outside official circles believe that there is. I suggested then that a Select Committee of the Dáil should be set up, that various accounts and reports that are available should be produced for that Committee, that witnesses representative of the tobacco growers and of people who have had to do with the supervision of the claims should be heard, and that a report be presented that would enable the Dáil to make up its mind with greater certitude than if it were simply to rely on the arguments put forward by a Minister, and put forward against a Minister by people who might have been briefed by tobacco growers.
