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Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 4 Jun 1926

Vol. 16 No. 4

IN COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. - BALBRIGGAN HOSIERY INDUSTRY.

I have given notice that on the motion for the adjournment I intend to call attention to a circular which has been issued by three residents in Balbriggan with a view to establishing a hosiery factory there.

Will the Deputy tell us what the circular states?

It relates to the re-establishment of a hosiery factory in Balbriggan.

I am very much interested in the question raised by the Deputy, but a mere note of interrogation is not the way to inform the Dáil on the question he wants to raise. I think we are entitled to know a little more about the subject which the Deputy wants to have elucidated. Perhaps the Deputy would tell us what is in the circular, what the grounds of the appeal are, and give a little more general information on the subject.

Three persons in Balbriggan have issued a circular in which they promise to those who invest their money that a certain guarantee, backed by the Minister for Industry and Commerce, has been given to them. It involves a certain amount of money, and great promises are held out to these people. I want to know if that guarantee is being given by the Minister, as there are other industries all over the country which should also be re-established. If that promise has been given in the case of Balbriggan, will the same promise be given in connection with other industries throughout the country? I want to know whether such guarantee has been given by the Minister for Industry and Commerce in relation to that particular establishment at Balbriggan.

An appeal has been issued to which my attention has been called. It is entitled "An Appeal to Patriotic Citizens of the Free State to Broadenits Foundations and Stabilise its Institutions." It does not seem to have very much reference in its title to Balbriggan, but I would like to suggest to prospective investors that it appears to be based on rather rocky foundations. Certain paragraphs occur in this appeal to which an immediate reply needs to be given, and immediate exception needs to be taken. At the end of the first page there is the following:

The Free State Government has been approached to repair the injury done to the workers of Balbriggan. The Ministers of Justice and Industry and Commerce have promised on its behalf to ask the Dáil to vote a free grant to reconstruct and re-establish the industry provided that a Limited Company is formed with not less than £5,000 (Five Thousand) paid up capital.

Later it states:

To comply with the Government's requirements we propose to form a company with a nominal capital of £25,000. The Shaw Commission awarded the owners of the factory destroyed £45,000. Ministers primarily concerned have already approved of some well-known businessmen as directors whose integrity and capabilities will inspire confidence in its management. The completion of the Board of Directors awaits and depends upon the source from which capital may flow in order that those who guarantee to take shares may have due representation on the Board which, when formed, will issue a regular prospectus.

The document is signed by Patrick White, M.P., North Meath, 1899 to 1918; James Canty, Manager and Secretary, Gas Works, and Vice-Chairman, Balbriggan Town Commissioners (Secretary); and William Bannon, Town Clerk, Balbriggan. Two of these names, Messrs. White and Bannon, are distinguished by an asterisk, and below, where the asterisk is referred to, Mr. White and Mr. Bannon are stated to be two of the Directors approved by the Free State Government for the proposed company. I think a reply should be made to that immediately. This document contains gross misrepresentations which are calculated to mislead investors. It states, as I have brought to the notice of the House, that the Ministers for Justice and Industry and Commerce have promised on behalf of the Free State Government to ask the Dáil to vote a free grant to reconstruct and re-establish the industry provided a limited company is formed with not less than £5,000 paid up capital. No such promise has ever been given.

The Government has indicated to the deputations which were attended by the signatories to the circular that an application for assistance by a sound company, which showed it was technically and financially competent to re-establish this industry on a satisfactory basis, might, in the special circumstances of Balbriggan, justify the Government in considering whether they would bring before the Dáil a proposal for assistance by way of grant. No persons answering even remotely to these descriptions have made themselves responsible up to the present for any such application. If I am asked to be more particular I will say that the three names appended thereto do not come within the category I have alluded to.

Two of the signatories to the circular did, in fact, ask my Department in February last for a letter containing a promise that if £5,000 were raised for re-establishing this industry the Government would give a grant of £10,000. They were definitely refused such a letter. They were informed that an essential preliminary to any further consideration in the matter was the production of detailed particulars showing that the industry, if re-established, would be in competent and experienced hands and also asking them to show some possibility and prospect of commercial success. No such particulars have since been furnished, and, so far from any promise as alleged in the circular having been given, it has been refused.

The second point with regard to this circular is that there is no foundation for the statement that the Ministers have approved of some well-known business men as directors. There is certainly no foundation whatever for the statement that Messrs. White and Bannon have been approved as directors of the proposed company. No company has been formed as yet, so far as I know, and I think it follows from that immediately that no persons can have been approved as directors. No question of approving of directors would arise until a company had been formed and approved. Even then there would arise the other things that have been spoken of, including the possibility of the Government having to consider whether the special circumstances of Balbriggan warranted any approach to this House other than that provided for through the operations of the Trade Loans (Guarantee) Act.

Having regard to the misrepresentations disclosed in this circular, the Government will not, at least in so far as I have any influence with the Government, enter into further communications with those who have made themselves responsible for these misstatements by their signatures to the appeal.

I have very little to add to what the Minister for Industry and Commerce has said on this matter. I would like simply to mention that the last word I had from Mr. Patrick White, M.P., North Meath, 1899 to 1918, was that he had found and considered the interview he had had with the Minister for Industry and Commerce and myself intensely disappointing, and that it would appear that he would only have to wait for other times and better men to secure what he hoped to secure. I mention that because it is the note on which we parted. When I was shown the circular and the amazing misstatements which it contains, my mind went back to the parting words of Mr. White that it would appear he must wait for other times and better men.

Apparently he got impatient waiting, and issued to the public the circular containing as positive statements of fact all the wildest hopes he had entertained. I simply give a direct and point-blank denial, so far as I am concerned, to these portions of the circular which the Minister for Industry and Commerce has indicated.

Is it incorrect in everything except that better men have not arrived?

Six months ago a deputation, including these three gentlemen whose names are on the circular, waited on the President and were introduced by the various Deputies of the county Dublin, including, I think, Deputy Johnson. So far as my recollection serves me, the account given by the Minister for Industry and Commerce is an accurate account, and nothing passed at that interview that would justify the statements made in the circular. As regards private interviews I do not know, but certainly nothing of the interview of a fairly large deputation including parish priests and others would justify the issue of that circular. I would ask the Minister not to allow the fact of a circular full of misrepresentation with regard to the starting of a factory at Balbriggan, being issued, to obscure the very great need there is at Balbriggan for assistance in some way. The unemployed in Balbriggan are not responsible for this circular, and I hope that this incident will not create in the minds of the Government a prejudice against Balbriggan where undoubtedly some need for the establishment of a factory does exist.

I might repeat, in answer to that, what I have already said, that if an application for assistance from a sound company, which showed that it was technically and financially competent to re-establish this industry on a satisfactory basis, is now made, it will receive the most sympathetic consideration and will not be prejudiced by this absurd performance on the part of these three gentlemen.

I think it is right for me to say that I was taken utterly by surprise by this revelation. I was absolutely ignorant of the existence of any such circular, or that any appeal of any kind for capital for such a company had been issued. When I urged on Deputy McGoldrick to give us a little more information, it was an honest desire for an explanation of what the subject was about. I had not the remotest notion of what was implied in the question. I am glad to hear the Minister give us an assurance that the production of this circular and these proposals will not, by any means, prejudice any well-founded proposition for the reestablishment of a factory in the hosiery or any other industry in Balbriggan.

Undoubtedly the district has been made to suffer very greatly since the fire which occurred there a few years ago. They have never recovered from the tremendous loss that was imposed upon the district at that time. I think it is a great pity that any sound proposition which might come up should be prejudiced by what appears on the face of it to be an unsound proposition. I confirm what Deputy Cooper states regarding the conclusion of the larger deputation that attended and met the President. I do not know what may have happened at any other interview, but there was certainly, at that time, at least, no such promise. As a matter of fact, the feeling engendered was that there was not much likelihood of business coming out of the proposal that was then made. There were promises which I think the Minister for Industry and Commerce has now confirmed. These were to the effect that if sound propositions were put forward they would receive very generous consideration on the part of the Minister. I think it is due to the Ministers to say that that was the impression I brought away from that meeting.

The Dáil adjourned at 4 p.m. until Monday, 7th June.

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