I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar Chéad agus Seasca Punt chun íoctha an mhuirir a thiocfidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1927, chun tuarastail agus costaisí Coimisiún na nDleacht (Acht um Choimisiún na nDleacht, 1926).
That a sum not exceeding One Hundred and Sixty Pounds be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending the 31st day of March, 1927, for the salaries and expenses of the Tariff Commission (Tariff Commission Act, 1926).
Deputies will see that the amount of work here charged is comparatively a very small sum. It does not, of course, actually represent the cost of the Tariff Commission, because while the three Commissioners have given a certain amount of time to the work performed by the Commission and will probably in the future give a greater amount of time to that work, their salaries are borne, as is customary, on the votes of the Department to which they belong and to which, of course, they give the greater part of their time.
The Secretary of the Commission is seconded from the Department of Finance and, as is customary, his salary is borne on the vote of the Department to which he belongs and from which he has been seconded. It might occur that a little later he would be definitely appointed, in a more or less permanent way, to be Secretary of the Tariff Commission and would be removed from the Department of Finance and his salary would no longer appear in the vote of the Department.
As, I think, was explained on another occasion to Deputies, there was a certain delay in setting up the Commission, and even when the Commission had been set up certain technical and unexpected difficulties arose. For instance, a certain difficulty arose in making a regulation for the charging of fees, and it was necessary to get an Order made under the Adaptation of Enactments Act in regard to it. The Commission is now pursuing its work. The Secretary of the Commission has been devoting himself to the work of the Commission since the 20th January last. Up to the 20th January, while he had been doing an amount of Tariff Commission work, he had also been doing the work on which he was previously engaged in the Department of Finance.
Only one public sitting of the Commission has taken place, and one of the things that emerged at that public sitting was that the people who made the application, although they had had it before the Government for a considerable time, had not occupied any of the time in making a real good preparation of their case so that it could be speedily disposed of. On many matters they were not able to answer— many matters on which they might have anticipated questions. As a consequence of that the hearing had to be adjourned.
There is no doubt that the volume of work of the Commission will steadily increase. The amount of time occupied, and perhaps the amount of staff required, will steadily increase because, before one application has been disposed of—and, with adjournments, no application can be disposed of at one, or perhaps two, sittings— other applications will come in and will be occupying the time of the Commission. Applications which come in first would be still undisposed of, while others would be occupying the time of the Commission. I think it is rather like the Dáil which, if it has only one Bill before it, must adjourn at frequent intervals. If there are certain Bills which can be taken on different days it can work continuously. The Commission will only be able to work continuously when it has a number of applications before it. If there is an adjournment of one application for the purpose of getting additional evidence or for some particular matter, another can be taken up. It will be some little time before the Commission gets into full swing.
