I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £1,100 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta. 1928, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Choimisiún na nDleacht (Acht um Choimisiún na nDleacht, 1926).
That a sum not exceeding £1,100 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1928, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Tariff Commission (Tariff Commission Act, 1926).
Deputies will remember that the Tariff Commission commenced its work towards the latter end of the last financial year. Members of the Commission are civil servants in the Department of Finance, the Stationery Office, and in the Department of Lands and Agriculture. Their salaries are borne on the Votes of their own Departments. The Secretary to the Commission is a junior administrative officer in the Department of Finance, and receives an allowance as salary to the Tariff Commission, which allowance is borne on this Vote. A lump sum is provided for clerical assistance, in view of the possibility that increased work may render such assistance necessary. Provision is also inserted for the fees of expert advisers, who may be employed either as witnesses who would give evidence before the Commission or as a check on the evidence given by applicants, or they might be employed by the Commission to inspect and report on factories and plant. It is hoped, in cases where an application for a tariff is passed, that the evidence of the opponents will render the calling of experts less necessary, and that the Commission may be able to assess the evidence offered by both sides without the assistance of outsiders.
The travelling expenses of the Commissioners may include journeys where they think it necessary to make a personal inspection of the factories and plant of applicants or of other factories and plants. The incidental expenses include, as Deputies will see, the cost of advertising, and particularly of special reporting. The Commission decided that verbatim reports of the evidence given before it should be made, so that when it came to prepare its report the evidence given over intervals of perhaps three months or more would be readily available to them. Sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the Tariff Commission Act provides for the payment of fees by applicants. A fee in any case is not to be less than £10 or more than £100. The fees are fixed by the Commission with the sanction of the Minister for Finance and regard is had to the length of time and expense likely to be involved in the consideration of the applications. In most cases a fee in the neighbourhood of the maximum has been charged, but in some cases a small fee. The fee in respect of the application for a tariff on margarine was £50, and in respect of the application for a tariff on rosaries it was £10. In the applications for tariffs on flour, woollens and worsteds and coach motor bodies, the fee fixed was £100 in each case.
The procedure that takes place in connection with an application for a tariff involves a number of stages. First there is an application to the Minister for Finance. Then there is consideration in the Department of Finance for instance of the representative character of the applicants, whether they do represent an industry or are entitled to a hearing. Then the application is either referred to the Commission or rejected, because it is so general in character or because the people making the application are not representative. I think I once got an application for a tariff on agricultural products. I rejected it because, first, it was too general, and, secondly, it was made by one Committee of Agriculture. Even had it been for a tariff on barley I would not regard one Committee of Agriculture as having the representative character necessary. When a case has been referred to the Commission the applicants are asked to submit detailed cases and lists of witnesses with their statements of evidence in writing. When that has been submitted the fee is fixed and sanctioned by the Minister and the applicants are informed of the amount. When they have duly paid the fee the Commission inserts notices in the "Iris Oifigiúil" and the daily Press announcing the application and inviting evidence from persons likely to be affected. There is inspection by the interested parties of the documents lodged by the applicants so that those opposing the tariff may be in a position to know what case is being made for it and may be able to counter it. Seven days before hearing a notice of the hearing is given. Then the case is heard, but, it may not be disposed of at one hearing. Sometimes, several hearings are necessary and opportunities must be given to opponents to make their case and perhaps to be re-heard. Then books and documents will often have to be submitted to an accountant for detailed examination. It may be necessary in some cases to get expert witnesses. In other cases it may be necessary for the Commission to see the plant and factory of the applicants and perhaps to see others. In the case of the proposal for a tariff on margarine not only were the premises of the applicants in Waterford visited but other factories in Liverpool and London were visited by the Tariff Commission.
It will not be possible for the reports to be made as quickly as perhaps some of us thought when the Commission was being set up, but there are certain cases in which all the evidence has been taken, and in which reports will very shortly be made. I think in a couple of cases the Commission is simply faced with the task now of drawing up its report, but for the information of Deputies who may be impatient and think that a case could be disposed of satisfactorily in a month or two, I might quote the length of time that was taken by the United States Tariff Commission in reporting on certain cases submitted to it. In the case of fabric cloths the time of consideration was two years, five months. Another very small item, paint brush handles, occupied three years and six months. Sewed straw hats took two years and five months. In the case of sugar the Tariff Commission in the United States was urged to hasten its consideration of the application and to deal with it as expeditiously as possible, and consideration took one year and four months. In another case of butter it took one year and seven months.
