It is an extraordinary thing that the Minister for Finance could not find anything to say in justification of this Vote, and that he merely contents himself with moving it, hoping that the Dáil, in its charity, would pass it. This is one of the few institutions established by the present Government which clearly reflects the ability of the Government to deal with the financial problems which confront the State. The main objection which Deputies on this side of the House have to the passing of this money is because they believe that the institution for which the money is about to be voted was established to delay and not to facilitate the granting of protection to the industries of this country which require protection. It only requires a brief survey of the history of the Commission since its establishment to realise the truth of that statement. When it was established, in the year 1926, a number of industrial groups made application to the Minister for Industry and Commerce for the imposition of import duties upon goods in the manufacture of which they were concerned, and these applications were duly and automatically referred by the Minister to the Tariff Commission. Up to date, four of these applications have been reported on, and, at the rate of progress made in respect of these four applications, we probably will be discussing the estimate for the Tariff Commission for the year 1939 before the last of these applications made in the year 1926 will have been finally disposed of.
I do not know what the intentions of the Government are with respect to the Commission, and it would be well, I think, if the Minister for Finance would give us some information concerning it. We would be glad to know, for example, if the Government consider that the operations of the Tariff Commission have been satisfactory, and that the machinery has worked smoothly and is likely to work smoothly in all cases. Towards the end of last year and early this year rumours were in circulation that the existing Commissioners proposed to retire when the period of their appointments expired. That period is now over, and it is presumed that they have been appointed for another three years. These are three Civil Servants who occupy high positions in their respective departments, and it is to be assumed that they have duties to do in these departments that will occupy the greater portion of their time. Because of the fact that they have these duties to perform in addition to the duties which fall upon them as members of the Tariff Commission, we must only conclude that one or other of those conflicting sets of duties is bound to be neglected. From the evidence which we have had during the present session it is really the duties relating to the Commission which are being neglected. For the last two and a half years that Commission has been considering an application for a tariff on woollen cloth. It produced its report in February and certain matters arising out of that have, we understand, not yet been settled.
The work done by the Commission during last year at any rate is not such as to inspire Deputies with confidence in the members of it or in the effectiveness of the machine which they control. As far as one can judge from the Estimates of this year, it is proposed that the work to be done during the financial year will be even less than the work done in the previous financial year. In the Commission's Estimate it will be seen that the fees to be paid to expert advisers show a reduction of £200. If there is one thing that Tariff Commissioners require above everything else it is expert advice, and if the fees are curtailed they cannot get the expert advice that would enable them to proceed with the applications that are at present before them in the course of the financial year. That is if they intend to proceed to the consideration of any of the applications before them or rest upon their laurels and take a well-deserved holiday, after arduous duties in considering and reporting upon the application for a tariff on woollen cloth.
It is to be noticed, however, that the travelling expenses show an increase, so it may be that the Commissioners intend to take a holiday which members of the Dáil would be very glad to see them take, if they could be satisfied that the work of protecting Irish industry would not be held up in consequence of that. The cost of advertisements is to be reduced. That is a matter of very minor importance because, apparently, nobody pays much attention to the advertisements they insert. The Estimate for special reporting shows a very considerable reduction. It would appear from that that the number of public sessions— I presume that item of reporting relates to the public sessions—will be much fewer this year than they were last year, and that the greater part of the Commission's work, if any, will be done in camera. I would be very glad if the Minister would inform us of the exact number of applications which are at present pending before the Commission, the number in respect of which some preliminary steps have been taken, and the number in respect of which nothing has yet been done, and whether any applications for tariffs have been referred to the Tariff Commission during the last twelve months, for example, or if there is any reason to believe that public confidence in the efficiency of the machine has broken down, and that those who were foolish enough to rush in at the beginning, thinking that the machine was workable, are still struggling to get their applications heard by that body.
As far as I have been able to discover, when the present applications are disposed of it is not likely that many more will be forthcoming, except, of course, applications to amend and correct the mistakes made by the Tariff Commission in previous reports. I suggested here, on a previous occasion, that a special abnormal situation existed when the Tariff Commission was first appointed. That special abnormal situation still exists. By that I mean that immediately after the establishment of the Tariff Commission a comparatively large number of applications came in simultaneously, with which, of course, it was not possible for the Tariff Commission, as constituted, to deal. It is not likely, even if the Tariff Commission survives much longer, that the situation will ever again be repeated. When the first set of applications have been disposed of, future applications will come in individually and with considerable intervals of time between them. It will be possible under these normal circumstances for a body like this to deal with the applications referred to it by the Minister for Finance, but as the body is constituted at present it is obviously incapable of dealing expeditiously with the various applications still pending.
I do not know if it would require an amendment of the Tariff Commission Act to enable the Minister to set up, as I suggested before, two or three such bodies, or quite a number of such bodies equal to the number of applications to be considered, to enable that preliminary work to be disposed of in a short period of time. I know, of course, that the Minister has ideas on this subject which are somewhat in conflict with ours. He seems to think that it would not be a good thing for the country if all the industries seeking protection, if favourably reported on by the Tariff Commission, should get it at once, because of the possible effect on the cost of living, although the possible effect on the cost of living would probably be in favour of the consumers and not against them, as our experience in relation to existing tariffs has shown. I would ask the Minister to bear in mind the position of industrialists concerned in the matter, the number of those people who made application for protection in 1926 and who are still without it. These people are not now able to make as strong a case for protection as they were three years ago. The efficiency of their industry has declined, their resources have declined, and their ability to deal with the requirements of the country as regards the particular goods they manufacture has also declined. In fact, I would go so far as to say that very considerable damage has been done to industry in this country by the fact that this delay has taken place. I made reference to the fact that in one particular industry some of the best equipped and mose efficient concerns have actually been driven to the wall in the period between the making of the application for the tariff and the present time, when the Report of the Tariff Commission on these applications is not available. I do not think that it is treating Irish industrialists fairly to have them handicapped by the existence of this institution. Therefore I propose to ask the Dáil to vote against this Estimate in the hope that some Deputies who may be unduly sleepy at this hour of the morning may, by mistake, vote with me, and that therefore, if we get a majority, the Minister for Finance will be forced to reconsider his original opinions in relation to the whole thing.
