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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 21 Feb 1934

Vol. 50 No. 12

Supplementary Estimates.

Leave granted to introduce the following Supplementary Estimates for the services of the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1934, namely:—
Votes Nos. 52 (Agriculture), 56 (Industry and Commerce).—Minister for Finance.

Will the Minister say when the Estimates will be taken?

The Minister for Industry and Commerce is rather anxious that the Supplementary Estimate No. 56, which is for the sum of £10 to make the provision required for the setting up of a research council and for the establishment of an experimental distillery and refinery for the manufacture of industrial alcohol, should be taken to-morrow.

We have not seen the Estimate yet.

It will be circulated this evening. I have told the Deputy what the purpose is.

I again recall the way in which the Estimate for sugar beet was presented to this House, and I, for one, protest against taking a token vote for the setting up of what the Minister would call a new basic industry on less than 24 hours' notice, with no guarantee of any statement from the Minister as to what he proposes to do.

I am sorry that the Deputy should be giving us such an example of the helpful opposition which we were promised about two years ago, but I do suggest that there is nothing in the point which he is making. The Minister for Industry and Commerce will come here and will explain the proposals which are to be covered by the Estimate. The Deputy will then have an opportunity of either criticising those proposals or opposing them in the Division Lobby if he thinks fit. The sole purpose is to get the matter before the Dáil at the earliest possible moment. The circulation of the Estimates will not add anything to the information which the Deputy may have in his possession in regard to this proposal. I would suggest that there is really no reason why leave to take the Estimate to-morrow should not now be given.

What the House is interested in is the information which the Ministers have at their disposal with regard to this proposal. To ask the House to take the matter on this short notice is to endeavour to hide from the House the information or lack of information that the Ministers have on this proposal, which appears to be a big one. I, for one, in this House protest against procedure like that.

What is the amount? Is £10 the total?

I will give the details now. I have a draft copy of the Estimate in my hand. For the establishment of an industrial research council: salaries, wages and allowances, £10; travelling expenses, £50; incidental expenses, £100; special investigations, £100; aids to research workers and special research committees, £50; for the production of industrial alcohol, £8,000, making with a sum of £444 required for subscriptions to international organisations, special services, enquiries, etc., a gross total of £8,754, which will be offset to the extent of £8,744 by savings on other sub-heads, leaving a net Supplementary Estimate of £10.

Is the sum involved here £8,260?

For the establishment of an experimental installation to manufacture industrial alcohol, the amount asked for in the Supplementary Estimate will be £8,000, but there is no further information given on that in the sub-head or in the Estimate, and if the Deputy is anxious—and I am sure he is—to receive further information at the earliest possible moment, as to a project in which the country as a whole is very much interested, I suggest that the Minister ought to be allowed to take that Supplementary Estimate to-morrow.

I do not know whether the Minister intended to mislead the House, but a £10 Token Vote gives no information as to what is involved. The sum involved is £8,000 odd, and that is the sum we ought to have been given, even though the Vote is for only £10.

I submit that we have not yet got full information with regard to this £8,000—whether it is to be spent before the 31st March or not, and if it is to be spent before the 31st March, how much is to be spent afterwards in addition?

On that, I am afraid the Deputy will have to wait until he hears the Minister for Industry and Commerce. Quite obviously, he is very anxious to have all this information, and I think he ought to have it at the earliest possible opportunity. No person will be inconvenienced if this is taken to-morrow, and that is what we are asking, in order that he who is so anxious to know all about it should know it at the first opportunity and that the country also should know it.

I think that the members of this House should get longer notice than less than 24 hours of the fact that the Minister for Industry and Commerce proposes to come before the House and put forward proposals with regard to this project.

But we have already indicated—last year and in several statements made recently—that the Government contemplate establishing an installation of this kind. That is all the information we can give the Deputy now, but we can give him complete and full information when this Estimate is under discussion, and we are anxious to let him have it.

I must say that I, for one, object to the House being restricted to 24 hours' notice of the fact that the Minister proposes to come in here and discuss a matter which he apparently considers so very important.

I would like if the Deputy would waive his objection, because the Minister asked me particularly to press this and I am rather at a disadvantage. I would say Friday, if that would meet the convenience of the Deputy, but I think that, if he can, he ought to allow it to be taken to-morrow.

I think it is utterly absurd that in respect of industrial projects which are considered by the Ministry to be of magnitude and of importance to the country, the House should be asked to accept 24 hours' notice of the fact that the Minister proposes to come in here and expound them, that expounding ending up with the definite venturing and sinking of money in going ahead with the project.

The Estimate will be taken on Friday next.

I think that Friday is unreasonable but I waive my objections to that day.

Supplementary Estimate ordered to be taken on Friday.

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