asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether he can now state when the proposed Official Directory of Irish Manufacturers will be published.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Official Directory of Irish Manufacturers.
The material for the Official Industrial Directory is in the hands of the printers. The contents when published will extend to some 800 pages and, while it is not possible to state the precise date of publication, it is expected that it will be available by the end of next month.
Is the Minister aware that he told me in November last that it was in the hands of the printers and as long ago as last April 12 months he asked me to wait for certain information I required until this Directory had appeared? Is the Minister in a position to say whether the book will remain for another three months before it makes its appearance?
I am not in a position to say the precise date of the publication. The Deputy must remember that there is more than the Department of Industry and Commerce concerned in this matter. The manufacturers whose names will appear in the Directory have advertisements and the Stationery Office and the printers are also concerned. The delay in publication has largely been due to the necessity for revising the index in consequence of certain changes involved by the requests of one or other of the parties I have mentioned.
Difficulties such as replacing the advertisements for the spring fashions of 1934 by advertisements for the spring fashions of 1935? If further inconvenience is caused to the advertisers by having to withdraw their advertisements in order to replace them by the spring fashions of 1936, will the Minister say if the advertisers are to be compensated in any way?
If the publication is delayed until 1936 it will probably run to 1,600 pages.
It will probably be a history of ancient Ireland by the time it appears.