I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £30,000 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1938, chun Deontais-i-gCabhair do Thaighde agus d'Fhorbairt maidir le Cadhnra Leictreachais.
That a sum not exceeding £30,000 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, 1938, for a Grant-in-Aid for Electrical Battery Research and Development.
When I introduced this Estimate last year I stated as follows:—
"I hope that in the course of the present year certain changes will occur which will perhaps result in the Vote not appearing in this form in the future. In any event, I expect at the end of the present financial year to be in a position to make a more definite statement than at present concerning the future of the service."
Deputies will have noted that instead of the Vote disappearing, the amount of it has been increased from £8,000 to £46,000. The reason for that increase is that Drumm Battery Sales, Ltd., a subsidiary of the Drumm Battery Co., Ltd., has entered into an agreement with the Great Southern Railways Company under which the Drumm Battery Sales Company is to recondition the two existing batteries and to build two new batteries and sell them to the railway company. The four batteries will be operated in train units by the railway company on a commercial basis, and the railway company will pay to the sales company a sum of £45,000 over a period of ten years, discharging the liability by half-yearly payments, including interest at 5 per cent. It has been decided to assist the Drumm Battery Sales, Ltd., to finance that arrangement, and hence the increase in the amount of the Estimate. During the course of the year we arranged that advances already made to the Drumm Battery Company, and those which are to be made in future in consequence of this Estimate, will be secured by means of first debentures on all the assets of the company, and that the reduction of the advances will be a first charge on any profits that may arise, and that they should be liquidated over a period of about ten years. Up to date the total amount provided by the Oireachtas under all heads for this service, not including the amount to be voted in the present year, was £105,300. Of that sum, about £95,913 has been actually issued, and the balance is held in a deposit account in the books of the Paymaster-General, and will be available when the £46,000 now being provided for issue to the company in the present financial year is released.
I may say that the experimental part of the Drumm Battery is now finished, and, consequently, the company must regard itself as being in the position that its future progress will depend on the success of its efforts to market its property, either by granting licences under its patents or by sales of batteries constructed by it. In any event, I anticipate that no further provision will be made from public funds for the Drumm Battery Company, and this is the last occasion, I think, on which this Vote will appear. I should add that the board of the company are optimistic that in future years their revenue from sales and licence fees will be sufficient to meet their outgoings, and particularly to permit them to begin repayment of the advances made to date.