I agree with the Deputy that it is desirable that orders made under the Emergency Imposition of Duties Act should be brought forward for confirmation by the Dáil as soon as possible, having due regard to the state of parliamentary business and other considerations of that kind. In fact we have adopted that practice in the past. For obvious reasons, it has been necessary to wait until more than one order had to be confirmed so that the time of the Dáil would not be unduly taken up. Consequently, the practice has been to wait until one order has been followed by others and bring the whole block forward in this way. Deputy Mulcahy should not be misled by the title of the Act under which these orders are made. It is true that special circumstances existed in 1932, when that Act was introduced as a Bill and passed, but circumstances in this country are always such that it is necessary to have certain powers to act quickly as regards the imposition of protective tariffs. We are a small country. Our geographical situation is such that it is very easy to import goods quickly, and experience has shown that it is practically impossible to prevent news spreading whenever any new industrial project is mooted. The spreading of that news is followed by action on behalf of persons engaged in the importation and distribution of goods of the kind concerned with a view to stocking up. They have little difficulty in doing so quickly because of the circumstances to which I have referred. It would seriously impede industrial development and, perhaps, even jeopardise the possibility of proceeding at all with certain projects if the discussion and completion of plans could not be followed up fairly early by action to impose whatever restrictions on imports had been decided upon. In the ordinary course we try to keep tariff proposals for submission to the Dáil at the time of the Budget. Wherever practicable we have done that, but in other cases earlier action may have to be taken. The Dáil may not be in session or it may be fully occupied with other business. In such circumstances, it is desirable to have the powers which this Act confers. I should strongly advise against the repeal of the Act. I am quite certain that any Government dealing with industrial projects here would find it necessary to have some such powers. I do not say that they would find it necessary to have precisely the powers which this Act gives, but they would require some powers to take action when action was required, whether the Dáil was in session or not.
With regard to the particular duties to which Deputies referred, I mentioned more than two. I mentioned four which were — shall I say — of major importance. Certainly they are of greater importance than the other ten orders set out in the Schedule to the Bill. These orders are contained in references (1), (6), (8) and (9). Order No. 131, set out in reference No. (1), imposed a duty of 40 per cent., or 4d. per square yard, on linen, cotton and union woven piece goods of various categories and, as I have already mentioned, removed from the list of exemptions to the then existing duty certain descriptions of piece goods — that is to say, piece goods which had been subjected to a process of proofing involving the use of rubber or rubber solution and not less than 14 ounces weight per square yard, cotton piece goods, with certain exceptions, of less than 4 ounces in weight per square yard and union piece goods containing a quantity of silk or artificial silk. The 40 per cent. or 4d. per square yard, whichever was the greater, applied to all these classes of goods until the Act confirming the Trade Agreement with the United Kingdom was brought into force. The effect of that was to reduce the duty on all linen piece goods to 20 per cent. The object of the duty was two-fold — to give special protection to the home mills in respect of classes of cloth which they were specially equipped to make and to offset certain increased costs of production which had arisen here, to some extent in consequence of the conditions of employment legislation but more directly in consequence of an award given by a Wages Tribunal established in 1937 which Deputies who were then in the House will, no doubt, remember. The effect of the duty has been to encourage the increased production of these goods and to afford increased employment in their production. The number of persons employed in the manufacture of these goods in March of the present year was 1,190.
The duty referred to in reference No. (6) will, perhaps, be familiar to certain Deputies and remind them of a discussion we had here concerning the establishment of a new mill to manufacture certain classes of woollen tissues not previously manufactured here — the mill at Portlaoighise. That mill has come into production and, because it was engaged in the manufacture of classes of cloth not previously made here, an alteration of the scope of the duty had to be effected, the particular alteration being the reduction from 7 ounces to 5½ ounces in the weight of cloths per square yard to which the duty applied. Previous to the making of this order, cloths under 7 ounces in weight per square yard were not subject to duty. Now, cloths down to 5½ ounces per square yard are liable to duty. The manufacture of the cloths has only begun and full production has not yet been accomplished but, apparently, the project is proceeding very satisfactorily.
The order referred to at No. (8) imposes a duty upon certain classes of electrical apparatus — electrical water heaters, radiators, tubular heaters, fire irons, and so forth. A company was established for the production of these goods here. It has established its factory at Ardee, in County Louth, in the station premises of the Great Northern Railway Company which are no longer used for passenger traffic. At the outset, the company proposes to confine its activities to the assembling of these classes of electrical apparatus from component parts but, as their programme proceeds, the manufacture of certain of the parts will be undertaken. The company has only now started production and is engaged in the task of training its workers and running in its machinery. It will have to secure a considerable increase in output before it will be able to meet anything like the full requirements of the country. The import of these goods in 1937 was valued at £250,000 so that there is considerable scope for their production here, apart from the fact that the demand for this class of goods is continually increasing.
The next order altered the duty upon certain glazed articles, that is to say, tableware, teapots and coffee pots and other classes of glazed earthenware articles, all of which had been subject to duty previously. There were two firms manufacturing on a large scale here, one at Arklow and one at Carrigaline, under the protection of the original duty, but during the course of 1937, very considerable competition developed against them from Japan and also, to some extent, from Great Britain, from which countries second quality goods were imported here at low prices. As Deputies who are familiar with the operation of a pottery are aware, the goods produced have to be classified after they are made. Those which turn out good quality are regarded as first class and those which turn out to be inferior in some way are regarded as second class, and these second-class goods are frequently disposed of by large potteries at very low prices. Consequently, it was decided to check the importation of these goods by the imposition of the minimum duties for which this order makes provision. At the time the order was made, one of the potteries to which I refer had closed down and the other was carrying on only with considerable difficulty, but in consequence of the order, both factories are now in operation and, according to the latest returns, about 470 persons are employed in them, so that Deputies will note that it is an industry of some importance from the employment point of view. In fact, there was in relation to that particular order considerable public agitation to have it made before it was made. It was delayed for various reasons for some time and one of the concerns had actually reached the stage of having ceased production before it came into force.
The other orders, as I have mentioned, are of minor importance. In fact, Nos. 2 and 3 were consequential upon No. 1. The variation of the duties upon linen and cotton cloths involved a variation in the duties upon articles made of linen and cotton cloths. The order at reference No. 4 relates to heads for hoes, which were not previously subject to duty. The order at reference No. 5 increases to some extent the existing duty upon certain classes of hollow-ware, the increased duty being necessitated by the expansion of imports of these goods to the detriment of the concern making them here. The order at reference No. 7 was designed to impose a duty upon certain classes of sparking plugs, that is, porcelain sparking plugs, in order to protect the manufacture of sparking plugs which has been undertaken here quite successfully by two firms, one in Dublin and one in Galway. The order at reference No. 10 made no change at all in the duty, but merely imposed a licensing provision. I think I promised in the Dáil that licensing powers would be taken in relation to that duty because it was clear that the existing concerns manufacturing these articles were not yet producing sufficient to supply the full requirements of the market. Consequently, the balance had to be imported subject to the duty, which was fairly high. Now licences are being issued whenever it is clear that adequate supplies from home sources are not available.
