asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the nature, quantity and value of fabricated steel and iron work imported by the Electricity Supply Board during each of the months January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August and September, 1938, other than under a duty-free licence, and the amount of customs duty paid on such imports.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fabricated Steel and Iron Imports.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the nature, quantity and value of fabricated steel and iron work imported by the Electricity Supply Board during each of the months January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, and September, 1938, under a duty-free licence, and the amount of customs duty that would normally be paid on such imports in the absence of a duty-free licence.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the nature, quantity and value of fabricated steel and iron work in respect of which a duty-free import licence was issued to the Electricity Supply Board during the last 12 months but of which importation has not yet taken place, and the amount of customs duty normally due to be paid on such imports in the absence of a duty-free licence.
I propose to take together the questions 17, 18 and 19 addressed to the Minister for Industry and Commerce. I regret I cannot undertake to reply to questions asking for information that would lead to disclosure of the transactions of a particular trader or importer.
Was it any part of the intention that State bodies, such as the Electricity Supply Board, would be enabled to have fabricated steel brought into the country free of customs duty, while ordinary people would have to bear the excessive costs of fabricated steel manufactured here?
I might say that I do not think that arises out of the question on the Order Paper. But I will say that public bodies get the same treatment as private cases.
Does the Minister refuse the House information as to the quantity and the value of fabricated steel imported free of duty by the Electricity Supply Board?
I have nothing to add to the answer I already gave.
Will the Minister say how he can preclude the charge being made that Government bodies are getting imports of material free and that ordinary citizens have to pay higher prices? I would also ask the Minister—if he thinks there is anything unfounded in such a charge as that— if he or the Minister for Industry and Commerce will intervene and get a conference between the steel fabricators in the country and the Electricity Supply Board or other bodies of that particular character so that they can know what policy is being pursued, and that they may be in a better position to understand the policy of bodies like that and meet their requirements?
I am afraid that those questions do not arise and I am not prepared to answer them.
I would like to ask the Minister whether there can be any other questions involved in matters such as are on this paper than the question as to whether bodies like the Electricity Supply Board are getting facilities for free importation of stuff that other citizens of the country have to pay for, and whether he realises that if a policy like that is being pursued then the overhead costs of steel fabricators in the country are going to be unnecessarily increased and that users of fabricated steel in the country are going to have to pay more than is necessary for the stuff they are buying.
I must call your attention to the fact that question does not appear on the Order Paper.
Why does not the Deputy put down that question?
If I thought that the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Industry and Commerce was going to refuse information on the simple question involved here. I would be glad to put down the question, and I will take the opportunity of putting it down. I would like to ask the Minister does he think that questions like this are put down simply for the purpose of creating trouble?
The Deputy did not ask the question he intended to ask; now he is having another shot at it.
I ask for information which I think any Deputy in the House would think should reasonably be supplied to the House.
That information should not be disclosed.
The extent to which certain Government Departments——
The Deputy should not repeat the question three times.
In reply to the Deputy, I would like to say I was rather anxious, if I could, to give the Deputy the information he asked for, but I came to the conclusion that it would not be in the public interest to create an entirely new precedent and, for the first time, to give information of this sort. We have always refused to disclose the affairs of any trader or any importer in the Dáil here.
Does the Minister for Finance understand that it is a cause of grave public danger if the impression is being allowed to get abroad that Government Departments are getting importation facilities that are denied to the ordinary citizens?
Put down that question.