Many of the matters referred to by Deputy Cosgrave were discussed on the Second Reading of the Bill, and I should have thought that it would not be necessary to go over the same ground again. We are proposing to set up this board because we consider that the functions which it is designed to carry out can best be performed by a board which will have the liberty of action that such a board usually has. We might have decided to set up a public company or some such similar organisation, but we felt that the particular arrangement for which the Bill provides was the best in all the circumstances. I think it would be completely impossible for a section of a Government Department to do this work, apart altogether from the administrative difficulties which would be inevitable. The question of political pressure, of representations from particular areas for the undertaking of expenditure in those areas, which perhaps purely business considerations would not justify, and other matters of that kind would make effective and efficient administration by a section of a Government Department impossible. Therefore we decided that the best course was to set up by statute a board with certain statutory functions and certain statutory powers, and to give it within certain limits the necessary resources to do the work. We are retaining in the hands of the State powers which we think should be adequate to ensure that the board will do the particular job that is designed for it. The power of appointing the members of the board, the power of appointing the auditors of the board, and the other restrictions on its activities for which the Bill provides, are, we think, sufficient to ensure that the board will not act in any manner other than is intended.
The Deputy does not appear quite clear as to the financial provisions of the Bill. The Bill provides for two forms of advances to the board: non-repayable advances, and repayable advances. The only thing in relation to the non-repayable advances is that they must not exceed £45,000 in the year. The actual amount will be estimated and provided for by a Vote of the Dáil. It is anticipated, however, that the board will have a revenue, a growing revenue, as a result of its own activities. It will have a revenue from the registration fees at the beginning, and ultimately, a revenue from its investments. In the course of time, the revenue of the board will be sufficient to finance all its activities and remove the necessity for the making of any non-repayable advances at all. The sum of £45,000 in the Bill is there to indicate that that is the maximum sum which can be provided without an amendment of the law. The actual sum required will, of course, depend very largely on the board's programme of activities on the one hand, and upon its revenue from other sources on the other. Repayable advances will, of course, be advanced for capital purposes, and will be invested by the board in profitable undertakings, undertakings capable of ensuring not merely the payment of interest upon the amount expended but the ultimate repayment of the principal to the Exchequer.
There is no question about the desirability of considering carefully before we undertake any expenditure of public money. I do not think the need at present is any greater than it was ten years ago, but the need is, nevertheless, considerable. If, however, we are to undertake the expenditure of public money at all, the most useful way of doing it is in a manner which will bring additional business to the country, increase its income, and operate to raise the general standard of prosperity. We think that the development of the tourist business is one way of doing that; that money spent upon that activity—if it produces the results we anticipate—will be money well spent, and that the people as a whole will get back that expenditure and a substantial profit in addition. I think there is no doubt whatever that some of the hotel accommodation and a lot of the tourist facilities which exist in this country are out of date, and that it is desirable that some body should be in existence with powers and resources to ensure that they will be improved. I do not think that is going to do any damage whatever to our tourist trade, when it is said in connection with a plan to improve them. I think the improvement which the board will effect in due course will make it impossible for anyone to say the same thing in the future.
The Deputy, I think, misunderstood my remark concerning the establishment of a hotel at the Shannon airport. I was asked why it was considered desirable that the board should have power to build and operate hotels, and I said it might prove to be desirable in the public interest that, in certain circumstances, hotels could be established in particular localities where they would not pay in the ordinary commercial sense. As an illustration of what I had in mind I mentioned the possibility of the establishment of a hotel at the Shannon airport. There is no immediate intention to establish a hotel there. I merely mentioned that possibility for the purpose of illustrating my remarks. It might be considered desirable from many points of view that there should be a hotel there—a hotel which, as Deputy Cosgrave has said, would not be a paying proposition, and which consequently would not be established by private commercial enterprise. In such circumstances we think the board should have power to undertake such development itself. That is the only reference to such a project that I made in the Second Reading debate. There is no such project in mind. Whether the board would in fact be prepared to undertake any such project is something on which I could express no opinion. My reference to the establishment of a hotel there was merely by way of illustrating a point. I think I have dealt with the main points raised by the Deputy. I have no doubt whatever that the establishment of an organisation like this to ensure that adequate attention is given to the development of our tourist facilities is preferable to the conferring of those functions upon a section of a Government Department.
