Vol. 101 No. 4
I move:—
That for the purpose of any Act of the present session to increase the aggregate of the advances which may be made to the Irish Tourist Board under Section 16 of the Tourist Traffic Act, 1939, and for that purpose to amend sub-section (1) of the said section, it is expedient to authorise the advance out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof of such sums, not exceeding in the aggregate £650,000, as such board shall from time to time require.
I asked the Minister on Second Reading whether he could give us a picture of the various holdings of land, hotels and farmhouses being held by the board in the various places he mentioned—in Ballinahinch, Courtown, Killarney, Lisdoonvarna, Termonfeckin, Portmarnock, Arklow, Dollymount, Glengarriff, Rosses Point, Salthill and Youghal. In these various places, the Tourist Board hold hotels, farmhouses and lands of different kinds, which, according to the Minister's statement, they propose to hand over to a new temporary company which they will set up. That temporary company will run these hotels, will establish cafés and carry them on until such time as they make up their mind that they will sell the property which they have in a particular locality and which they have developed to some private person or group of private persons. I asked the Minister if he could give us a picture of the number of these and the value and total cost of the proposed developments, together with the amount of money likely to be locked up in the company. The Minister indicated that there would be simply a nominal capital for the company; but I suggest that that is rather an unsatisfactory way in which to leave this matter. If the company is going to be set up and certain capital assets are going to be transferred to the company the whole should be disclosed in the company's account as a definite capital holding by the company.
The accounts will certainly show the total amount spent upon the acquisition and development of the properties. I could not tell the Deputy at this stage what amount may be spent on development in any individual case. Clearly that would be impossible to estimate at the moment. I can give the Deputy and, I think, I did give the Deputy, the amount spent in each case upon acquisition.
The Minister gave the amount spent on acquisition in some cases and, in some cases, he gave the amount that was likely to be spent on complete development.
That is so. At some stage the total expenditure will appear in the accounts of the new company as a liability to the Tourist Development Board.
When the Minister was dealing with this matter he agreed that the approach had been radically changed from the time when the original Bill was introduced. He stated that the reason why the approach of the board had been changed was because of the emergency conditions; but he rather threw emphasis on the nature of the change that had taken place—on the amount of development work that had taken place—and not on the extent to which the board was going in to do work which would normally be carried on by private enterprise. To my mind, the real change in the board's workings, as compared with the complexion the Minister put on it when dealing with the original Bill, is that the board has begun to go in in an enormous way for work that should be normally carried on by private enterprise. In the various places I have mentioned they are not only purchasing and opening and running hotels, but they are planning to develop and open cafés. For that reason, I would like to have some more definite financial information as to the amount of money which is likely to be spent and the reason why, for instance, it was found necessary for the Tourist Board to open a café at Salthill in Galway.
That is not quite correct.
Oh, yes, it is.
"At Salthill, County Galway, the board's plans provide for the acquisition of certain houses and the erection of a café, baths, and other facilities at a total cost of about £50,000."
That does not necessarily mean that the board is going to operate it. As a matter of fact, in the case of Salthill I understand that private enterprise is now showing an interest in the development of the locality in which the board was interested. Should that prove to be the case the board will, of course, step down. Their plan involves the erection of baths, a café, and other facilities in the locality, but the operation of the café would be carried out by some person who would rent the premises erected by the board.
We gave the Minister a blank cheque for the original Bill but very radical changes have taken place since and work is now being undertaken by the board which is definitely an invasion into the theatre of private enterprise and an invasion into the sphere of private enterprise—in other words, getting facilities for the setting up of these things and for building materials, and so on, which are not normally available to private persons.
No. The board gets no facilities of any kind which are not available to private persons. For instance, the board gets no special facilities in the matter of building materials, etc.
It is an extraordinary thing that the board is able to go ahead with these things and that a development which one would normally expect on the part of private enterprise is not going ahead in any way which would reflect the amount of advances made by the board to private persons.
That is true but, as I explained to the Deputy, while it was originally intended that the board should in the matter of the development of hotel accommodation stimulate private enterprise and facilitate private enterprise by the provision of financial accommodation, the fact is that private enterprise, in the earlier stages of the war at any rate, was most reluctant to commit itself to projects of that kind and consequently there was little or no development. It is only now I think that there is any real prospect that private enterprise is becoming active and the board will have on the enactment of this measure resources from which they can give assistance, if in fact assistance is required; but the general policy of the board is to stimulate and assist private enterprise and not to compete in any way with private enterprise. It will follow that policy throughout its main lines of activity.
