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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 28 May 1946

Vol. 101 No. 8

Tourist Traffic (Amendment) Bill, 1946—Report and Final Stages.

I move that the Bill be received for final consideration.

As there are no amendments on the Report Stage——

The Deputy may speak on the Fifth Stage.

I oppose the Report Stage of the Bill. There are, apparently, no amendments on it and there is no reason for holding up the Fifth Stage of the Bill. I shall give my reasons for opposing the Bill on the Fifth Stage.

Question put and declared carried.
Agreed to take the Fifth Stage now.

I move that the Bill do now pass.

One would have expected that the Minister would say something at least on the Fifth Stage with regard to the new company that has been actually formed. When discussing this measure on the Second Reading and on the Committee Stage it was indicated that the large properties which the Tourist Board had already acquired were to be transferred to a new company which the Tourist Board were to set up. But, beyond telling us that a new company would be set up, the Minister gave us no information that the company was actually being set up. Since the Bill passed through Committee we have seen formal announcements that two companies have been set up (1) a company called Fáilte, Teoranta, and (2) a company called Tráigh Mhór (Tramore Development), Teoranta. There are two aspects of Fáilte, Teoranta, I should like to say a word about. The first is a small thing but, nevertheless, it is important. Why we should call a company set up for the purpose of bringing tourists into the country Fáilte, Teoranta, which means "limited welcome", is more than I know. If, in the usual way, Fáilte, Teoranta, is to be given the usual "Teo.", like "Ltd." for Limited, we will have this company described as "Fáilte, Teo.", "a hot welcome". It is a great pity that whoever was responsible for suggesting this name for the company which is to manage all this property did not know a little more about the Gaelic mind, the subtlety of the Gaelic mind, and the understanding the Gaelic mind has of its own language, because I think the name given to the company is certainly a very absurd one. But the powers taken by the company in its articles of association are even more absurd and more outlandish. This new company, Fáilte Teoranta, are taking power under their articles of association to carry on the business of victuallers, wine and spirit merchants, distillers, maltsters and brewers. They can manufacture pleasure steamers and other river craft. They can manufacture other sea-going craft. They can import food and can be brokers of food, including live stock and dead stock. They can import colonial and foreign produce. They can have hairdressing saloons. There is nothing that a man or woman can carry on in this country as a business or an avocation that Fáilte, Teoranta, in their articles of association have not taken power to carry on.

When there was an opportunity of discussing this matter to some extent on the Committee Stage, when we were full of curiosity as to what was to happen the properties and as to what kind of a company was to look after them and, in general, what was to be done by the company that would be set up, it is an extraordinary thing that the Minister did not take us into his confidence and explain what was happening. Here in these articles of association we have, as I say, these extraordinary powers taken by this new company or for this new company by the Tourist Board. The new company, Fáilte Teoranta, is to be set up by the Tourist Board. The members will be removable by the Tourist Board at their will and pleasure, and, generally, the Tourist Board are practically to be the lord high victuallers and the lord high manufacturers of pleasure steamers and other things, as well as brewers, maltsters, etc. We have had to complain already of the ridiculously wide interpretation which the Tourist Board and the Minister put on the powers given under the 1939 Act. But this is going beyond any stretch of imagination we might have allowed ourselves. I have not seen the articles of association of the Tráigh Mhór Development Company, but judged by the language which has been used in announcing its formation, its powers do not seem to be any less inside the restricted area of Tráigh Mhór than the general powers which the larger company is having over a wide area. I think we are entitled to some explanation of these matters. The articles of association state that no dividends will be paid in any of these companies, so I would like to know what is meant by the suggestion that the nominal capital of the company is to be £5,000, divided into 5,000 shares of £1 each.

When we consider the nature of the powers taken under the articles of association and the fact that the Minister has already explained to the House that this new company can sell any property that it purchases or develops, we see an enormous avenue opening for traffic in all kinds of businesses and of developing all kinds of businesses and then selling them off. The articles of association give Fáilte, Teoranta, power to set up and promote subsidiary companies to carry on some of its activities and that fact must make us realise that we are having certainly a little minor experiment in absolute and pure totalitarianism. It is extraordinary that we get only a little more of the veil lifted when the articles of association of this new company are published. Would the Minister put in the Library a copy of the articles of association of these two new companies or of any other company that has been formed or is in process of formation under the Tourist Traffic Acts?

The company to which the Deputy referred, Fáilte, Teoranta, has been established by the Irish Tourist Board as a temporary organisation to take over, manage and develop this property, prior to the disposal of it to the public. I do not know to what extent the Deputy considers it desirable that the activities of the Tourist Board should be subjected to the supervision and sanction of the Minister for Industry and Commerce. I have taken the view that it is desirable that, in matters of detail, it should not be subject to Ministerial sanction at all. Therefore, the position is that I cannot answer for the motives of the board, either in naming the company or in constituting it in a particular way. I was not consulted on either point. I approved of the proposal of the board to acquire certain property to be developed as hotels; I approved of the proposal of the board that these properties when acquired should be offered for sale to the public; I approved of the proposal that, to ensure the protection of the board's interest, some interim organisation would be necessary and this company has been formed in pursuance of that idea.

Does the Minister approve of taking power to distil spirits?

I think the Deputy should know that it is the usual practice in forming a company under the Companies Acts to draw up the memorandum of association very widely.

But this is a very unusual company, set up by State funds.

In so far as the company ultimately will become a privately owned company, I see no reason why the board should impose through the memorandum of association any limitation on its activities that would not be imposed by law. The board, of course, cannot engage in the business of distilling spirits or certain other activities named by Deputy Mulcahy, without other formalities having been completed first. The same circumstances arise in connection with the Tramore Development Company, which is a local company promoted by the board to develop through local enterprise the land which has been reclaimed by the board and which they hope to have developed. Again, I think it is desirable that the development of properties acquired by the board in that way at holiday resorts should be undertaken by local enterprise rather than by the board itself and I strongly approve of the policy of the board in taking steps to promote local organisations, controlled, and to a large extent financed, by local interests for that purpose.

I assume that the memoranda of association of these companies are open to inspection somewhere. I would have no power to require either company to submit these documents either for my approval or for tabling in the Library. I think, however, it would be possible to procure copies and place them in the Library and I will arrange to have that done; but it will not be because of any view of mine that the details of those documents or the activities of the companies should be subject to review by the Dáil or even subject to review by the Minister for Industry and Commerce. The policy in this matter is to get private enterprise at work and the formation of these organisations is purely a step to that end. They are not intended to be permanent organisations, but intended merely to facilitate the transition from the stage of development by the board to development by private enterprise.

Question put and declared carried.

This is a Money Bill within the meaning of Article 22 of the Constitution.

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