Before we leave the question of turf, I just want to mention that. Then we come to the question of wood. I said that one of the reasons why there was an increased demand for turf in 1946 was that the iron ration of wood which had been used up the previous winter was being partly replaced by turf. No attempt was made during the current year to cut any wood to replenish the iron ration stocks that Fuel Importers, Limited, previously had. Instead of that, every possible difficulty was placed in the way of people who wanted to cut timber. We had the Department of Forestry telling me the other day that the natural thing was to refuse a licence to cut timber in the beginning. We are now told by the Minister in a statement the other night that most of the restrictions are off. They are taken off in February, 1947, but during 1946, in August, September and the following months when it was clear that there was going to be a fuel difficulty, no attempt was made to ease the situation for people who wanted to get turf. Timber was taken off the ration and it went into the black market.
The Minister indicated in his statement the other night that perhaps the price fixed for timber was too small and that he would consider the difficulties in the matter. We see in this morning's paper that the price of timber has been increased but there was the difficulty for people during the end of 1946 and up to date with regard to timber that the cost of timber was such that the only people who could risk buying and selling it again were people who could go down the country, buy it in bulk and dump a load of five or six tons to one person. There was no possibility of the ordinary fuel merchants in the City of Dublin buying timber and distributing it in the same way as it was distributed in 1945, that is to say, selling a quarter ton of timber with 1¾ tons of turf or half a ton of timber with 1½ tons of turf. All the timber for sale during the last six months went into the hands of people who could afford to buy five or six tons at a time. It went into big institutions and manufacturing concerns and it was taken away from the ordinary people. In so far as poor people were able to buy it at all, they have been buying it at 8½d. per stone or something like £7 per ton. I have heard of some who had to pay even as much as 1/- a stone for timber in the city. So much for the question of timber.
Next we come to the question of English coal. Coal had been brought into this country during the emergency by the Irish coal importers. During the last year a ration was agreed to by the British Ministry of Fuel and Power of, I think, 20,000 tons a week. The Minister has indicated that increased quantities of coal were brought from Great Britain into this country in the last few months. That is so. In the first ten months of 1945 the total amount of coal brought in here was 759,506 tons. In the year 1946, during that same ten months, the total was 1,084,950 tons. In fact, therefore, during the ten months, not only did we get an average weekly import of 20,000 tons but we got an additional import of 4,658 tons all over the whole year. We were able to get that because of the initiative and because of the energy and because of the seeking and because of the struggling of Irish coal importers, that is, the Irish coal merchants and their representatives, poking their way through Great Britain to see whether, by contact with persons of goodwill there, they could get more coal than they were actually promised on the quota and such was the successful nature of their efforts that they were able to get substantial increases to their coal imports during the year.
Coal imports, as far as the British were concerned, were of two kinds. There was a definite number of public utility societies designated by the Irish Government to which certain supplies were made available and the second type were exports which were freely available to be used in any way that was allocated, particularly for general industrial purposes. When the Irish coal merchants were able to get, through their own energies and activities, additional quantities of coal they reported this to the Government and they sold them to whatever class of institution, public utility society or industry that the Government dictated they were to be sold, and they were usually sold to public utility societies. At the end of last year the Government probably when it began to give coal to institutions to make up for their turf ration, withheld any additional supplies of coal from public utility societies and the result was that the public utility societies were prevented from building up any kind of a reserve stock and other persons who did not expect coal, as I have said before, were induced to realise that things were becoming easier and that they could afford to look forward to using coal.
We asked the Minister in November last what he was doing to get supplies of coal from the United States, on the one hand, or from any countries outside Great Britain, on the other, and the Minister replied on the 6th of November, 1946:
"Inquiries have been and are still being made as to the possibility of procuring coal from countries other than Great Britain but so far they have met with no success."
I said:
"Will the Minister say from what countries he has been particularly inquiring?
Mr. Lemass: The United States and certain countries on the Continent."
I submit that by the 6th November, 1946, the Minister for Industry and Commerce had made no inquiries in the United States or any application to any official people in the United States for a supply of coal. I spoke of the energy of the Irish coal merchants who, together, call themselves Irish Coal Importers, in relation to getting coal from Great Britain. They were no less anxious and they were no less active in trying to get coal from the United States.
It was not so easy in 1945 to develop any kind of a hope that the United States could provide us with coal, in view of shipping difficulties, but whatever difficulties there were, the difficulties here at home facing Irish coal importers trying to import United States coal were greater because they would not be supplied with dollars to buy that coal and they would not be assisted with shipping. However, they persisted, and by August, 1946, there was a fairly definite offer of 30,000 tons from an American coal company to Irish merchants here, with an offer that they would be able to get it sent here. As far as I remember that offer came through an English firm and the terms of it were such that shipment was offered in English shipping or, at any rate, it was hoped that English shipping would be able to bring the coal so that the supply of dollars required would not be as great as if the payment for the shipping had to be paid in dollars too. The position in regard to the cost of coal and the cost of freight and insurance at that time was that the coal cost about one half of what the freight would cost, and the estimated cost of bringing a ton of coal to the Port of Dublin would be something between £5 and £6. A representative of either that company or another United States company came here to Dublin to see what could be done to bring to a successful conclusion the aim of the Irish coal importers who were looking for an opportunity to get coal. Nobody connected with the Department of Industry and Commerce would see the representative of that company, and nothing transpired. There was no offer of assistance from our Government in any way during September, October, November and December, and then we come along to the beginning of the year. Due to the persistence of various Irishmen in the Irish coal business, certain quarters in America were stirred more and more and, by about December or the beginning of January, the Department were stirred sufficiently to suggest to Irish coal importers that they would recommend the Department of Finance to make dollars available if they really were able to get coal. They were never given any assistance by the Minister or the Department in spite of the fact that 30,000 tons were offered in August.
As a matter of fact, that 30,000 was increased to 50,000 and the offer was kept open to the end of September, to allow the Minister and the Department to make up their minds. The persistency of the efforts of the Irish coal importers here in Ireland brought about a situation here in January in which they were offered 17,000 tons of coal as quota for the January period, if they could get dollars. It appeared that another 17,000 tons would be made available in February. This created quite an interest and quite a hope among coal importers in the city; and quite a number of them, more than a dozen of them, made an application to the Minister for Finance for dollars so as to be able to buy American coal. It was only when a movement of that particular kind came, with a fairly substantial quota of coal on the horizon for Ireland from a country which had been sending tens of thousands of tons to Sweden, Portugal and other countries in Europe, that the Department of Industry and Commerce began to wake up, that any kind of interest or of Government hope was shown here to induce the Irish importers to go ahead with their work.
On the 5th February, the British issued their first notice that they were going to shut down coal exports to Ireland. Not until the 7th February, two days afterwards, did the Department of Industry and Commerce ask for a consultation with Irish coal importers, who were trying to get dollars to bring in American coal. Then an interesting situation of the most mysterious kind seemed to develop, as between our Government and the coal importers here and the coal people in America and the United States Government. The Irish coal importers came together and decided that, of the 17,000 tons being made available, 6,000 would be made available for Cork and something like 9,000 odd for Dublin.
It was then they were called together by the Government and Fuel Importers, Limited, were brought into it; and a Government decision was taken, apparently, that they would be helped to bring this American coal in. But whatever transpired, the American Government withdrew licences which had been actually issued for the export of this coal. The 6,000 tons that were to go to Cork will not go to Cork— at any rate, until we get the Minister's announcement, which requires some explanation, regarding the 34,000 tons. The 6,000 tons to Cork would not be let go and the 9,000 tons for Dublin would not be let go either, although a definite permit had been issued to a coal company in the United States to export it.
The Irish coal importers, who had chartered a vessel and sent it over and had the vessel there in an American port to take the coal, communicated with the persons from whom they had chartered it and tried to get out of their chartering of the vessel, as they could not get the coal. The company in the United States who were selling the coal thought that unreasonable, as they said the Irish Government was not doing anything to get the coal; and the people who owned the vessel would not release Irish coal importers from their contract to charter the vessel. In the end, official America, the American Government, through some of its channels, said: "Give them the licence for the 9,000 tons, as the vessel is here." We read in the Irish Times of the day before yesterday that a vessel called the Richard J. Hopkins is already loaded at Baltimore with 9,000 tons of coal for Dublin City. It is so loaded, not because the Government here asked for it, but in spite of that they waited day after day for some days in the beginning of February for the Irish Government to ask the American Government for this coal.
It was not asked for and, in the end, realising the initiative of the Irishmen who sent the vessel over there for the coal, realising the fact that the vessel was there, they said: "Let us give to that initiative, energy and enterprise the 9,000 tons they are looking for, in special circumstances." The Richard J. Hopkins, which the Irish Times tells us is loading in Baltimore, when it reaches the Port of Dublin, will be breaking through a boom stretched across the Dublin harbour in a most mysterious and a most absurd way by the Department of Industry and Commerce and the Department of Finance, against the operations of private enterprise and the initiative of men trying to help to improve the fuel situation here.
I challenge the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Industry and Commerce, in relation to the coal that is on the Richard J. Hopkins, that they have assisted in no way to get that boat here and that that boat will come here in spite of them, whatever they have been forced to do in the meantime. The men who sent the Hopkins to Baltimore and did all the preliminary work to try to fight for United States coal here have done this—they have broken down whatever queer barrier there is in the Department of Industry and Commerce and the Department of Finance against seeking or getting supplies of American coal for this country. If the situation is dark, even if it is black, there is one bright spot in it; and I feel that those who stand for individual energy, individual initiative, for persisting in trying to do their own Irish work in spite of the difficulties that an Irish Government may put against them, will give a glorious Irish welcome to the Richard J. Hopkins when it arrives in the Port of Dublin with its first cargo of American coal.
I would like the Minister to tell us, in relation to the 34,000 tons of American coal which he says the United States Government have advised us they are sending here and for which we thank them, what exactly has been arranged and what coal we can expect in that way.
We have been getting more British coal during the last 12 months than we were getting in the previous 12 months, and I have the firm conviction that more persistence in looking for coal and for a better quality coal from Great Britain would have got us more coal and of a better quality. Now that persistence of a particular kind has brought a certain amount of success in regard to American coal, will the Minister give some encouragement to that persistence and try to do better in the British market? The fact is that British coal has had to be accepted here that other countries were not prepared to accept. We may anticipate that, when we get an opportunity of comparing the quality of United States coal with the quality of British coal coming in here, it may help to bring about an improvement in the British quality.
I charge the Department in respect of this whole matter that all through they were persistent against us. I was reading more favourably than the Minister the signs of coal production in Great Britain in the end of last year, but the Minister was very dogmatic that we did not know what we were talking about. He was very dogmatic that we would not be able to get more coal from Great Britain. Yet, in spite of the fact that he was dogmatising like that, he did nothing to develop the production of wood fuel. In fact, its production was impeded. He did nothing to see that positively the United States Government set aside a quota for Ireland, but in every possible way that neglect or refusal to be interested or refusal to see representatives of United States companies could go, the Minister and the Department set their faces against the getting of United States coal in here.
In the early days of the Fianna Fáil Government, in a speech made by the Minister for Industry and Commerce on its first Budget, he said that he was going to make the turf industry the second biggest industry in this country. £500,000 was spent on it before ever the war began and with no great result because, as far as Civil Service offices at that time were concerned, less turf was being burned in them in 1936, 1937 and 1938 than in the early days of turf enthusiasm. But, as I say, £500,000 or more was spent on it. The Minister has shown himself to be a turf fanatic of a particular kind. The Minister for Finance has also shown himself to be a turf fanatic. I wonder how far that fanaticism is responsible for the fact that nothing was done last year with regard to wood, nothing was done with regard to United States coal and very little with regard to British coal. We were left entirely dependent on what the bogs sent us, wet or dry, in the shape of turf. The Minister for Industry and Commerce, on the one hand, and the Minister for Finance on the other, belong to a particular brand of turf fanaticism.
On these grounds, I condemn the Government's failure to make any provision for improving the fuel situation when they knew how serious it was from the facts disclosed with regard to turf supplies, with regard to turf transport to Dublin during the summer, as well as from the facts disclosed from the consumption of turf in the early part of last autumn. Now, they are frantically calling on all kinds of voluntary effort—voluntary, which was impeded in every possible way up to this—to cut wood. I hope we shall hear that very vigorous efforts are being made to get all the coal we possibly can from the United States. In the case of wood, the people will now have to depend upon it for a substantial portion of their fuel. Therefore, if wood is going to be made available to the ordinary person, and to the poor person who buys it from a bellman or huckster, I hope the Minister will consider subsidising it in the same way that turf is being subsidised.
If we are not going to have as difficult a period in the winter of this year as we had last year, the Minister will also have to consider extending the subsidy for turf to persons cutting turf as private persons in the way that private persons were cutting it around Dublin and bringing it in substantial loads to institutions or to individual persons in the city. The fact that a subsidy is only given on turf bought through Fuel Importers, Limited, helped to cut down the supply of turf available this year, and I suggest will cut it down next year unless something is done to remedy it.
With regard to coal, there are a number of factors in the situation which are enshrouded in mystery. The mystery that it would be most profitable to have cleared up is the mystery that remains around the journey of the Richard J. Hopkins to the port of Dublin and what has happened to it. The Minister, happily, is able to tell us that the United States is now going to send us 34,000 tons of coal. Can any other consignments be expected from the United States during the year, and is there to be a monthly quota?