asked the Minister for Finance if he will state whether any Department of State imported a number of chairs recently; and, if so, if he will state (a) by whom they were ordered; (b) the number of chairs imported; (c) from where they were imported and (d) whether any Irish manufacturers were asked for tenders for the supply of the chairs.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Importation of Chairs.
300 bentwood chairs were ordered by the Commissioners of Public Works in December last from a London firm; the Irish manufacturers of bentwood chairs having previously been asked if they would undertake the order.
Were there no southern manufacturers of these chairs asked to tender?
I do not think so.
Why?
The Commissioners of Public Works advise me that there is only one Irish firm of bentwood chairs in the State. They had been asked on several occasions to produce a chair of slightly superior quality to what is known as the common bentwood chair, but without satisfactory result. The subject was again raised in connection with the chairs now in question and every effort was made to induce them to make chairs even reasonably close to the required design. The senior member of the firm finally decided that it would be uneconomic to set up the special plant that would be necessary to manufacture the chairs and recommended that they be imported.
Is it a fact that the chairs that have been imported were made from a pattern of an Irish chair?
That seems to be a separate question.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not consider it desirable in those circumstances to advertise before taking a tender elsewhere?
The usual procedure was followed in this case.
Would not advertisement be a better procedure?
In view of the fact that in Cork there are 1,425 more unemployed men registering at the labour exchange than there were this time last year, it is a shocking state of affairs that we should bring in chairs without giving Cork manufacturers an opportunity of tendering for these chairs.
That is a separate question.
Are these chairs for the Board of Works engineers?
They are not. They are for State apartments.