asked the Taoiseach if he will state the earnings of Irish shipping companies and the payments to foreign shipping companies in the years 1951 and 1952 as computed for the balance of international payments.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Shipping Companies' Earnings.
In computing the Balance of International Payments Statement for the country, a debit entry relating to imported goods, valued as in the official trade statistics, i.e., on the cost, insurance and freight (c.i.f.) basis is made. Consequently the total payments in respect of freight made to all shipping companies are included implicitly in this entry. To allow for the fact that a certain amount of the freight charges is paid to Irish shipping companies and to include any external earnings of these companies, a credit entry is made, equal to the estimated gross freight earnings from all sources of the Irish shipping companies less payment outside the State in respect of equipment, charter, hire, repairs, bunkers, harbour dues, etc. The amount of this credit entry was £1,410,000 in 1951 and (provisionally) £1,643,000 in 1952.
For balance of international payments purposes, it is accordingly notnecessary to estimate explicitly payments to foreign shipping companies. Information is not at present available which would form a basis for a reliable estimate of this figure.