asked the Minister for Finance if he will state the amount of foreign currency allocated in respectof the purchase of timber delivered from Russia recently, and the circumstances under which it was granted.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Allocation of Currency for Russian Timber.
I presume the Deputy's question refers to the cargo of Russian timber which arrived recently in Dublin port. The amount of foreign currency allocated in respect of this cargo was £85,000.
As regards the circumstances under which the currency was allocated, I would refer the Deputy to the answers which I gave him on 27th November, 1952, and 5th February, 1953, in reply to similar questions. I would remind the Deputy that exchange control approval for imports of Russian timber was given by direction of the Coalition Government on the basis, which still subsists, of giving the timber trade facilities for the purchase of essential requirements in the cheapest market. The payments are effected in sterling and as exchange relations between the sterling area and Russia are easy, there is no justification for refusing the necessary facilities on foreign exchange grounds.
Other aspects of the matter are being dealt with by the Tánaiste and the Minister for External Affairs in reply to questions addressed to them. I may add, however, that experience has shown that as long as Great Britain and other European countries continue to trade with Russia and her associates any attempt on our part to exclude imports from these sources by means of currency control would be ineffective. The net result would be that these essential imports would arrive via Great Britain or some such country, giving them a profit at our expense on the transaction and thereby increasing the price to the Irish consumer.
Might I ask the Parliamentary Secretary whether, in view of his reply, currency facilities will be made available to any concern that desires to trade with Russia?
No, he has not said that.
I am not asking the Minister. I am asking the Parliamentary Secretary.
That is the only reply the Deputy is going to get.
With all respect I have addressed a supplementary to the Parliamentary Secretary and I am asking him——
Question No. 23.
I think the Tánaiste has replied to that question.
Might I ask if there were any special circumstances in which these facilities for the £85,000 worth of currency were provided to the individual concerned? Was there any special ground on which the currency facilities were granted? Did the Department of Finance investigate the possibility of having the timber supplies secured from elsewhere—timber of equally good quality as the Russian timber?
From my experience the Department of Finance investigates everything.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary say whether it would have been necessary to allocate this foreign currency if his Government had not shipped the timber we had here to Belfast?
Deputy Sweetman should remember that this was a decision of his Government.
We brought in the timber and you shipped it out. We had the timber for the houses and you shipped it out.
Order!
Deputy Sweetman's Government gave permission to ship out that timber.
Why are you so touchy about this? The Government is very touchy on this.
Because we are looking at thereligious frauds before us—the Fine Gael hypocrisy.
You are allied now with the Irish Times.
The Government is a good judge of hypocrisy.
Order!