Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 8 Mar 1955

Vol. 149 No. 1

Customs (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1954 (Continuance) Bill, 1955—Second Stage.

Minister for Finance (Mr. Sweetman)

I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. The Customs (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1945 was due to expire on the 31st March, 1950, and was continued in force by the Customs (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1945 (Continuance) Act 1950, for five years, that is to say, until the 31st of the present month. The purpose of the Bill which I now ask this House to pass is to continue the life of that Act for a further 12 months. The Act of 1945 contains the main body of statutory provisions which are required for the enforcement of prohibition on the export of goods, together with a number of amendments to the law dealing with other customs matters.

The Act had its origin in the need for a code of export law which became apparent during the emergency years. There were already in force sufficient provisions dealing with offences, penalties and seizures in relation to import smuggling, but it was only as a result of the emergency conditions arising during the war that it became necessary to have some analogous provisions in respect of export smuggling. The 1945 Act was originally intended as a permanent Act, but in the course of discussion in this House at that time it was agreed to restrict it for a period. The period, as I said, was later extended from 1950 to the end of the present financial year.

I hope to be in a position before this time next year to bring to the House proposals for more permanent legislation and it is pending those proposals that I am asking the House now to extend the existing provisions for a further 12 months. The position in regard to export smuggling has eased somewhat since the 1945 Act, but all the same there is a necessity to have provisions of some nature to deal with export smuggling. The old provisions that were there prior to 1945 were repealed when that Act went through the Oireachtas and the position that exists at present is one that must be covered either by a permanent Act or by the extension of the present Act for a further period of 12 months. In the present circumstances, I think it would be better to prolong the existing Act for a period of 12 months and then this time next year we can consider what would be the best basis upon which to frame our permanent legislation to deal with this problem.

Mr. Aiken

I must say the Minister gave us very meagre information about the necessity of extending this Act for another 12 months. He says the situation has eased somewhat. To what extent has it eased and to what extent does he calculate that there is export smuggling going on? For instance, a number of people would be interested to know what is his estimate in regard to tea export smuggling and how many sums of three shillings are the people of the Twenty-Six Counties paying by way of taxation in order to subsidise the drinking of tea in the Six Counties? I think those figures would be interesting and the Minister should have the figures which would form the basis of a reasonable calculation as to how much of this smuggling is going on, how much, in fact, the smuggling of tea is costing the taxpayers here. There are a number of other commodities that to our general knowledge are being exported and it would be helpful to the consideration of this problem if the Minister would give us his best calculations on these matters.

Mr. Sweetman

I am afraid the gentlemen who indulge in smuggling hardly fill up statistical returns showing the amount that they have brought out of the country in a manner that would enable me to give any satisfactory estimate. Candidly, from the best information we are able to obtain, I do not think that there is very much smuggling of tea, but I feel there very easily might be if the restrictions existent in the 1945 Act and continued in the 1950 Act were relaxed. That is one of the reasons why I think it is better that we should rely for the moment on the tried provisions rather than that at this stage we should introduce new provisions in a more permanent form.

I feel also that the House would probably wish that when the permanent legislation is introduced the minimum of inconvenience should be involved, the minimum that will be compatible with the necessity to stop smuggling. It is, of course, very difficult at any time to form any estimate of the amount that is involved, but the best advice I can get in respect of tea is that there has not been much smuggling but, equally, that there would be some considerable danger if conditions were relaxed.

So far as export smuggling in general is concerned, as the Deputy is aware, the position in regard to supplies has eased somewhat and obviously the position in that respect is one that is most likely to obviate the incentive, and once the incentive is removed that, indeed, is better than legislation designed to suppress it.

Question put and agreed to.

Committee Stage ordered for Thursday, 10th March, 1955.