asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he has further considered the position of Irish Tanners, Limited, Portlaw, where workers are week by week being laid off in large numbers because of cessation in the production of heavy leather, and, if so, what steps he proposes to take to restore normal production in the factory.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Heavy Leather Production.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will curtail the importation by our boot factories of substitute soling material, which is so largely the reason why Irish Tanners, Limited, Portlaw, are ceasing production of heavy leather and has resulted in the dismissal of large numbers of workers, or, alternatively, if he will consider the possibility of having the substitute material produced by Irish Tanners, Limited.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 8 together.
I have nothing to add to what I said on the 9th March, 1955, on the occasion of a question by the Deputy about the same tannery, except to say that I have decided to limit the quantities of substitute soling materials which will be admitted under duty-free licences.
The Minister, on the occasion on which I put down the former question, said he was taking definite steps to protect the workers in Portlaw tannery. Will he now state why, in view of the steps he states he has taken, these workers continue to be disemployed week by week? Even up to last week quite a big number of them were laid off and is he aware that many of these workers, seeing no prospect of work at home, are making preparations to leave for England and that, unless the Minister's steps have immediate effect, these experienced workers will be lost to the tanning industry entirely?
I have explained to the Deputy, as I explained to the workers and to the owners of the Portlaw tannery, that this is a problem which cannot be solved in any simple way. Portlaw tanneries have a 12 months' supply of leather in stock without making any additional leather. That very fact would make it unnecessary to employ additional staff now even if there was an increased demand for leather. That is No. 1. No. 2: this particular industry has lost a substantial export trade. No. 3: the public taste in footwear has changed. As I explained on the last occasion, substitute soling material which represented about 14 per cent. of the soling in 1942 has increased to 37 per cent. at the current date. All these difficulties have impacted on the tanneries as they have impacted on the tanneries in every other part of the world. I am endeavouring to meet the situation as far as it is practicable to do so, namely, by a certain restriction on the importation of substitute soling material. The quantity which I am letting in is the quantity which was agreed to by the tanners concerned.
Would the Minister state if it is his belief that the provision of employment by the establishing of an industry in one area is justified if by so doing unemployment is created in a similar industry in another area?
What I believe is that the tanners ought to recognise the trend of public taste and they ought to adjust their selling organisation and their manufacturing organisation accordingly. There are other uses for this leather besides putting it on footwear. The tanners ought to recognise what tanners recognise elsewhere, namely, the desirability of finding alternative uses for leather material. I have pointed that fact out to the tanners and I hope they will take a leaf out of the books of their vocational associates in other countries where they have been able to find alternative uses for leather and an alteration in the type of leather manufactured in order to meet in these other countries the precise difficulties which are now confronting Irish tanners.
I am not at all satisfied with the Minister's reply and with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle I wish to raise this matter on the Adjournment.
I will communicate with the Deputy.