I move the following amendment:—
In page 4, line 36, to delete "the passing of the Act" and substitute "1st May, 1923."
We had a fairly considerable discussion on the subject of this amendment on the Committee Stage on Wednesday. I indicated then that I was proposing to repeat the amendment on this stage, partly for the purpose of giving the Minister an opportunity of providing a better excuse than he had the other day for the rejection of it, if he is still of that mind. I hope that the 48 hours' interval has persuaded the Minister that there is no case whatsoever to be made on any fair basis against this amendment.
I do not know whether the Minister has considered what he said the other day about the confidential nature of the report on capital for industry, but having read it again myself, I cannot see anything the least bit confidential in it at this stage. The Minister, in his reply, suggested that the proposal by the Industrial Credit Company that issues of securities to an underwriting house, and then for subsequent sale to the public, should be covered by this section, and that was one of the reasons why he was introducing the section. I agree with him entirely that they should be covered in legislation but it has been done administratively all along. While it is desirable that there should be provisions of this sort included in the legislation per se it is no reason to advance for the rejection of this amendment bringing the benefit of this section back to the financial inception of the State.
It is not necessary to go over the ground that we covered the other day. This is not an incentive section. It is a section that will not improve marketability in any shape or form. No specific reason is advanced by the Industrial Credit Company for its inclusion. It will have the effect of giving an uncovenanted benefit to certain Irish securities. There is a case for doing that but the case is for doing it for all Irish securities and not only for a selection of them.