With your permission, Sir, and in accordance with the notice I gave this afternoon, I am now raising the subject matter of Questions Nos. 18 and 19 on the Order Paper for the 21st November, 1957. These questions and the answers to them are to be found in Volume 164, No. 6, in columns 950 and 951. The first question was to ask the Minister for the Gaeltacht:
"If he will state whether he has made any Order or Orders or given any direction or directions that firms, shops, business houses or private persons be not supplied with goods, for cash or otherwise, by the Gaeltarra Éireann section of his Department while there is any amount whatsoever due and owing by the said firms, shops, business houses or private persons on foot of goods already supplied under the circumstances heretofore obtaining."
The Minister replied to that question in Irish, saying, "Ní dhearna mé", which, as I translate it, and I am sure the Minister, the House and the country will accept, is "I did not give any such direction, I did not make any such Order or Orders".
By way of supplementary question, I asked the Minister if he was aware:
"that there is a practice obtaining whereby people who owe sums, however small, are not being supplied with Gaeltarra Éireann goods!"
The Minister again replied in Irish saying, "Níl an t-eolas sin agam", meaning, "I have no such information". I replied, "That information should be got by the Minister forthwith".
I do not know whether the Minister in the meantime has requested the officers of his Department to furnish him with that information. If the Minister did not make any such Order or give any such direction, and if he has not that information, he should know by now that practice is obtaining in Gaeltarra Éireann. At least one firm has been refused Gaeltarra Éireann goods on the basis, the simple basis, that the firm owes Gaeltarra Éireann money. That would seem to me to be a departure from the ordinary rule and practice of business. If people desire to sell their goods they must give them to a willing purchaser.
There may be a reason from time to time why a purchaser, however willing, might not be supplied by reason of the fact that he would not have cash to pay for goods, but, in the case I am referring to, this firm owes Gaeltarra Éireann this year something over £800. As a token of its good will, having been hit by the recession of late 1956, which is continuing to some extent to the present time, that firm did its utmost by way of good will to pay sums to Gaeltarra Éireann on foot of the account which was due. Those sums ranged from three payments of £100 to one of £50 and they requested Gaeltarra Éireann to supply the firm with goods for cash. The reply given to this firm was, "We will not supply you with goods for cash because you owe us money." What better way could be had by Gaeltarra Éireann to get their money back than to furnish goods for cash that might be sold at profit, so that out of that profit this particular firm would be able to pay its debt to them? The Minister, I am sure, will be able to explain why, on the 21st November last week, he did not know this practice was obtaining, and will be able to explain whether he approves of it as a business proposition.
In Question No. 19, I asked the Minister for the Gaeltacht:—
"if he will state the amount due and owing to the Gaeltarra Éireann section of his Department by a firm (name supplied) on each accounting date in the months of June, July, August, September and October, 1957, and, further, if he will state whether goods are still being delivered to the said firm, and, if so, whether on a cash or credit basis."
The Minister replied again in Irish saying: "As the reply is in the form of a tabular statement, I, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, propose to circulate it with the Official Report." It was duly circulated—a small statement covering five items for the months of June, July, August, September and October. That could not be given to me by way of oral answer in the House. It had to be put in the form of a tabular statement in Irish for two specific purposes. I submit it was in Irish so that the general interest would not be sustained, and it was put in the form of a tabular statement so that I would be debarred from raising a supplementary, on an answer for which I would have to wait until the Official Report was circulated.
For the month of June the figure given was £591 6s. 9d. as due and owing. Deputies will be aware that for some time past I have been concentrating in this House on asking a series of questions on the management and conduct of affairs in Gaeltarra Éireann, generally and particularly. I have asked those questions in English to gain for the whole subject matter the publicity which I think it deserves in the public interest. I have been answered in Irish to prevent that publicity being obtained, and to shield the particular type of conduct and management which I wish, in the public interest, to have fully and frankly exposed. I put this question down deliberately in the form in which I did, using the phrase "due and owing" which is a legal phrase, to see exactly how far the Minister was prepared to go in his reply to keep the point of the matter from the public. I regret to state the Minister forgot he was making a legal reply to another legal person, when he should in fact have been directing his attention in a like manner to giving that information, not to me alone, but to the House and the whole country. He said the amount owing for June was £591 6s. 9d.
Everybody will realise there is a practice in business whereby accounts are not collected until a certain time elapses, but if within that time the purchaser pays, he can avail of certain discounts offered by a particular firm or business such as Gaeltarra Éireann. Of course, the Minister has seized on the opportunity to say that until that time elapses with regard to certain sums that were owing they would not be put down as due and owing in the legal sense.
