I am entitled at this stage to voice my disagreement with the Financial Resolution. I suggest that the film industry in this country is in the hands of certain combines and these combines are controlled exclusively from outside the State. We have no say whatever with regard to the type of film shown in the country. We have no say with regard to the control of these films. At the same time arguments are put forward in this House that it is necessary to give certain favours to those outside this country who direct films on the basis that if we do not give them this remission there will be unemployment amongst the ushers and the employees in the various cinemas.
I want the Minister to show us how that unemployment position is likely to arise. He referred to other countries in his opening remarks. I presume he was referring specifically to Britain where the subject was discussed recently and where a certain reduction in taxation and so forth was given to the cinema people there on the grounds that television had interfered seriously with the cinemas and that the attendance at cinemas had been reduced through people watching television shows at home. The same argument seems to be put forward in this House, that the reduction in the attendance at cinemas has come about through the attraction of other forms of amusement.
The only form of amusement that has come into this country recently which I can think of is television and, so far, television should not be a recognised factor in the State because we have no television service of our own. I maintain, therefore, that it is premature at this stage to allow any reliefs to the cinema people on the basis of the argument that television has reduced the audiences at cinemas. If and when television is formally recognised in the State and set up as such in our country, then, and only then, are the cinema people entitled to put forward their case for certain reliefs through the Budget. At the moment I do not see how they can put forward any case in relation to television over which we have no control.