On the last day the Bill was before the House there was a suggestion that when it was being brought forward to-day a date for its implementation would be determined. Does the Minister propose to deal with it on that basis?
Committee of Selection. - Oil Burners (Standards) Bill, 1960—Committee and Final Stages.
Question proposed: "That Section 1 stand part of the Bill."
The date of coming into operation will depend of the date of making regulations. The regulations will have to follow standards to be set down by the Institute of Industrial Research and Standards, and it is not possible to say when that would be. Therefore, it would not be advisable to suggest a fixed date at this stage. The regulations will be introduced and the ordinary procedure will be followed then.
It will come into operation by regulation?
By regulation, yes.
Can the Minister give us any date at all?
Subsection (2) of Section 6 provides that the Act shall come into operation on the 1st January, 1961, or such earlier day as may be specified.
I am aware of that, but is the Minister able to say anything about an earlier date?
My intention would be to bring in the Act at the earliest possible date. As I said already, it will depend on the making of regulations following the setting of the required standards. This will be done as quickly as possible.
Has the Minister taken steps in the interim period to prevent the sale of the type of heater it is proposed to ban?
I have already issued a public statement warning the public and the trade against selling burners which will not meet with the requirements to be made. The warning took the form of advising them to wait until the standards had been set and the regulations published.
Question put and agreed to.
SECTION 2.
I move amendment 1:—
In subsection (1), page 3, line 8, to insert "for" before "requiring".
This is an amendment to correct a verbal omission to which Deputy Dillon drew attention on the Second Reading.
Amendment agreed to.
Section 2, as amended, agreed to.
Section 3 agreed to.
SECTION 4.
I move amendment 2:—
In page 4, to insert the following subsection before subsection (4):—
"(4) The Institute for Industrial Research and Standards:—
(a) may carry out a test of an oil heater which, or any component part of which, is of a class or description to which any requirements of regulations under this Act apply for the purpose of determining whether the oil heater or component part complies with any standard of safety prescribed for the class or description of oil heater or component part to which the oil heater or component part belongs, and
(b) may carry out a test of a component part intended for but not embodied in an oil heater, being a component part of a class or description to which any requirements of regulations under this Act apply, for the purpose of determining whether the component part complies with any standard of safety prescribed for the class or description of component part to which it belongs."
This amendment will empower the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards to carry out tests and do other things in connection with the making of the required regulations. Really, the purpose of the amendment is to clear up a doubt which may possibly exist. I say "may possibly exist" advisedly because I personally think that the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards would have no difficulty in carrying out functions in connection with this Act, but the amendment is to ensure that if there is any reasonable doubt it is now removed.
Amendment agreed to.
Section 4, as amended, agreed to.
Section 5 agreed to.
NEW SECTION.
I move amendment 3:
Before section 6, page 5, to insert the following section:—
6.—Every regulation under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either House within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation has been laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder."
This Bill in its original form provided for the making of regulations but it omitted to provide for the laying of those regulations before the Houses of the Oireachtas within 21 days of their being made. This amendment is intended to ensure that the Bill will follow the usual form.
Amendment agreed to.
SECTION 6.
Question proposed: "That Section 6 stand part of the Bill."
This is the section relating to the laying of the regulations before the House. I mentioned a matter on the Committee Stage to which I should like to draw the Minister's attention again. There is a proviso that these regulations relating to safety will not apply where the manufacturer states that the oil burners to be produced are not for sale on the domestic market. I suggested to the Minister that that was a rather dubious use of regulatory powers, that if he was going to make regulations to prohibit the manufacture of dangerous oil burners, he should not permit people here to manufacture dangerous oil burners for export.
The Minister replied that he could envisage a situation in which another State, having different safety regulations from ours, commissioned the manufacture of a burner to their specification. The Minister seemed to think it would be a hardship to say to a manufacturer in this country: "You shall not be allowed to manufacture an oil burner which in our judgement in Ireland is unsafe" when he is requested to do so by a foreign State. I put it to the Minister that that is a shortsighted view because if some tragedy should ensue in a foreign State and it transpires that the burner responsible for that tragedy was manufactured in Ireland, nobody in that foreign State is going to be told that our Government condemned that type of burner and would not allow it to be used in Ireland; or if they are told that, the people in that foreign State would be led to believe that we, having rejected that as an unsafe type of burner, unloaded it on a foreign country.
I reminded the Minister that there was a case in the very recent past in Morocco where a country disposed of certain industrial products with a clear warning that they were to be used only for certain purposes. Nevertheless, they were used for quite a different purpose with disastrous results for a large number of Moroccans and a great deal of unfavourable propaganda was spread in Morocco at the expense of the country which allowed an unsafe product to be sold abroad.
Furthermore, I understand there is to be a new company established here for the manufacture of oil burners. I understand that their product will conform in the fullest sense to all the safety regulations that our Bureau of Standards may establish. The reputation of their product on the foreign market, I suggest, might be very seriously injured if at the same time as they were trying to make their way in the foreign market with a perfectly safe burner, somebody else was manufacturing and exporting an unsafe oil burner.
I suggest to the Minister that a regulation declaring a certain type of burner to be unsafe for human use ought not to contain any proviso permitting an Irish manufacturer to manufacture such a burner merely on the ground that he is going to sell it abroad. I believe our standard should apply to any product bearing the trade mark "Made in Ireland" and I believe it will do our export trade serious injury if we allow any exporter here to manufacture and export an oil burner which does not correspond with the minimum requirements of safety laid down by regulation on foot of recommendations made by our Bureau of Standards.
I undertook on the Second Stage to look into this question raised by Deputy Dillon. I have examined it again and I have come down in favour of the retention of the paragraph as it stands, that is, paragraph (b) of Section 3, subsection (3), which makes it a good defence in the event of a prosecution being brought for the sale of an oil burner not conforming with the standards laid down, to say that the oil burner was not intended for use in this State. We propose to make regulations here to define the standards we shall require. These standards will have regard to our own particular conditions, climatic conditions perhaps—even wind velocity might be taken into account. Conditions vary from country to country. Therefore the standards that should be laid down would perhaps also vary from country to country. The standards we lay down may be very high and such standards may not be required in other countries.
I should like to put to Deputies the case of a manufacturer in this country procuring an order from a merchant in another country for oil-burners. If the manufacturer here sends the merchant the specifications which he is obliged to measure up to in respect of oil-burners for sale in Ireland and if the importing merchant says: "I do not want oil-burners up to these specifications; the standards in my country do not require such high specifications; please give me burners in accordance with my own country's specifications," the Irish manufacturer would say: "I am afraid I cannot; I am precluded from doing so by the law of my country."
I suggest it is unnecessary that we should limit manufacturers here and restrict them from fulfilling orders to a specification that would satisfy his foreign customers whose specifications are not the same as those which apply in Ireland. That is, perhaps, only one instance but, in general, I say that most countries will have specifications. If I might instance the reason for the introduction of this Bill it is that standards have been set in Britain. The British people are looking after themselves and it is up to us to do likewise. That is what we are doing here.
In reply to another point made by the Deputy about the setting up of a new industry in this country for making oil burners—I think he is referring to the same industry as Deputy Coogan had in mind when he spoke during the Second Reading, I am almost certain—in fact, I can say I am certain—that the type of oil-burners which this new firm will make in or near Galway is not the ordinary mobile type that one can carry from room to room, but oil-burners of a type which can be used in central heating of premises and therefore they will not be subject to the regulations made under this Bill. I had full regard to the point made by the Deputy when I was considering the matter but, on balance, I felt it was better to leave the Bill as it is.
Question put and agreed to.
Title agreed to.
Bill reported with amendments.
Agreed to take remaining Stages today.
Bill received for final consideration and passed.