asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce when a grant of £2,150,000 was made by An Foras Tionscal to a company (name supplied) to start tyre production in Dublin; if he is satisfied that production by this plant will not interfere with the Irish company manufacturing tyres; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Grant to Tyre Company.
85.
The grant was approved in April, 1965, but all the negotiations were not finalised until September, 1966, when I announced the project.
Production by the company will not interfere with the Irish company manufacturing tyres. As I stated in the announcement in September, 1966, and as I repeated in Dáil Éireann in April, 1967, the company's production will be for export.
In the light of increasing free trade, will it be guaranteed that it will be only for export? For how long will it be guaranteed, in the light of increasing free trade? This is the point.
If the Deputy means that, at a time when, if we had complete free trade, tyres could come in free from somewhere else and that, in those circumstances, we would allow in tyres from those countries but not allow these people to sell on the home market, well, that is something we ought to consider when that situation arises. The Irish company are carrying out a rationalisation of their production. They will be selling certain kinds of tyres on the home market and also not been doing to any substantial degree heretofore. It is possible that tyres, required for the home market, will not be made by the company and it is possible that this new company will be asked to supply them, in which case I should not be disposed to refuse but it will not be to the detriment of the Irish company.