I have taken the unusual step, for me, of raising a matter on the Adjournment. I have done this because I consider that either a grave error has been made by someone or that the suggestion that we buy Irish has been abandoned. My reason for tabling the question in the first place was to ascertain whether all cloths supplied on contract to the Department are made of Irish material. If not what was the country of origin of the material in each contract accepted since 5 July 1977?
The Minister of State at the Department of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs replied as follows, as reported at column 984 of the Official Report for 19 April 1978:
In recent years all the woollen and worsted cloth supplied on contract to my Department were made of Irish materials, except for a few items where the quantities required were too small to interest Irish manufacturers. As regards cloths made from cotton and other basic materials which are not produced in Ireland, the position in recent years has been that the cloths supplied in my Department were woven in Ireland mainly from yarn imported from various countries, principally Britain and Brazil.
Subsequently Deputy Quinn asked the Minister by way of supplementary question whether he was contending that the materials are made of imported yarn and if so whether the Minister could give an indication of the cost involved and whether an Irish substitute can be found for the imported yarn. The Minister replied as follows:
I am informed that, in regard to requests made to manufacturers in this country to tender for this type of contract, they were not interested.
My reason for raising the matter is that the Minister, whom I have known in this House for a long time and who I am sure would give exactly the reply that was supplied to him, either gave an off-the-cuff reply to the supplementary questions or else was not briefed correctly.
In my constituency there is a sizeable industry called the Slane Manufacturing Company. Last year they employed 295 people and 89 were let go because imports were cutting in on them. For 20 years that firm had a contract for sheets. They tendered for the contract this year in the normal way. They always understood that Irish materials were to be used but they did not get the contract because another Irish firm using Brazilian yarn undercut them. If Slane Manufacturing Company used their own yarn it would cost 89.03p per metre but with Brazilian yarn they could produce the same cloth at 79.79p per metre, 11 per cent cheaper.
Why are we talking about buying Irish if we are blatantly allowing a manufacturer to use imported material to produce something which could be produced in its entirely at home? The Minister will agree it is wrong to suggest that we should be satisfied with material part of which is produced abroad when it could be produced at home. This has resulted in the Slane Manufacturing Company, who cut their contract price to the bone, having 10 per cent of their looms stopped and eight employees made redundant and a number of other employees will become redundant as time goes on. I cannot understand the reason for the decision to allow imported material to be used. There is no reason why the Department should not have insisted, as in previous years, that all the materials used should have been Irish made. It is wrong for the Minister to say that there is no interest in this. In reply to Deputy Quinn the Minister said: "I am informed in regard to requests made to manufacturers in this country to tender for this type of contract that they were not interested." They were not asked to tender for anything except what they had been tendering for the past 20 years and that was a totally Irish produced article. Why was another firm using imported yarn given the contract?
There is another issue. Another firm beat the contract price for 70-inch bleach plain sheeting, schedule 12-10. In this case it appears that while an Irish firm got the contract, one of two things happened. Either the firm were using imported yarn or, worse still, were using entirely imported made up material.
My reason for bringing this matter before the Dáil this evening is that I believe the Minister concerned should take the necessary steps to have a full inquiry into this matter. I believe somebody has been codded or the public have been codded.
I am aware that we are all anxious to see full employment in every country. I was in Brazil a few years ago and I know the rates of pay which were in operation then. I know how they can undercut our firms by using material produced there. Why should we allow our Departments of State to accept foreign made materials when similar materials can be obtained here? The difference in price is very small— 13 per cent—and that will not pay the unemployment benefit, redundancy payments and so on, which have to be paid to the people who lost their jobs as a result of, what I would charitably call, a blunder.
I do not propose to delay the House, but I would ask the Minister to ensure that an inquiry is carried out into this contract for various types of cloth. I used the Department of Posts and Telegraphs not because I wanted specifically to bring this Minister of State into the House this evening but because that Department are responsible for the purchase of various types of material for all Departments. The Garda, Army, Naval Service, postmen and many others use material which is supposed to be Irish made but has only been assembled here because a large part of its content is imported. I am told also that the preparation of yarn is a very substantial part of the preparation of the cloth. That makes this matter even worse.
I do not want to pillory anybody but in this one firm 11,000 of these sheets were manufactured and sold to the State in 1976, in 1977 14,000 were sold and this year none at all, not because they were not able to compete with other Irish firms using Irish materials but because the other firm used foreign material or foreign yarn or may even have been importing foreign made up material and passing it off as if it were Irish. I cannot prove that this is so. The Minister said foreign yarn was used and that appears to have been accepted and his Department must be aware of it. I cannot prove the other part of my allegation but we will all have a suspicion until the Minister satisfies himself and us that such is not the case.
I know the Minister is as interested in buying Irish as I am. I would ask him to ensure that the material bought is produced in this country. He can only do that if a full inquiry is carried out. I am a fanatic as far as buy Irish is concerned. If I buy anything for myself I insist on it being Irish. I am appalled at the difficulty I have getting Irish materials anywhere. People produce everything under the sun and give every reason why you should buy something other than what you want.
