asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy if he has authorised the Industrial Development Authority to assure potential industrial investors that no future Government in this country will alter the terms under which foreign industries settle here.
Ceisteanna—Questions . Oral Answers . - Potential Industrial Investors .
6.
: I have not authorised the Industrial Development Authority to provide potential investors with assurances of the type referred to by the Deputy. It has, however, been the practice to provide, in appropriate cases, assurances to individual firms concerning their entitlement to export sales relief. The need for such assurances arose from questions which had from time to time been raised in various quarters about the future of export sales relief. These uncertainties will be eliminated by the recent satisfactory outcome of the discussions on the EEC co-ordination of regional aids.
: Is the Minister aware that his colleague, the Minister for Fisheries, gave an unscripted statement, which was reported in the papers on 1 June last, to the effect that no Government here would ever change the terms on which foreign industry was now settling here?
: The Minister for Fisheries, in the context of export tax relief and the fact that it would be available until 1990, gave an assurance to an audience—which included a lot of foreign industrialists—that that change would not be made in respect of those who were entitled to that relief up to 1990.
: The Minister having explained what his colleague meant, I see the point now, but would the Minister not agree that the statement as made by his colleague, not scripted, in other words off the top of his head as so often is the case, could give a false and misleading impression to anyone interested in the future of our industrial development?
: I do not think so. The statement which my colleague made on that occasion is very similar to one made on 25 October 1973 by the then Taoiseach, Deputy L. Cosgrave.
: A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then.
(Interruptions.)