asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy if there is any price control in respect of goods sold in Irish duty-free shops, or abroad any aircraft and ships plying to and from this country.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Duty-Free Sales.
27.
Goods sold in Irish duty-free shops or abroad aircraft and ships plying to and from this country are excluded from the provisions of the prices legislation.
Will the Minister indicate why they are excluded, and since they are excluded and enjoy exorbitant profits, can we take it that the proceeds of these profits will be applied to the reduction of the exorbitant fares that we are paying coming into this country at the moment particularly abroad our aeroplanes?
The reason for the exclusion is that they fall within the definition of exports. If any of these goods which are bought are subsequently imported, they come under the regulations of the Revenue Commissioners regarding the importation of goods.
Surely it is worthy of investigation regardless of whether these things are now excluded or not to see if they can be included particularly if the Minister is aware of the extraordinary mark-up that takes place, and that we are facilitating this extraordinary markup by a duty-free facility being provided. The Government provide this facility and somebody else makes a racket out of it. Regardless of what the practice has been in the past the Government have a responsibility to ensure that the racketeering in this regard does not continue.
There are no specific proposals at the moment to have them included under the prices legislation.
Will the Minister give it some thought?
We will give it a little thought, certainly.