I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
The primary purpose of the Bill is to facilitate accession by Ireland to the International Convention on the Control and Hallmarking of Precious Metals 1972 by making the legislative changes which are necessary as a prerequisite to accession. Seven countries took part in the discussions on the drafting of the convention and five ratified it. These are Britain, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. The other two, Portugal and Norway, have not yet submitted instruments of accession.
The principal provisions of the convention are that the legal provisions of a contracting state which require articles of precious metal to be assayed and hallmarked by an authorised body to national standards of fineness, shall be deemed to be satisfied in respect of articles of precious metal imported from other contracting states if these articles have been controlled and marked in accordance with the provisions of the convention. Contracting states may, however, refuse admission to articles bearing such marks if they do not conform to national standards of fineness. Imported items may be subject to check testing for verification of convention marks and for conformity with standards of fineness but such check testing may not unduly hamper items from going on to the market.
Precious metals are defined as items of gold, silver, platinum or their alloys and where these are intended for export to contracting states, they must first be submitted to an authorised assay office for assaying and hallmarking in accordance with the provisions of the convention. The Common Control Mark of the Convention which must be struck on them is required to be made a lawful national mark in each contracting state.
Britain, which is the main export market for Irish items of precious metal, acceded to the conventions in 1975. Since then, Irish manufacturers are at a disadvantage because goods which have been assayed and hallmarked in Dublin but do not bear the convention mark may not, according to British law, go on to the British market unless they are assayed and hallmarked again in a British assay office. Delays in clearing Irish goods imported into Britain and through British assay offices are common and this results in loss and disadvantages from a competitive point of view. Irish manufacturers, therefore, requested the Government to accede to the convention and it has agreed to do so.
Under existing statutes all articles of gold and silver manufactured in Ireland must be made to prescribed standards of fineness and must be submitted to the Assay Office for assaying and marking before being offered for sale. Imported items must also be made to the Irish standards of fineness and must be submitted to the Assay Office for marking with approved Irish marks before being placed on the market. Items which are so fragile that they might be damaged by marking are exempted from that requirement but must be assayed by the Assay Office.
The changes necessary in Irish law as a prerequisite to accession are that the common control mark will be a lawful Irish mark which will be recognised in other participating countries; that the marks of participating countries will be recognised here, and that imported articles bearing such marks will no longer be subject to hallmarking on entry, but may be subject to check testing for conformity with Irish standards of fineness and for verification of the marks. A standard and hallmark for platinum must be set and Irish legislation will apply to platinum. Standards will also be set for solder.
As far as the Irish trade is concerned, the main attraction of the convention is that mutual recognition by contracting states of the common control mark will enable Irish items of precious metal which are controlled in accordance with the provisions of the convention to have quick and easy access to these markets and in particular to their principal export market which is Britain.
The convention does not interfere with national methods of control. In Ireland, control is at manufacturing level and all items manufactured or imported must be submitted to the Assay Office for assaying and hallmarking as required before being exposed for sale. By retaining this method, the safeguarding of consumers' interests is being continued. From the consumer's point of view the convention is also attractive in that it permits contracting states to control national standards of fineness. This is particularly important where silver is concerned because the prescribed Irish standard for silver is higher than that in most other countries.
There will, of course, be no change in the law as far as articles exported to or imported from non-contracting states is concerned. These will continue to be subject to existing control by the Dublin Assay Office before exportation or on importation.
In making the changes necessary prior to our accession to the convention, I am taking advantage of the occasion to bring up to date penalties prescribed for forgery of the dies or stamps used in hallmarking. I am also bringing the law into line with the practice relating to antique articles of precious metal. By law, all items of foreign manufacture must be assayed and hallmarked on importation. As a modern marking on a valuable item made 100 years or more ago would diminish its value, the practice has been to accept the markings on these and not to mark them further. I am defining antiques and exempting these from assaying and hallmarking on production of satisfactory proof of date of manufacture.
I commend this Bill to the House.
