asked the Minister for Communications if he will give a breakdown of the £51,279,626(Iris Oifigiúil, 25 November 1986) under heading “Other Issues — Irish Shipping Limited Acts, 1947-1984”.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Irish Shipping.
19.
The figure of £51,279,626 is made up as follows:
Payment to Orient Leasing Limited in respect of the Stipulated Loss Value of the lease of the Irish Spruce, £49,381,745.
(Only approximately 25 per cent of this figure is attributable to the liquidation of Irish Shipping)
Payments in respect of the Exchequer guaranteed bank borrowing of Irish Shipping Limited, £1,897,881.
Does the Minister agree that the £51,279,626 mentioned in my question, and the £14,350,752, amount to a very substantial amount of money, but we have no ship whatsoever at the end of the story? Would he not agree that with that and the price of the Irish Spruce, roughly £3 million, we could have 16 or 17 ships? Does he agree that this blatant error of judgment on the part of the Minister and the Government with regard to Irish Shipping should be remedied by the establishment of a small deep sea fleet?
Of the net sum of £45.68 million, when one subtracts £3.7 million recouped by the Exchequer for the sale of the vessel, one will see that 25 per cent only is attributable to the liquidation of Irish Shipping Limited, that is £11.5 million. This represents the entirely of Irish Shipping Limited's obligation in respect of the lease of the vessel. Half of the cost of the vessel represented subsidies at the Verolme Dockyard and was the responsibility of the Department of Industry and Commerce. The remaining 25 per cent of the cost was the responsibility of the Department of Communications in respect of subsidy to Irish Shipping Limited towards the cost of the vessel. When the leasing arrangements for the vessel were put in place the funding of the lease costs was divided between the three parties, that is Irish Shipping Limited and two Departments, in the ratio indicated, and the lessor of a State guarantee in respect of the lease payments. Therefore, the State was obliged to meet 75 per cent of the cost of the vessel whether or not Irish Shipping Limited were liquidated. It should be noted that it was on foot of a Government decision of June 1980 that Irish Shipping Limited were instructed to place an order for a bulk carrier with Verolme (Cork) Dockyard. Irish Shipping Limited had not indicated that they required such a vessel. The construction costs of the vessel, around £30 million, were over twice the then going market construction costs and reflected heavy subsidies to Verolme. Therefore, the figure of £11.5 million is attributable to the liquidation of Irish Shipping Limited.
Arising from the Minister's reply——
I would remind Deputy Wilson that Deputy Leyden has Question No. 21 and he might consider it important.
Is it not a fact that no matter what thimble-rigging we do with regard to who owes money to whom a sum of £51 million plus, a sum of £14 million plus, a sum of £2 million plus and other expenditure, amounting to a total of £70 million plus, has been expended by the State due to this unfortunate decision to get rid of Irish Shipping Limited, a wholly-owned State company which was serving the country well?
The estimated total cost of liquidation of Irish Shipping Limited will be a sum of the order of £51 million. When Irish Shipping Limited were liquidated the estimated cost of keeping them going was £200 million.
That is a feat of prestidigitation. The Minister knows perfectly well that it cost very substantially more than that.
The latest estimate, based on the worsening world shipping rates, for keeping Irish Shipping Limited going, is £223 million, and one can put that against £51 million.
That is nonsense. The Minister, Deputy J. Mitchell, said that Irish Shipping Limited would require almost £108 million——
Where did the Minister of State get the figure of £223 million?
——to keep going until the end of 1989. I refer to column 2078 of the Official Report of 14 November 1984.
I must now move on with Priority Questions.