I am happy to say that the House will not be troubled with this motion, as I understand that the Electricity Supply Board has consented in principle to its terms, and that the matter is now going to arbitration as to price and compensation in the event of failure to agree. I do hope that this arbitration may be retrospective, and may be allowed to embrace those undertakings that already agreed in the matter of price, because I think they agreed in some cases rather under a misapprehension, and certainly if they had ever felt that arbitration was likely to come they would have held their hands. Some of them were very much pressed, I understand, for funds and agreed, in a way, in the face of such pressure. I hope, therefore, that this arbitration will cover all undertakings that are to be, or that have been acquired.
Public Business. - Electricity Supply Board.
The question of the acquisition of what are described as non-statutory undertakings was debated at very great length at the time of the introduction of the Electricity Supply Bill, and I might say that the case that was put by the Minister—the policy of the Government in the matter—will be found on page 1730 of the Dáil Debates, 27th April, 1927. The Minister for Industry and Commerce said:
I come here to-night with an amendment which states that we will leave every unauthorised undertaker operating. We insist that he be allowed to operate, that he must get a permit and that the permit cannot be withheld or withdrawn. The only case where he can disappear is where he makes an agreement with the Board as to the price to be paid...
That was the situation when the Bill was introduced. The Minister stands by that. The unauthorised undertakers are protected by that statement. They are in exactly the same strong position that they were in at the time he introduced the Bill and when it passed into law. Their case is no better and no worse by reason of the acceptance of what Senator Sir John Keane states to be the arbitration proceedings. They cannot be acquired except with their own consent. They had an absolute right to be regarded as undertakers. The Board could not withhold permission to them to be regarded as undertakers, and they can only be acquired by their own consent. At the time the Minister could not go any further than to outline that particular position for the undertakers. He was unable to get such information as would enable him to introduce a clause settling the matter beyond dispute in that measure. It was his intention, as soon as the Electricity Supply Board was set up, to give them power to get the information he required, and it was then his intention to introduce legislation later if it were not found possible to effect a settlement by agreement. This particular agreement on the part of the Electricity Supply Board does not place them in any better or any worse position. The Minister's case can be summarised in this way. If the unauthorised undertakers are satisfied with the arrangement come to—that is to have the matter settled by arbitration—legislation may not be necessary, but the Minister wishes it to be clearly understood that it is the intention of the Act that unauthorised undertakers are entitled to a settlement by agreement or further legislation, and he is prepared to introduce this further legislation if necessary.
Cathaoirleach
Do you wish to press the motion?
No, sir.