Before we pass from these matters, I would like to ask the Minister if he could give us any information as to the intentions of the Ministry in regard to the other Conventions which are of considerable importance to us here and which have been before his Department for some time. The Washington Hours Convention was one of the first of those international conventions. Then there was the Convention regarding the prohibition of night baking, and another one which, though of lesser importance, is nevertheless of considerable interest to us here: that is the Convention prohibiting the use of white lead in indoor painting. The Hours Convention is one that, I think, is very much like some other conventions that we have adopted here. It is one that will not make any difference in practice, but yet I think it should be ratified. The Convention regarding the prohibition of night baking is one that seems to me to be urgently necessary, because while all important bakers in the country, in conjunction with the men employed here, are in agreement that night baking should be prohibited, and, in fact, is not in operation——
Public Business. - International Conventions.
Cathaoirleach
Perhaps the Senator would table a motion on the matter.
It would save a great deal of time if the Minister would deal with the matter now and give us the information. The matter I am dealing with arises on the subjects that we have been just discussing, and this seemed to me to be an opportune time to raise it. As I was saying, the Convention prohibiting night baking is important because there is a distinct tendency on the part of some of the smaller bakers to break the compacts that have been entered into and therefore to introduce an innovation which is undesirable. If the Convention were ratified here it would prohibit that for all time.
The Senator has referred to three outstanding conventions already adopted. Taking the conventions which appear on the Order Paper to-day and adding to them those that have previously been ratified, there will be, of the conventions passed by different meetings of the International Labour Organisation, eight left. Of these the Senator has picked out three. We look very favourably on the convention prohibiting night baking. At the moment there is very little night baking carried on here. What there is of it is mainly carried on by what one may describe as one family business. At the moment, in view of the fact that night baking is only carried on mainly by one family we do not consider that it would be right to prohibit those who occupy themselves in that particular way from doing so even though it means baking at night. Another point that has to be considered is that if night baking were prohibited here it might have an adverse effect on some of our bakeries situate near the Border. The bakers in that area have to enter into competition with North of Ireland firms. As Senators know night baking is allowed in Northern Ireland. The situation would be eased, from our point of view, if the British Government ratified this Convention because their doing so would take away that competitive element along the Border.
The same remarks, to some degree, apply to the eight-hour Convention. We feel that it would be a bad thing for this country to take a lead in this, seeing that some of the countries which surround us, and which have not adopted it, are more highly industrialised than ours. These countries are very definitely competitors of ours. By adopting the Convention we feel that we would be placing a particular handicap upon our people. Again, the situation would be tremendously eased if the British Government decided to ratify that Convention, because their doing so would mean that the competitive element would disappear. If we could imagine ourselves free from competition we would be quite clearly in favour of the ratification of that Convention. With regard to the other Convention, the one prohibiting the use of white lead in the internal painting of buildings, we have had that under consideration for a very long time. We could go as far as adopting the legislation which was passed in England in 1926. The Lead Paint Act of 1926, which was passed there, has been found not to be up to the requirements of the Convention. Therefore it would not be a satisfactory thing to introduce here and to proceed to ratify the Convention on foot of it. An investigation has been made here as to whether Irish barytes can be substituted for white lead. At the moment that investigation has not been completed. At the moment we are giving that Convention favourable consideration, but just now we are not prepared to bring it before the Oireachtas for ratification.