I want to introduce a recommendation. By way of explanation for doing so I should say that this section requires the Minister to impose certain conditions which, however, relate only to the use of the asset. They do not relate to the company. I have already raised the question of the ownership of the company. I move the following recommendation:
In line 29, after the word "conditions" to insert the words "for securing that in the event of an individual in receipt of a grant ceasing to be a citizen of or ordinarily resident in the State, or if a body corporate in receipt of a grant ceasing to be incorporated in or resident in the State, or of a majority of the shares in such a body corporate ceasing to be held by persons who are citizens of and ordinarily resident in the State or of the members of a partnership in receipt of a grant ceasing to be citizens of or ordinarily resident in the State or body corporate incorporated or resident in the State, the Minister may require the repayment of some or all of the grant."
The purpose of the recommendation is to require the Minister to make this condition. As the section stands, I think the Minister could make such a condition under section 2 but he does not have to do so. The conditions he has to impose relate to the assets, to insure against shipping charters and so on. There is nothing there to require him to make conditions of this kind. I am not clear from what the Minister said whether he intends to provide that, if it ceases to be incorporated and that if we are going to provide grants for ships which are to be manned by Irish sailors and operated by Irish companies with a view to foreign receipts coming in here, this condition is not only fulfilled in the first instance but that it remains fulfilled.
We cannot have a position in which when the grant has been paid the body corporate changes its residence or its shareholding or something else changes and as a result the profits could accrue to people outside the State almost immediately. The recommendation is intended to require the Minister to make conditions to prevent that happening and would ensure that in such circumstances a grant would have to be repaid in full or in part depending on the length of time for which the ship had remained in the ownership of a genuine Irish concern.