I gave notice that I would raise the following matter in the Adjournment:
The desirability of granting exemption by the Minister for Finance from turnover tax on all books purchased inside this country, or imported into this country by public, university and other non-profit making libraries.
I am very pleased that the House has given me an opportunity to discuss the problem of tax on books. I should like, briefly, to put the background to this problem. Up to 1st June, 1971, all parcels coming into this country valued at less than £20 have been exempt from turnover tax purely as a matter of administrative convenience. Following representations from the Irish Booksellers' Association, the Minister for Finance withdrew the exemption with respect to books but to no other items. The point that the booksellers made was that private individuals and public institutions were purchasing books from abroad and were thus getting off the 5 per cent turnover tax whereas books purchased in Ireland from Irish booksellers have this turnover tax imposed on them and, consequently, the booksellers were losing business.
They had a valid point here and I suggest that, so far as public libraries, university libraries and other non profit-making libraries are concerned, the Minister for Finance should grant an exemption from turnover tax for all books purchased by these institutions both in this country and outside it. Like every other Member of this House I should like to see the institutions which buy books purchasing them through Irish booksellers but, as I can explain, this is not always possible. I have been in touch with many of the public libraries—some of the larger ones and some of the smaller ones— and in fact most of them purchase the great majority of their books in this country. However, certain specialist books are published abroad. Journals have to be purchased direct from the publishers, otherwise there is a delay, and it is vital that they should appear in libraries immediately after publication.
An example of an item covered by turnover tax would be a collection of rare Irish books on auction in England which might be purchased by the National library. However, they would be liable to a turnover tax of 5 per cent which means that the National Library has to pay 5 per cent more than other buyers because, as most people are aware, very few countries except our own have a tax on books. Also, I should point out that a tax on books is a tax on information which is contrary to the spirit of such organisations as UNESCO, of which we are a member. I suggest that the Minister for Finance should consider exempting from turnover tax all books bought by public libraries.
Another category of books affected by the turnover tax are purchased by the smaller public libraries. These libraries in the country work on a very small administrative budget. Their purchasing budget is quite small and so they need to have the services which sometimes are not supplied by Irish booksellers, such as cataloguing services, special covers and so on. To obtain these they must, on occasion, purchase books from abroad.
Several cases have occurred recently, since the imposition of this tax, in which parcels of books have been purchased by public libraries. When they arrived they had to be sent back because the library was unable to afford the extra money required by the Revenue Commissioners. One of the chief difficulties about the present situation is that the administration of the tax, both from the Revenue Commissioners' end and from the libraries' end, is considerable. Take the case of a book that costs £5. It comes by post; the automatic charge of 5 per cent goes on it, which is 25p; then the Post Office add a handling charge of 8p; then there is the problem of dealing with the payment of the charge in the library. I reckon that it would be at least another 8p; if the Post Office handling charge is 8p, the library's handling charge would be about the same, and this brings the cost up to approximately 40p, which is almost 10 per cent of the purchase price. A 5 per cent turnover tax has, for administrative reasons added a 5 per cent hidden charge. Therefore, libraries are paying roughly 10 per cent extra on books coming into the country by post.
Surely this is contrary to the spirit of the Common Market, which we hope to enter soon, and surely it is contrary to the spirit with which this House has concurred, that is, the spirit of providing educational facilities, and library facilities, at the minimum possible cost to the public. The argument that I am making on behalf of public libraries is especially valid since all the funds for these libraries come from the public. In the case of the county libraries they come from the ratepayers; in the case of the larger public libraries they come from the taxpayers. My argument is that, if these books were exempt from tax, it would be a purely administrative matter and it would not involve a great loss of revenue. In fact, the cost of the collection of the tax at present, since most of the items are small and come in small parcels, is very large and the cost to the libraries is enormous.
Books obtained free of charge are, of course, also affected. For example, last year the Royal Dublin Society spent £5,000 in purchasing books, but in exchange for its scientific proceedings it obtained 700 journals. These come in exchange and therefore they would be free of charge in the normal course of events but now they are liable for turnover tax. Because they are by exchange they cannot be purchased through an Irish bookseller; they must come directly from the publishing university or press and the total cost would be prohibitive. Take for example the Proceedings of the Royal Society in London which costs £20 per annum. Perhaps that would be a rather high cost for a journal but it gives people an idea: if you multiply 700 by ten you get £7,000; then charge turnover tax on that. These books are coming by exchange, so there was no question of finance until the turnover tax was imposed. It will mean that the Royal Dublin Society will have to cease getting some of these journals, which they essentially get free and which are vitally important for research workers and for people in all walks of life.
Today the librarian told me about a gift from the Friesian Cattle Society of books on Friesian cattle. The books were valued nominally at £100. He had to pay the turnover tax. He fought the case; the Revenue Commissioners asked him if the books were soft-covered or hard-covered and after some deliberation he got back the tax. However, the amount of time, trouble and administration on the part of the librarian was excessive. By imposing this tax the Minister has caused chaos in our public libraries.
He must also have caused an amount of trouble to the Revenue Commissioners who often have to deal with books without a price on them; then they stick on their own valuation. For example, they put their own estimated prices on catalogues that come into this country in large numbers; they come into the libraries, which usually get large numbers of catalogues free. The library then challenges the imposition of the tax because of the unrealistic value put on the catalogues by the Revenue Commissioners, and so it goes on.
Another example would be a thesis coming into a university. Supposing I have been sent a Ph. D. thesis to examine. These are becoming more common; and since a person who is doing a thesis produces very few copies and gets perhaps only one, two or three copies bound, these are extremely valuable. So a valuation on a thesis might be £25 or it might be £50. I would have to pay the tax on this until the book was sent back to the author or to the university library, and then I could reclaim the tax. This causes tremendous trouble, and since theses come in large numbers to libraries on inter-library loan, or in other ways, a great deal of difficulty is experienced.
I should like to raise another point, and that concerns the joint pool of books on fiction which is operated in the whole country, north and south of the Border. The Irish Librarians Association is not affected by the Border. It is a society which has its members North and South and they have a fiction pool. This means that when particular books are needed in the North, they are sent from here, and vice versa. There is thus a large turnover of books going across the Border. Each book that travels the two journeys could be taxed and the tax must be reclaimed. The problems created by this in a library are tremendous.
I have the figures for last year's inter-library loans from the library in TCD. Other libraries would have similar figures. The total number of items on inter-library loan coming to or going from the Trinity library was 1,700. Not all of these would be leaving the country or coming in from outside, but a considerable number would, all of these would have had to be taxed and the tax reclaimed. This is a ridiculous situation.
An even more ridiculous situation arises with regard to books published by the Irish University Press, which has its printing house at Shannon. Shannon is regarded by some of the Revenue Commissioners as being outside this country. I have seen books come in from the Irish University Press with turnover tax charged on them by the Revenue Commissioners.
To be fair to the booksellers, when we consider exempting public libraries from this tax, they should be exempted not only in respect of their purchases from outside but also in respect of their purchases inside the country. I should like to see the public libraries buying more and more books from the Irish booksellers We should encourage the Irish booksellers to provide services to deal with libraries, both big and small. We should remember that in Ireland we have the lowest stock of books per capita of any of the western countries and we have the lowest per capita expenditure on books of any of the western countries. So, an added 5 per cent as I have shown—and in many cases it amounts to 10 per cent because of the hidden charges—is an imposition of a totally unjustified nature.
In the case in which I am arguing we are transferring money from one part of the public purse to another. Since this transfer involves us buying 5 or perhaps 10 per cent less books than we would otherwise do, it is totally unjustified. I hope the Minister for Finance will look into this problem and will treat the libraries with the consideration they deserve and will encourage the purchase of books, encourage our store of knowledge being increased in this essential way, and will look sympathetically on the great problems which his turnover tax has caused for all public and non-profit making libraries.
