Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Monday, 22 Aug 1921

Vol. S No. 4

TRADE AND COMMERCE REPORT

DIRECTOR OF TRADE & COMMERCE

¹ said the only thing he wished to add to his report was a reference to the amount the Dáil would be asked to vote for the commission of inquiry. Up to the last meeting of the Dáil it had received £6,950. Since then they had received £601 in refund of cost of printing, of which £421 would enable the commission to pay all running expenses up to the 30th October and the remainder, £180, to complete the printing on hands. The commission owed at present about £500 for the printing of the coal memoir. Two reports were ready to come out. At any rate the Dáil would now be asked to vote £827 which would pay all the debts incurred by the commission to date. There would of course be three or four reports completed by the end of October and it would be necessary when they were in the hands of the Ministry to make arrangements about the printing of them. At the last meeting of the Dáil an arrangement was made on behalf of the Ministry to have the commission wound up as soon as possible. He went into the question and he felt it would not be right to wind up the commission in an abrupt manner leaving a number of reports in a half finished state.

1. Ernest Blythe.

JOS. MCBRIDE

moved the adoption of the report. He wished to congratulate the Director on the excellence of the report. He would like to say in reference to direct shipping it would be necessary and advisable in the time to come that the owning of ships by Irishmen be encouraged in every way.

There was one industry in Ireland which he thought was not properly supported: that was the making of roofing tiles. At present all roofing tiles came from England or Wales. He suggested tile making should be added to the Director's list of home industries.

D. KENT

seconded the motion. There were two industries which he would like the Minister to give attention to— manufacture of cloth and leather. At present Irish cloth mills were only working half of quarter time. That would continue as long as they permitted the importation of manufactured cloth. With regard to leather they were importing ¾ of the leather used in Ireland. This country had been one of the greatest leather producing countries in the past.

G. GAVAN DUFFY

said he had great pleasure in supporting the adoption of the report. He suggested the time had come when they should take definite steps towards equipping men for the post of consuls abroad. Consuls were made not born. The German system was to send a man to the country in which he was going to be consul for six months or a year with instructions to learn the language and habits of the people and become familiar with their trade and politics. These were matters that could not be studied at home. He thought it would be an excellent thing if a sum of money, say £3,000, were set aside to enable young men to go abroad to acquire the necessary knowledge. They should avoid employing foreigners. They should also avoid employing half time consuls as the results of their work were always unsatisfactory. It was obvious that their consuls abroad could not do very much at present and he suggested they should be instructed to do all they could as press agents amongst the newspapers of their particular countries.

He asked had any report ever been made about the Overseas Trading Co. They had written frequent letters to it and never got replies. If the company was dissolved or put out of action their agents abroad should be informed. He would be glad if the Director of Trade and Commerce gave him an account of it.

D. O'CALLAGHAN (Member for Cork City)

said he was waiting for a reply on this point also. If the company were not under the Dáil it did not concern them.

JOS. MCBRIDE

pointed out with reference to the training of consuls they had them already partially trained as B. Comms. in the university.

M.P. COLLIVET

asked would it be possible for the Director to supply them with a short précis of the reports of the Industrial Commission.

DIRECTOR OF TRADE AND COMMERCE

replied with reference to the matter of roofing tiles he thought he could not issue any further prohibition orders to the Truce but he would look into the matter. It would be impossible in the matter of leather to prohibit imports as there was no "upper" leather manufactured in Ireland. It would be a great mistake to prohibit the import of foreign leather and boots.

With regard to woollens he thought he could prohibit the import of the heavier goods, but the lighter ladies woollens were not produced in Ireland.

He agreed with the Deputy for S. Dublin (G. Gavan Duffy) about the preparation of men for the office of consuls. The difficulty at present was that they had only a few appointments to make. It was a very expensive service and even if the Dáil were willing to vote the money for training men he would not be inclined to recommend such a scheme at present. With regard to employment of half-time consuls, those with actual consular work could be half-time, but their consuls were rather trade commissioners and half-time men, he agreed, would not be suitable. Referring to the Overseas Trading Co. he said it was a means of communication with foreign countries and places where they had no consul and of obtaining information on all matters of trade and commerce which he could not have written for as a Department of Dáil Éireann. He also thought he could use that address for letters through the post. Unfortunately the name was given out by the consuls in a way it should not have been and it became known to the enemy and had to be discontinued.

He did not think it would be practical to supply any précis of the reports of the Commission of Inquiry into the Resources of Industries of Ireland. There was a very considerable amount of work done and the impatience shown by the Dáil was not justified. There was a very difficult task imposed on the commission. They could not be expected to appoint three or four staffs with only £5,000 voted to them and the result was although they had four or five committees they had only one staff in the office to carry on the work. He thought in fairness to everyone the committee could not have proceeded more expeditiously than it did. He thought this was an omnibus commission and the most that could be expected from it was general information on which further departmental commissions could base their work. The members of the commission had worked very hard and he considered they deserved every thanks from the Dáil for the results they had given.

Question put and agreed.