To ask the Minister for Industry and Commerce if his attention has been drawn to the facts set out in a recent interview given to the Press Association by Sir E. Mackay Edgar, dealing, among other matters, with a probable shortage in the reasonably near future of the oil supply of the world, and if, having regard to the dependence of this country on oil, and to the considerable amount of national capital now locked, and increasingly being locked, in machinery dependent on oil, he will give particular attention to the recommendations on this matter of the recent Commission of Inquiry into the Resources and Industries of Ireland, in its Report on Industrial Alcohol, with a view to the consideration of legislation necessary to put those recommendations into effect.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. - OIL SUPPLY OF THE WORLD.
One of the important matters to be considered by the Commission, of which I announced the early appointment in the Dáil on the 14th inst., will be the development of the power resources of the country. This will include the possibility of producing, distributing and using industrial alcohol to the advantage of industry and agriculture, and the Commission on Agriculture will, no doubt, also take this question into consideration. I will arrange that both Commissions are referred to the report mentioned in the question.