I would ask for permission to make a short statement on the industrial situation. As I stated at the last meeting of the Dáil, we have been engaged for the past week in investigating, with those qualified to advise us, remedies for our present industrial difficulties. We have found that the matters to be considered are very wide in scope and that strong opinions are held on them by the various parties whose interests are affected. It will be necessary to devote more time to this question before a definite solution is achieved, but we have already progressed towards an understanding, and I am confident that peace and moderation will before long prevail. Special attention is being paid to the problem of the cost of living, particularly in the larger towns and cities, and it is evident that all parties recognise this to be one of the essential points on which adjustments are necessary. Recently the price of bread in Dublin has been reduced, and I am hopeful that reductions in the prices of other essential commodities will shortly follow.
In all the consideration we have been giving to the industrial position, one great obstacle to an early adjustment has presented itself, and that is the trouble at the ports. This stoppage of work has had a paralysing effect on trade, and until the ports are again fully open no settlement designed to promote commerce and industry can take practical effect. The position at some ports is worse than that at others. Where the position is exceptionally grave various intermediaries, members of the Dáil and others, have exerted themselves to bring about a settlement that would relieve hardship and distress. They report, however, that there is little prospect of progress being made at present except on a national basis, and so the Minister for Industry and Commerce, in view of the information he has received and with grateful appreciation of the services of those intermediaries in the cause of peace, is communicating to both parties to the dispute a proposal designed to secure an immediate opening of all the ports and a detailed investigation into this question of dock labour in an atmosphere conducive to reliable conclusions.
The proposal which the Minister for Industry and Commerce is making is, briefly, as follows:—
1. That on resumption of work there should be a reduction in wages of 1s. per day, with consequential reductions in tonnage and overtime rates and in the wages of men who have previously followed the settlements relating to dock labour.
2. That the Minister, in the exercise of his powers under Part II of the Industrial Courts Act, 1919, should, as soon as possible after the resumption of work, set up a Court of Inquiry to report on this question of dock labour.
The proposal to set up a Court of Inquiry is particularly appropriate, since I understand that the practice under which questions relating to dock labour are now dealt with on a national basis originated from the report of a Court of Inquiry which sat in London some years ago. We are now independent of Great Britain in these matters, and it is right and proper that we should now adopt our own enquiries for ourselves with a view to such arrangements as the circumstances of our own case require.
If these proposals are accepted, they will re-open the ports and enable our Christmas trade, which is soon beginning, to be conducted in a normal way. For the future, the Court of Inquiry may be trusted to make such recommendations as will safeguard the interests of all concerned. I would deprecate any detailed discussion of the matter now, but I trust that the feeling of the Dáil is in favour of the Minister's proposals which I have outlined and which, without any excessive sacrifice on either side, will terminate a deplorable situation.