Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 22 May 1929

Vol. 30 No. 1

In Committee on Finance. - Resolution No. 7—Re-imported Woven Tissue.

Mr. Blythe

I move:—

(1) That whenever it is shown to the satisfaction of the Revenue Commissioners that any woven tissue imported into Saorstát Eireann on or after the 23rd day of May, 1929, and chargeable with the duty imposed by Section 1 of the Finance (Customs and Stamp Duties) Act, 1929, was manufactured in and exported from Saorstát Eireann and has since such exportation undergone the process of shrinking and no other process of manufacture, Section 6 of the Customs and Inland Revenue Act. 1879, shall apply to such woven tissue notwithstanding that it has undergone outside Saorstát Eireann such process of shrinking.

(2) It is hereby declared that it is expedient in the public interest that this Resolution shall have statutory effect under the provisions of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, 1927 (No. 7 of 1927).

This Resolution is to enable cloth of Saorstát manufacture which has been shrunk abroad to be re-imported free of duty. It has been found in the case of one or two mills that if this concession were not given their trade would be substantially affected. There is at least one mill which does a considerable trade with merchants in Great Britain. These merchants buy whole webs of cloth, which they shrink, and part of which they sell again in the Saorstát, and the persons concerned with the mill in question have reason to fear that if those purchasers were deprived of a market in the Saorstát for part of the cloth they would go to some outside mill for their requirements. It is not anticipated that this will do any harm to the one firm in the Saorstát which engages in shrinking. At any rate, it will do away with the danger that firms that have a trade with Great Britain will lose that trade. The amount of cloth involved is comparatively small, and the whole thing is rather a small matter, but it might be serious for the couple of mills that are concerned.

Mr. Lemass

I wonder if the Minister would tell us if this Resolution is submitted to the House on the recommendation of the Tariff Commission?

Mr. Blythe

Yes, this and the next Resolution.

Mr. Lemass

Was this proposal opposed by that one firm he mentioned in the Saorstát that does a shrinking business?

Mr. Blythe

They were not consulted.

Mr. Lemass

I think that it is a most undesirable practice to consider a recommendation of this kind and to propose this resolution without considering the one firm in the State that might be directly concerned with it. It is possible that this resolution will do their business considerable harm, and although it is not our intention to oppose the resolution, we think that this firm should have been consulted and that the Tariff Commission is open to serious criticism because they did not notify them that this proposal was under consideration in order to get their opinion concerning it.

Mr. Blythe

That firm has, of course, the advantage of carriage both ways. It is not anticipated that it will be affected so far as cloth that is purchased in bulk by a merchant here is concerned. The resolution could really have an effect only where the cloth is purchased outside, and where some portion of it is returned. The amount of cloth so far returned is very small, and there seems to be no ground at all for anticipating that that will increase with this resolution.

Mr. Lemass

Am I correct in assuming that, in addition to this firm that does a shrinking business exclusively, there are mills in this country with shrinking machinery that do work for other mills?

Mr. Blythe

I could not tell the Deputy at the moment.

Mr. Moore

Were notices issued in the ordinary way when this question was under consideration by the Tariff Commission?

Mr. Blythe

The only notices so far as I know that were given were statement that I made. I think in this House, but certainly in the Seanad. This matter of shrinkage, the question of cloth of cheaper varieties required for the manufacture of ready-made clothing, the question of cloths shrunk abroad, and the question of furniture cloths were specifically mentioned. I stated in the Seanad that these matters were being referred to the Tariff Commission, and I know that representatives of the trades dealing with them had been consulting with the Department of Industry and Commerce before the question went to the Tariff Commission at all.

Mr. Moore

It is still possible that the shrinking firm in the Saorstát, which is mainly concerned in the resolution, knows nothing about the question being under consideration by the Tariff Commission, because utterances in the Seanad and this House are frequently not reported in the daily newspapers.

Mr. Blythe

It is possible, but I think it rather unlikely.

Mr. Flinn

It is most likely. We received only to-day, as we came into the House, the report of last week's proceedings. Certainly to suggest that any ordinary detailed statement of the Minister appears in full in the newspapers is absurd. What I would call the attention of the House to is the obvious and palpable lack of knowledge on the part of the Minister for Finance of what actually did go on at the Tariff Commission. He did not know whether the mill had been consulted or not until he asked. He did not know anything about it until he asked the representative here. And the Minister is in possession of the report. The rest of the House has none of that knowledge. The man who knows most about the matter is palpably and culpably ignorant of what went on before the Commission. I thought that there was some statutory notice required, or that some machinery was set up in connection with the Tariff Commission, by which those who went before that Commission had regular means of getting to know what goes on. The Minister apparently does not know. He does not know whether any of these means were taken because he had to rely on casual conversation across the benches here to find out. Honestly, if the conduct in relation to these particular Resolutions, as exhibited by the Minister, is typical of the amount of care and attention which has been paid to financial business by the Minister, God help the House.

Motion put and agreed to.