Additional Financial Resolutions—Customs. - No. 3—Customs.
(1) That the duty on tomatoes imposed by the Finance (Customs Duties) (No. 4) Act, 1932 (No. 34 of 1932), and mentioned at Reference No. 9 in the Second Schedule to that Act shall be charged, levied, and paid only on tomatoes imported into Saorstát Eireann on or after the 24th day of June, 1933, or any subsequent 24th day of June and on or before the next following 31st day of October and shall not be charged or levied on tomatoes imported into Saorstát Eireann at any other time.
(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).
If these Resolutions have not already been circulated to the House, I should like to explain them. It was the intention when the Cereals Act came into operation that duties would not be paid on prohibited goods imported under licence. The order appointing the date of the appointed day was made on Thursday last. For this reason it would not be possible to provide for the removal of duties on flour, bread, wheaten material, maize meal and similar products in the earlier Budget Resolutions.
Accordingly Resolution No. 1 proposes to repeal portion of five enactments; these are:—Section 1 of the Finance (Customs Duties) (No. 3) Act, 1931 (No. 42 of 1931); Section 2 of the Finance (Customs Duties) (No. 3) Act, 1931 (No. 42 of 1931); Section 10 of the Finance (Customs Duties) (No. 2) Act, 1932 (No. 11 of 1932); Section 1 of the Finance (Customs Duties) (No. 3) Act, 1932 (No. 2 of 1932); Section 4 of the Finance (Customs Duties) (No. 4) Act, 1932 (No. 34 of 1932). This will involve the repeal of the customs duties on oats and oat meal and the customs duty on maize meal and products composed of maize meal or mainly composed of maize meal, crushed oats and kindred commodities. A customs duty of 5/- had been imposed on wheaten flour and on all bread imported on or after the 27th October, 1932. I should mention also that the duties on barley, ground barley, malted barley and animal foodstuffs and duties on bread were imposed under the 1932 Act. The necessary steps have been taken to revoke these as from 24th May, 1933.
In addition to this Resolution No. 1, as a matter of convenience both for discussion in the Dáil and for administration, I have considered it desirable to introduce two additional Financial Resolutions dealing with what I think will be noncontroversial matters. The first of these is Resolution No. 2:—That in lieu of the customs duty imposed by Section 11 of the Finance Act, 1927 (No. 18 of 1927), and mentioned at Reference Number 4 in the Second Schedule to that Act, there shall be charged, levied, and paid on all matches imported into Saorstát Eireann on or after the 24th day of May, 1933, an Emergency Imposition of Duty.
The immediate circumstances which moved the Minister for Industry and Commerce to recommend the making of this Emergency Order was an increase in the customs duty on matches imported into Great Britain, which was imposed in the recent British Budget. The Minister had received representations to the effect that this increased duty in the British Budget on matches would result in the diversion to the Free State of supplies of matches originally intended for the British market, such matches being wrapped in boxes with names, etc., in English, and for that reason they could only be sold in countries where English is spoken. Consequently there was a danger of these matches being dumped into this country, and it was represented to him that the importation of even one cargo would have serious consequences for the home industry. It has since been recommended that the duties imposed by the financial order should be made permanent in the Finance Bill. In connection with this I should remind the Dáil that a similar circumstance arose in 1927 after a tax on imported matches had been imposed.
The third order is an order relating to the duty on the import of tomatoes. Originally that duty was made operative as from the 1st June, 1933. As a result of representations recently put forward by the Minister for Agriculture, an agreement was arrived at between the growers, the importers and the Minister for Agriculture at a conference held by them to the effect that the duty should not come into operation until 24th June next, and that it should be operative until 31st October. The arrangements will work out so that the duty will be applicable during the period when home-grown tomatoes are available. The purpose of this Financial Resolution is to give effect to this agreement. I may mention that Section 2 (5) of No. 4 of 1932 makes provision for the free importation of tomatoes when the Minister for Finance, in consultation with the Minister for Agriculture, thinks it is proper to do so. It is not proposed in this Resolution to make any change in the licence provision.
In connection with these Resolutions I think I should point out to the House that a full opportunity for discussing the matter in detail will be provided on the Report Stage. I accordingly ask the House to agree to the Resolution now, and to reserve any detailed comment until next Wednesday.
Before you pass from that Resolution, seeing that it first deals with the importation of flour, I take the exceptional course of raising a particular matter on it. I have explained to the Minister for Industry and Commerce three times about the way in which a permit which he issued under the special powers that were conferred on him was used in the County Donegal. The Minister, under the powers which are being repealed by one of these Financial Resolutions, was authorised to permit the importation of flour free of duty where special circumstances made that necessary. An application was made to him by a certain individual in Donegal for a permit to import a certain amount of flour for the purpose of baking bread in a bakery. It was represented to the Minister that it was impossible for this individual to get supplies of baker's flour from the Saorstát owing to the railway strike. On those representations, in order to maintain the supply of bread in a remote area in Donegal the Minister for Industry and Commerce issued a licence to this individual to import flour free of duty. The Minister or his colleague will be aware of the fact that baker's flour is an entirely different commodity from household flour. The licence, I understand, mentioned only flour, but the representation was that it was for use in a bakery. Under that licence, household flour was imported by this individual free of duty, 5/- cheaper than his competitors could buy it. That flour was distributed by this individual to the customers of his rivals, in some cases at cut prices and in other cases at a price which left him a very substantial profit.
I questioned the Minister as to what steps he proposed to take to call that individual to account for the representations that he had made to him, and to call him to account for importing an article under a licence which was issued for the importation of quite another article. The Minister twice avoided my question. I now put it to the Minister for Finance that he should institute local inquiries in Donegal to satisfy himself that this sharp practice actually took place; that he should take steps to ensure that, when a licence is issued by the Minister under the exceptional powers that the Minister had asked for and got during the last session of the Dáil, it should not be abused; and that any individual abusing it in the way I have described will be brought to account, and required to make a satisfactory explanation to the Minister for his conduct in regard to the matter. I ask the Minister to make inquiries himself in West Donegal, and the facts I have submitted to him will be amply proved. I hold myself at his disposal to place the name of the individual in his hands, as I do not deem it proper to mention publicly the names of individuals here in Dáil Eireann. I am quite prepared to be bound by the result of his investigations, if he sends a responsible officer to make them.
I do not propose to traverse the ground which Deputy Dillon has covered, except to say that I have no longer any jurisdiction in the matter. My recollection is not clear that I ever had jurisdiction in regard to a licence under this Emergency Order. I had merely to consent to it. So far as the Cereals Act is concerned, the licensing provisions will be under the control of the Minister for Industry and Commerce, and I am afraid that if Deputy Dillon wants to raise that question again he will have to raise it when the Minister is present. I did hear the Minister say that he had made full inquiries, and had satisfied himself that the position was not exactly as Deputy Dillon represented it. Beyond that I cannot go. I certainly cannot undertake to send any officer of mine down to interfere with or investigate the operation of another Minister's Department, in matters which are entirely under that Minister's control.
Surely the Minister realises that the safeguard of this House is that any permit to import free of duty must receive the sanction and consent of the Minister for Finance. I am suggesting to him here that representations were made to him which were not, in fact, true, and on foot of these representations he consented to issue a permit for the free importation of flour. This permit and his signature were used for the purpose of bringing in quite another commodity free of duty, and the individual who brought it in reaped a substantial profit from that misuse of the Minister's name. I am submitting to him that surely if these facts be true, the Minister should take steps to ensure that such a thing cannot and will not happen again.
Before the Resolutions are adopted, I should like to bring to the Minister's notice that last week the City of Dublin was threatened with almost a flour famine. Some of the medium and smaller bakeries that had not the capacity for looking a long way ahead and storing flour were on the point of stoppage. Some of them actually gave notice to some of their employees. I do not want to go into the question deeply, but I would suggest to the Minister to consider his general flour policy rather than the temporary expedient of suspending the tariffs.
Resolutions put and agreed to.
Report Stage fixed for Wednesday, 31st May, 1933.
