I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. The House, I think, is aware that the Tourist Traffic Act, 1939, which established the Irish Tourist Board provided for the making of a total advance from the Exchequer to the Tourist Board to a limit of £600,000. That Act conferred certain powers on the board, and gave it certain duties and functions to perform. The duties of the board, as set out, included the establishment, equipment and operation of hotels, guest houses, hostels and camps; the giving of financial assistance in the provision of services and facilities calculated to improve holiday traffic in the country; the undertaking of publicity, including guide books and similar publications, in connection with the development of holiday traffic; the provision of schemes for training persons in hotel work and other special services, as well as the maintenance of registers of hotels and guest houses, and the laying down of standards for admission to these registers.
Owing to the war the activities of the board were curtailed. The House will remember that the Act was passed in 1939, and did not, in fact, come into effective operation until after the war had started. The Government then decided to direct the board to curtail its activities, because of the circumstances created by the war. During the earlier war years the board was, in fact, confined to the preparation of plans of one kind or another, plans for the organisation of its work, as well as plans for the development of holiday resorts, and it kept to that work of planning until 1944, when the Government was of opinion that the end of the war was in sight, and directed the board to extend the scope of its activities. During these planning years the board prepared schemes for the development of a number of holiday resorts, and for the development of holiday business generally. These schemes were subsequently submitted to me by the board for approval. Although some action has been taken upon the approved schemes, it has not yet been found possible by the board to complete its plans, owing to the abnormal supply position still existing.
In 1944, part of the Act dealing with the registration of hotels was brought into force, and during that year and 1945, the board was engaged in the establishment of the hotel registers, and the inspection of hotels and guest houses, with a view to their admission to them. These matters, to which I am now referring, were dealt with in the White Paper circulated to Deputies. I assume that Deputies have read the White Paper, and that it is not necessary to repeat, in introducing this Bill, matters which are contained therein. The White Paper gave not merely the general historical background to which I have referred, but referred also to various resort development schemes which the board prepared and which have been sanctioned. The primary purpose of this short Bill is to raise the limit fixed in the original Act of the amount of advances which can be made to the Tourist Board. As it happened, the schemes already sanctioned will, it is estimated, cost slightly more than the £600,000 provided under the original Act. It is considered desirable, therefore, at this stage, that the Dáil should be so informed and asked to raise that limit. That step might have been delayed.
Although schemes which will, ultimately, cost more than £600,000 have been sanctioned, the total amount advanced to the board is only £122,000. This Bill proposes that the limit to advances to the board under the Act of 1939 should be raised to £1,250,000. The purpose of the amendment is to enable schemes which have been already approved to be completed, and further schemes undertaken. The House, I think, is aware that there is no element of subsidy in respect to that part of the board's work. Before an advance can be made for resort development work, it is necessary for the board to certify that a scheme submitted by it and approved is of a profit-earning character. I know that there has been a suggestion that the board had avoided to an undue and unreasonable extent publicity in connection with these resort development schemes. I am sure, however, that the House will appreciate the difficulties of the board in giving any detailed publicity to its plans, because of the nature of the work on which it is engaged. The avoidance of publicity was due to the fact that, in the main, the resort development schemes of the board involved the acquisition of property.
It is true that the board were given, under the Act of 1939, certain powers of compulsory acquisition, but these powers were of a cumbersome kind, and ordinarily the board would desire to purchase property by negotiation rather than resort to compulsory powers. On that account it has been anxious to avoid publication of details of its plans, so as not to shove up the cost of property which it would acquire against itself and to facilitate the voluntary acquisition of such property at a reasonable price. The profit-earning character of these schemes very largely depends on the enhancement of the value of the property acquired by the board as a result of the development work done by the board and clearly the ability of the board to bring any of these schemes to a profit-earning stage would be impaired if it had to pay unduly inflated prices for the property acquired by it before the development work was undertaken.
I will deal later with the details of the various schemes which have been approved and give the Dáil the available information concerning them; but before getting on to those matters of detail I am anxious to express certain views upon the general work of the board and the policy by which that work is directed. In discussing the merits of the plans of the Tourist Board for the development of the holiday business, or the particular schemes which it has devised for the improvement of holiday resort facilities, it is necessary to keep in mind the main purposes of the board's work. The primary aim of the board is to develop and improve the natural amenities in this country available to the Irish people, so that Irish people may have full opportunity of satisfactory and enjoyable holidays in this country. The board has also the purpose of developing the potentialities of the business of selling holiday facilities to persons coming from other countries.
On occasions during the past year or so, on reading comments in the Press on the work of the Tourist Board, I have felt that it was a mistake to have given it that name in the first instance. People have come to interpret the name of the board as implying that its main, if not the sole, attention was to the work of selling holiday facilities to persons coming from other countries. That is neither the sole purpose of the board nor its primary purpose. I have said that its primary purpose is to develop the holiday facilities available in this country for the enjoyment of our people. That I would regard, and always did regard, as the more important aspect of the board's work. The board is engaged in a business undertaking. I have sometimes felt that the nature of the work upon which it is engaged and proposes to engage in future has been misunderstood. It is necessary to emphasise in the clearest possible way that the main purpose for which the board was set up is to organise on a better basis in this country a business which has become one of major economic importance in every country. The economic importance of the holiday business has grown with the improvement of travel facilities and with the alterations in general social conditions and in conditions affecting the employment of workers. In all countries in the world it is becoming an enterprise of major economic significance.
There are some people who have got a superiority complex about this business of providing holiday facilities. They regard it as a type of occupation which is unsuitable, as one which involves menial work. That is a completely false conception of the business. Not merely is it one of major economic importance, but it provides the possibility of remunerative and suitable employment for a very large number of persons. I certainly do not agree that there is any personal humiliation to be experienced in the sale of holiday facilities which would not apply in the sale of other commodities. Apart altogether, then, from the possibility of attracting business from outside the country, and assuming the sole effect of the board's business is to improve the holiday facilities available here, it is one which should be undertaken and one which, because of its nature, requires some central directing organisation if it is to be done properly.
The development of hotel facilities, restaurant facilities and, to some extent, recreation facilities, might be left to private individual enterprise. It is through private enterprise that the facilities now available were first provided. The development of holiday resorts might, perhaps, be left to the local authorities of the areas in which they are located; but I think it will be agreed that, without some central planning and directing authority, the efforts of private enterprise and of local authorities would not be co-ordinated, nor would the best results be secured. It is for that reason that the Government decided that the Irish Tourist Board should be established, with certain powers and resources to enable it to do its work. I do not want any misunderstanding to be created by my remarks as to the importance of the business of selling holiday facilities to persons from abroad. That is an export business which has become of major importance in many countries and which may become one of great importance to this country. The business of selling holiday facilities to citizens of other countries has immense potentialities for us and has potentialities now, because of circumstances existing elsewhere, greater than ever it had before, provided we are in a position to use them. We can add substantially to the national wealth, and particularly to the balancing of our international trade, by the development of the business; and although it may not be possible to do so in the immediate future to the extent that might ultimately be possible, we should not leave out of our minds the economic importance of the business in the future of the country.
I said that the extent to which the business of selling holiday facilities to persons from other countries can be developed in the immediate future is limited. It is limited by reason of the inadequacy of our existing hotel accommodation and the curtailment of travelling facilities in present circumstances. I know, from articles which have appeared in the newspapers, that some people feel there is objection to the attraction of tourists to this country in the present year, because of the continuing scarcity of some commodities. I would like to make it clear that the Tourist Board is not taking any positive steps to attract business from outside this year. At a recent meeting, under the auspices of the Tourist Association, I expressed the view that it would be bad for the ultimate development of the tourist business here if an unduly large number of visitors were to come now, before plans for the development of resorts and hotel accommodation could be put into operation. On the whole, I think we should limit any publicity or other work abroad designed to bring tourists here until we are satisfied that we are ready to deal with any business that might result.
At the same time, I want to make it clear that the argument against allowing visitors to come to this country in this year, based on the supply situation, is not very strong. In so far as certain foodstuffs are rationed—tea, sugar and butter—the supplies which any hotel may receive are restricted, and will not be increased because of increased business secured by that hotel. The other foodstuffs, such as meat and eggs, are not rationed here, and there is, in respect of these other foodstuffs, a substantial export business. It seems to me that it is obviously a much better policy to sell meat and eggs in the form of cooked meals to people coming here from abroad than to export them raw. I do not think that we need at the moment unduly concern ourselves about that aspect of the matter, because the number of tourists that can come here in this year from outside will be restricted in any event by curtailed travel facilities and will be doubly restricted by reason of the inadequacy of the hotel accommodation available to them. At the same time, as I have already said, we should keep in mind that there are special circumstances existing in the world at the present time which give us opportunities of development on these lines which may not recur and which we should have in the back of our heads not merely in regard to the immediate situation but to the long-term advantages which may accrue from the development of the business.
I have said that the general plan of the board can be considered under three main headings. First of all, the board has placed upon it the obligation of improving the hotel accommodation available in the country. As the House is aware, the board controls the word "hotel", and only premises which are admitted to the register of hotels maintained by the board and are regarded by it as being in every respect entitled to be described as hotels, can be so described. A similar qualification applies in respect to the term "guesthouse". The importance of developing our hotel accommodation and of ensuring proper standards of cooking, cleanliness and other facilities in hotels will be obvious to anyone who has given any thought to this business. No facilities in the form of natural beauty of scenery or the development of resort facilities or of sporting, shooting or fishing facilities will popularise holidays in Ireland either amongst our own people or people from other countries unless there is proper hotel and restaurant accommodation available to them. The board, in addition to its obligation of supervising and raising the standard of hotel accommodation, is empowered to undertake the work of developing holiday resorts. A list of the resorts for which development schemes are ready is given in the White Paper. I shall refer to it later. Similarly the board has the obligation, which is not of immediate importance but which will at some stage become a major feature of its activities, of publicising at home and abroad the facilities available for holidays here.
An amendment has been tabled to the Second Reading of this Bill. That amendment suggests that the Dáil decline to give a Second Reading to the Bill until a committee has been set up to inquire into and report on certain matters therein mentioned. I am not accepting that amendment. I think that the information which the proposed committee would require can and should be given to the Dáil, and that it is here it should be examined. In order to avoid any suggestion that there has been a withholding of information from the Dáil, I propose to deal with these matters in the order in which they are contained in the amendment, and give to the House such information as the committee might hope to obtain as a result of its inquiries. The first item mentioned here is the work already carried out by the Irish Tourist Board. I have, of course, already informed the Dáil that the work of the Tourist Board from 1939 until 1944 was very largely confined to the planning of its future activities. It was planning not merely its own organisation and work but preparing detailed plans, with the aid of its engineers and architects, for resort development schemes. It was only in 1944 that it began actively the work of improving hotel accommodation and of establishing a hotel register. It is only now that it is beginning the business of resort development. The number of hotels registered by the board is 900. The board's officers inspected 1,396 premises, described as hotels, and accepted for registration only 900. The other premises which were not registered as hotels were regarded as not conforming to the standards set by the board either in respect of accommodation, cooking facilities, cleanliness or otherwise. A number of these premises which were not registered as hotels were regarded as suitable as guest-houses and registered as such. Six hundred and two premises, described as guest-houses, were inspected, but of that number only 271 were registered. It is contemplated that a number of the hotels and guest-houses which were not registered will be able to qualify for registration at a subsequent stage when certain improvements, indicated by the board's inspectors, have been carried out.
During these preparatory years the board, as I have already said, carried out a survey of all tourist resorts in the country and prepared, in relation to each resort, where it conceived it to be practicable, a scheme for the development of the amenities there. It has already submitted schemes for improvements and development at 18 resorts. The total cost of the schemes which have been approved provisionally was estimated at £662,000, and it is because the total cost of the provisionally approved schemes reached that figure that this amending Bill has been introduced. As I have already indicated, the actual expenditure to date has not exceeded £122,000. That expenditure was undertaken at the following centres. I will give them in alphabetical order and not in the order of importance. At Ardmore in the County Waterford the board purchased the lands, buildings and effects of the Irish College there. A certain sum has been expended on professional fees in connection with proposed internal reconstruction. The price paid for the lands, buildings and effects of the college was £3,162. It is estimated that the cost of reconstruction will be about £6,000.
