asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he proposes to introduce proposals for legislation to take such powers as are necessary to ensure a guaranteed standard of article or quality of produce supplied from our industries.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Standard of Industrial Products.
Under the Industrial Research and Standards Act, 1946, the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards is required to formulate specifications for such commodities, processes and practices as the Minister for Industry and Commerce may from time to time request, and the Minister may by Order declare the specification to be a standard specification. The Minister is also empowered to prescribe by Order a mark for use in connection with a specified commodity to indicate that it conforms to a particular standard specification. It is hoped that the machinery thus set up will, aided by the force of public opinion, in time have the effect of ensuring that goods for which standard specifications have been prescribed will conform to those standards. I have urged manufacturers of goods for which standard specification Orders have been made and who wish to have the quality of their goods established beyond controversy, to adopt the practice of using the standard mark. I hope that an increasing number of manufacturers will follow this practice. For the present, I am not satisfied that any further legislation is necessary in the matter.