asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the number of instances in which merchandise road licences have been extended since the 1st March, 1957; and to what extent in each case.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Extension of Merchandise Road Licences.
1.
Twenty-nine merchandise licences have been extended since the 1st March, 1957, in accordance with the relevant statutory provisions.
Full particulars of all extensions of merchandise licences are entered in the Statutory Register which is open to public inspection in my Department at all reasonable times.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary say from the documents he has with him whether any licences were extended to cover the entire State which previously operated only in respect of a small portion of the State? Secondly, would he oblige me by supplying me with a copy of the changes which have been made in these 29 cases?
As regards the first portion of the supplementary question, the answer is "yes". As regards the second portion, the position is that in all cases the extension to the merchandise licence is entered in the Statutory Register and I do not think the Department of Industry and Commerce should go through the whole Statutory Register to extract the information the Deputy requires when the register is open for public inspection.
Surely it could not be a very difficult job for an official to make a copy of the 29 changes which have been made in merchandise licences. Why should it be necessary for somebody to go to the Department and browse over a long register of a thousand cases to find out the 29 cases in which changes have been made, when whoever is handling the register could pick out the changes in 29 seconds?
That is all right so far as this question is concerned, but there are other statutory registers in which such particulars are entered, and if it were the practice to search the register whenever a public question is asked, it would defeat the purpose for which the Statutory Register is open.
Surely it is not a difficult matter for whoever is handling this register to make a record of the changes which have been made. That would be a simpler matter than for a Deputy or a citizen, who I presume has the right to inspect the register, to browse through a register of a thousand names.
I want to be as helpful as I can to the Deputy, but the extractions are not made when the licence is extended. An official of the Department would have to go through the whole 950 cases, which is about the number that exists, to extract the information the Deputy requires, and that could be repeated in other registers whenever a Parliamentary Question was asked.
It is done by the Minister for Local Government every week.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary think on the matter?
Surely it is a case of "yes" or "no"
Will the Parliamentary Secretary think on the matter? I realise he did not know what Supplementary Questions would be put to him. However, will he think on the matter and see if there is any way in which he can help in this respect?
I shall think on the matter.