The replies to the questions as numbered by the Deputy are as follows:—
(1) The factory is an economic unit with a design capacity of 150,000 tons per annum of nitrogenous fertiliser in the forms of sulphate of ammonia and calcium ammonium nitrate.
(2) Official statistics of imports for the latest fertiliser season, i.e., the 12 months ended 30th June, 1962, were sulphate of ammonia 101,969 tons, calcium ammonium nitrate 30,638 tons, total 132,607 tons. This shows an increase of 63 per cent. On the home demand in 1958, when Economic Development was published, of 81,219 tons.
(3) Official statistics do not segregate the different values for bagged and bulk fertilisers. I am informed, however, that the latest import prices c.i.f. (i.e. in ships hold) prices are, on average, as follows: Sulphate of Ammonia, £14 5s. Od. per ton in bags, £12 15s. Od. per ton in bulk; Calcium Ammonium Nitrate, £13 17s. 6d. per ton. The additional cost of moving the products from the ships hold into the importers' stores would include, inter alia, the costs of discharge, port dues and transport.
(4) Details of the factory costings are confidential. It would, quite obviously, seriously inhibit the operating company in their commercial operations to disclose such information. A special Committee of administrative and technical officers carried out intensive investigations during 1960 and 1961 and reported to me that the factory could compete with prevailing import prices. Nítrigin Éireann Teoranta have now confirmed that the terms of the factory contract establish beyond question that after full allowance for all the appropriate commercial costings the factory products can be sold at prices competitive with the prices of the comparable imported products.
(5) There should be no surplus for export. The factory is due to come into production during 1965, i.e. in two and a half years from now, and there is little doubt that the present home demand (132,000 tons last season) will reach, at least, the design capacity (150,000 tons) by then. As already indicated, it has increased by over 50,000 tons since 1958, when Economic Development was published.
(6) The answer is in the negative.
(7) The estimated employment figure is 300. There is no reliable information available as to employment in comparable industries abroad as chemical factories vary considerably in their range of products. We have no comparable industry in this country so far.
As to the remaining inquiries, the position is that all the Departments concerned with the assembly and evaluation of the material on nitrogenous fertilisers published in Economic Development, viz., the Departments of Agriculture, Finance and Industry and Commerce, were represented on the Committee which investigated the project and submitted, unanimously, the report on the basis of which the Government decided to establish the factory. I am not prepared to publish any reports containing costings and other purely commercial information furnished in confidence to me and, through me, to the Government. It will, of course, be my duty to place before the House the fullest possible information on the project when introducing, shortly, the legislation necessary to provide for the further financing of Nítrigin Éireann Teoranta.