asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state in respect of each of the years 1965, 1968, 1969 and 1970 in relation to each division of imports, as listed in the trade statistics, the value of (a) competitive imports and (b) non-competitive imports, as defined for the purpose of the Statistical Summary of the Annual Industrial Review, from the UK and other countries respectively.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Value of Imports.
39.
The information is not, at present, available in the form requested by the Deputy. The data can be produced in co-operation between the Central Statistics Office and the other Departments concerned, but I am advised that this would take up to two months.
Can the Minister explain how the totals made up from these individual figures were published a few days ago by the Department of Finance in the Industrial Review which sets out for each of the main sectors of industry the value of competitive imports, segregated from non-competitive, and you can only get those totals by going through each particular heading and adding them up? If that is the case, why can we not have these and why should it take two months to type them out, when the work has been done?
That is not my information. The positive breaking down of the actual position between competitive and non-competitive imports is very difficult.
The figures have been published. You cannot——
Question No. 40.
We must get to the bottom of this.
Whether we get to the bottom of it is a matter for the Chair.
Figures have been published in the Industrial Review of competitive imports under the headings of each of the main industrial sectors. There is no known way of arriving at these figures other than by a process of imagination, or except you go to the import statistics and add them up. Somebody has a piece of paper with the figures listed on it and a total at the bottom has been published and I want the breakdown of the published figures. It could not take two months to do it. Several years ago I did this job myself, almost completely, and in a matter of about 16 hours.
My information is that it would take——
It would take the Government two months to do anything that anyone else——
(Interruptions.)