asked the Minister for Transport and Power if, further to his previous replies concerning a request for the names of those hotels which had been paid grants exceeding £25,000 and his indication that this information was now contained in the Bord Fáilte Annual Report for 1970-71, he will now provide the names of hotels which received grants prior to 1970-71.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Hotel Grants.
27.
I explained to the Deputy in reply to a question on 12th November, 1970, that it had been Bord Fáilte's practice, up to 1970-71, not to publish the names of recipients of grants or the individual amounts received by them in respect of accommodation development. This procedure had been followed because the board had given undertakings to developers that information about their applications and grants would be treated as confidential. Following a change of practice which Bord Fáilte made at my request in 1970, all applicants are now informed that grant particulars will be published and the appropriate information is set out in the annual reports of the board. However, in view of the arrangements under which the earlier applications were dealt with, it would be a breach of confidence to publish the information in respect of earlier years.
Surely the Minister will accept that, if the information is available in respect of the last two years, it is only logical that we should be given the names of those who received very substantial grants in the sixties. I am quite sure that most of these hotels would not object if their names and the amounts they were given were published. After all, if Irish industry——
We cannot have a discussion on this.
Decisions were taken in accordance with policy and, once policy is changed in a certain direction, it would be wrong at this stage to go back on an earlier situation when a different policy obtained. I may say that one of the Deputies who induced me to adopt a change of policy here was Deputy Michael Pat Murphy.
I well remember the day.