asked the Minister for Industry and Energy the steps he is taking to have all bovine animal hides processed in this country.
Written Answers. - Bovine Animal Hides Processing.
258.
Mr. Leonard
Competitiveness in the marketplace for leather is the critical determining factor of the extent to which native bovine animal hides can be processed in this country on a commercially viable basis. The current difficulties being experienced by the Irish tanning industry are to some extent a reflection of the impact of market forces on the industry.
The Industrial Development Authority and other State agencies are providing a wide range of incentives and services to encourage the processing, to the maximum extent possible, of native bovine animal hides in the country. Recent substantial financial assistance by the State agencies to the Irish leather industry, which is based mainly on processing native hides, underlines the Government's commitment to exploit fully this valuable indigenous resource.
The Government would prefer that a higher proportion of home produced hides were converted into leather in this country. However, in the present-day circumstances of the tanning industry in Western Europe generally, it would be unrealistic to envisage that it would be possible to have all bovine hides tanned in this country. Even if the capacity to do so were to exist, there would remain the problem of selling profitably the additional output.