asked the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism when a report from the committee on the monitoring of industrial costs can be expected.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Industrial Costs Monitoring.
18.
The Industrial Costs Monitoring Group have already produced a number of confidential reports on the likely impact on industrial costs of specific measures proposed for Government consideration. Moreover, I have just recently received the committee's first general report on industrial costs which I am reviewing at present.
Some important matters have been raised in this question and in Question No. 17. The Minister has said that he has just recently received the first general report. Will he tell the House if he has read the report and, if so, did he find anything in it that would alter in any way details or paragraphs in the supposed plan that was announced recently? Had he studied the report before the famous document was produced and issued to the public?
The Deputy will be glad to know I have read the report which I think is excellent. I will be passing it to my colleagues in Government because many of the matters dealt with do not come directly within my area. As the Deputy is aware, decisions taken by other Ministers and by bodies under the aegis of other Ministers can have as important an effect on industrial costs as anything I might do. This report was not the first although it was the first comprehensive report dealing with the entire situation. There have been individual confidential reports on about eight separate topics which were specifically referred to the committee by the Government where the Government were considering a proposal and wanted to know if there would be an adverse effect on industrial costs.