Vol. 412 No. 7
15 Mr. Byrne asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he has yet concluded his consideration of the study of the export credit insurance scheme undertaken by a firm of consultants and received by his Department on 17 May 1991; if any decision has been taken on the basis of the study; if any decision has yet been taken on the possible publication of all or part of the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The study referred to by the Deputy has received careful and detailed examination by me and my Department and I will be making proposals concerning it to the Government shortly.
Following the Government's consideration of the matter I will make a statement which among other things will deal with the question of publication of the study, bearing in mind that much of its contents were received by the consultants from some sources on a strictly confidential basis.
Can the Minister say anything to the House about the efficacy of the scheme, having had the opportunity to study the report? May I point to his most recent answer to this question in the House, which was last May, when he indicated that he might be in a position in a couple of months from that date to consider publishing the report? What is his view on that? Can we expect the report to be published and, if so, when?
As with all reports of this kind I am keen to publish as much of it as one can do without doing commercial damage. A lot of the information which the consultants got and which they referred to constantly in their report was got from an insurance company who are in business and who would not wish, obviously, a lot of their private commercial affairs to be discussed publicly. I will certainly publish the recommendations of the report — there are about ten — because they are relatively brief and to the point. I may not be able to publish a great deal of the material of the report that shows how they arrived at some of those recommendations because of the nature of it.
This matter of export credit insurance is one of public interest because of allegations made in respect of political interference and in relation to certain persons getting favoured consideration over others in obtaining export credit insurances for middle eastern markets in particular. The Minister's record of publishing reports is not great if we are to go on the Fair Trade Commission's report. I submit it is imperative that the full publication is made available to the House. The taxpayer is entitled to know the conditions attached to this export credit insurance scheme in view of the widespread public concern on the issue and that it be published as speedily as possible.
I think the Deputy misunderstands the nature of the report. The report was set up to advise me and my Department on what should be done in the future by the State in relation to export credit insurance and, in particular, whether we should stay in it or whether we should get out of it because of the heavy losses we had sustained. It in no way deals with the previous exports of beef to the Middle East or anywhere else.
