This Bill is intended to replace the Emergency Powers (No. 157) Order, 1942, and amending Orders. These Orders derive their present authority from the Supplies and Services (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1946, as extended. It is Government policy not to continue to rely on emergency statutes where it is appropriate to have permanent legislation. The present Bill implements this policy in connection with State guarantees. The Emergency Powers Order mentioned authorised the guarantees of payment with interest of borrowings by certain State sponsored bodies, mainly those set up during the emergency to further the maintenance of essential supplies.
The bodies whose borrowings are so guaranteed at present are: Fuel Importers (Eire), Limited; Grain Importers (Éire), Limited; Tea Importers, Limited; Irish Steel Holdings, Limited, and the Irish Potato Marketing Company, Limited. A limit to the amount which may be guaranteed in each case is specified by these Orders, which require also that a statement be submitted to the Dáil every year containing particulars of guarantees actually given and showing the State's contingent liability for principal as at the 1st April and the amount, if any, paid by the State in fulfilment of a guarantee.
It is desirable to retain permanently the power to give guarantees of this kind, so that central importing and distributing agencies and other concerns functioning under State auspices may be facilitated in obtaining the financial accommodation necessary for their activities.
Apart from the Great Northern Railway Board, the bodies listed in the Schedule to the Bill are those whose borrowings are at present guaranteed under the Emergency Powers (No. 157) Order, as amended, and the maxima specified are those provided for by the Orders, save as regards Fuel Importers (Eire) Ltd. where the maximum is being reduced from £6,000,000 to £4,000,000 which in present circumstances is considered to be sufficient.
Existing guarantees—within the Schedule—are continued in force by Section 2 (2) of the Bill. The Dáil agreed at the Report Stage of this Bill to substitute "Great Northern Railways Board" for "Great Northern Railway Company", an amendment consequential on the enactment of the Great Northern Railway Act, 1953; it was necessary to ensure that the power to guarantee the company's borrowings should now relate to the borrowings of the board. No guarantee is at present operative in the case of the board.
Provision is made in Section 9 for amending the Schedule by deleting a body or adding a new one or by altering the maximum amount of the guarantee in any case. Amendment will be by Government Order but, before any Order is made adding a new body to the Schedule or increasing the maximum amount of a guarantee, such Order must have been approved in draft by resolution of each House of the Oireachtas.
As is shown by the latest return presented to the Dáil and Seanad, the guarantees in force at the 31st March, 1953, covered borrowings up to a total of £18,650,000. The State's contingent liability for principal amounted, in fact, to much less, namely, £10,096,455.
The provisions of the Bill differ from those of the basic Emergency Powers Order in three important respects. First, under the 1942 Order any State payment under a guarantee would be from voted moneys. In this permanent legislation, it is considered preferable to provide for the fulfilment of a guarantee by an advance from the Central Fund, subject to recoupment to the Central Fund from voted moneys of any amount not repaid within 12 months.
Second, Section 9, as I have said, provides that an Order adding a new body to the Schedule or increasing the maximum amount that may be guaranteed in the case of a scheduled body cannot be made until a draft of the Order has been approved by resolution of each House of the Oireachtas. A guarantee Order can be made under the existing law without prior reference to the Dáil or Seanad and is effective forthwith but—like all Orders made under the Supply and Services (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1946—it has to be presented to each House, either of which may, by resolution, annul it. The new procedure is that appropriate to normal, as distinct from emergency, conditions and is more in keeping with proper parliamentary procedure and control.
The third way in which it differs is this. Section 8 requires for the first time that bodies availing of State guarantees must furnish an abstract of their accounts, together with the auditor's report thereon, to the Minister for Finance, who will present them to each House of the Oireachtas. This will ensure that full information will be available about the financial operations of bodies whose borrowings are guaranteed by the State.
The relevant emergency powers Orders will be revoked as from the date on which the Bill comes into operation, which date will be fixed by Order under Section 11 (2).
