In the Dáil, Deputy Cosgrave made a point on Section 4 as to whether or not the Commission could hold an inquiry into matters such as container traffic. As reported at column 965 of the Official Report of 11th November, 1959, the Minister replied: "As the Deputy will see, the section as it reads applies to the use of ‘particular materials or particular methods for manufacturing or construction purposes'." That is quite correct. On Section 2 (2), if the supply and distribution of goods are taken into account, I wonder whether or not it is possible for the Minister to have an inquiry instituted into (1) the container traffic mentioned by Deputy Cosgrave in the Dáil and (2) into the position of the dockers who are paid to travel with cattle but who do not travel? The importance of this I would point out by quoting Paragraph 75 of the Report on the Export of Livestock and Meat by the Advisory Committee on the Marketing of Agricultural Produce, which states:
The German importers were extremely critical of the practice whereby shipping companies engaged in the shipping of cattle from Dublin to Germany are required to pay men at Dublin Port for attending to the cattle on the sea journey to Germany although in fact the men never travel on the boats with the cattle. The payments to these men who perform no services represent about 12/6d. or 15/- per beast and they are, of course, reflected in the freight rates and so in the prices paid here for the cattle.
I submit that in that instance there is a restrictive trade practice.
I wonder whether, even though the Minister assured Deputy Cosgrave it could not be taken into account on Section 4, that matter could be taken into account on subsection (2) of this section. Deputy Cosgrave mentioned container traffic. I know something about the importation of machinery from Britain. I imported some myself two years ago. The manufacturers of this machinery positively refuse to allow it to be sent here except in containers, because similar machinery sent here some time previously had been dropped at the quayside and was irreparably damaged. Very wisely, they insisted that these goods would remain in containers from the time they left their premises until they reached the premises of the purchaser.
The eventual outcome of all this was that because this machinery, within the container, weighed seven tons, it had to go, not to any Louth port, which would have been most convenient and most economical, but to Rosslare. Lorries had to be sent to Rosslare. The machinery had to be loaded on those lorries in Rosslare and brought up to county Louth by road. Those are two obvious restrictive trade practices which, if they cannot be met under the section, I suggest can be met under the Bill. I should like to hear what the Minister thinks about container traffic and dry land dockers, as I think they are termed.
