This, Sir, is the section which operates to bestow on dance-hall proprietors a sum of £140,000 out of the Exchequer. The House will remember that when we were on an earlier section of the Finance Bill which operated to impose an additional tax on diesel oil we found it extremely difficult to ascertain from the Minister for Finance the magnitude of the burden that the tax on diesel oil was likely to impose on Córas Iompair Éireann. After protracted inquiry it transpired that he believed the burden would be somewhere between £100,000 and £150,000 per annum. There is a striking coincidence between the £140,000 which the dance-hall proprietors are to receive on foot of their agreement with the Government that if they subscribed to the Fianna Fáil Party funds and the Fianna Fáil Party succeeded in scrambling into office, the Fianna Fáil Party undertook to remit this £140,000 taxation for the benefit of the dance-hall proprietors.
The dance-hall proprietors faithfully performed their part of the bargain and they opened the subscription list, as the House will remember, with a subscription of £250, and the other members of the association of ballroom proprietors-because now that they have become so well "heeled" it is no longer considered proper to call them dance-hall proprietors; they have become ballroom proprietors on the strength of the £140,000-doubtless answered the summons and made contributions which compared reasonably if not favourably with the generous send-off of £250.
The House will remember, however, that we asked the Tánaiste and we asked the Minister for Finance to translate the burden which the diesel oil tax would put on Córas Iompair Éireann into terms of addition to bus fares. The Tánaiste baulked that question, and said he did not know what increase it would involve on bus fares or if it would involve any increase. He went so far as to say that whatever deficit accrues must ultimately be met out of the Exchequer, and he then used a phrase which led some of us to believe he was giving an undertaking there and then that he would not permit Córas Iompair Éireann to increase bus fares in order to recoup themselves for this additional impost, whereupon the Minister for Finance became extremely angry, and jumping to his feet beside the Tánaiste, he said: "No matter what anybody else says, I am giving no undertaking."
Attention was directed to this rather singular divergence of opinion between the Minister for Finance and the Tánaiste, because the House will remember how solicitous the Minister for Finance is for the joint responsibility of Ministers in a Government. He has had two or three weaknesses in this House when he thought of how that sacred principle of joint responsibility was in peril during the previous three years. Grave as were the perils which may have occurred in the previous three years, I do not think that during the period of our Government's occupancy of office we have ever had the edifying spectacle of the Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance slanging one another on the Front Bench. We stand now in the position that the Tánaiste says he does not think there will be any increase in bus fares. The Minister for Finance says: "Whatever undertaking you get from him or anybody else, you will not get any such undertaking from me." This morning, however, there appears an announcement in the papers that Cónas Iompair Éireann is to increase bus fares.