asked the Minister for Supplies if he will state the items which comprise the profit and loss account in the last audited balance sheet of the Irish Shipping Company, Limited.

The balance sheet of Irish Shipping, Limited, as at the 30th June, 1943, will, I am informed, be filed at the Companies Registration Office in about a week's time and will be available for inspection there.

That is not the question I asked. I asked if the Minister would state the items which comprise the profit and loss account in the last audited balance sheet of this company?

I must confess that I did not understand the Deputy's question.

I am sorry for the Minister.

Therefore, I suggest that he should go and inspect the balance sheet for himself.

Will this balance sheet be the same as the last balance sheet from the point of view of the exclusion of a profit and loss account?

As Minister for Supplies, I have no obligation to explain the balance sheet of Irish Shipping, Limited. That is a company established under the Companies Acts and it must comply with the requirements of those Acts, which include the obligation to make a balance sheet available at the Companies' Registration Office.

Surely the Minister has some function under company law in relation to public companies?

No.

As Minister for Industry and Commerce, has the Minister not some such function?

As Minister for Industry and Commerce, I am obliged to see that such companies comply with the requirements of the Companies Acts.

Does the Minister not acknowledge that the Companies Acts require a trading company to produce a profit and loss account?

To produce a balance sheet.

Does the law not require a trading company to produce a profit and loss account?

What a company is required to do for the information of its shareholders, is one thing; what it is required to do for the information of the public, is another thing. So far as this company is concerned, it will comply fully with the obligations of the Companies Acts.

There is a very substantial sum of State money in this company——

There is not.

——and there are State guarantees to this company——

There are no State guarantees to this company.

Does the Minister contend that there is no State shareholding capital in this company?

That is another question.

Is it not perfectly clear that public credit has been invested in and is being used as security for this company and will the Minister, therefore, say why this company, operating on State moneys and fortified by State credits, is not required to produce a profit and loss account, so that the community whose money is invested in this company will know what it is doing?

The company is not operating on State money. The day has long since passed when it required the assistance of State credit.

Or State guarantees?

Or State guarantees.

asked the Minister for Supplies if he will state the name of the firm of accountants which audited the last available accounts of the Irish Shipping Company, Limited.

The accounts of Irish Shipping, Limited, are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General.

If the State has no interest in this company, why does the Comptroller and Auditor-General audit its accounts?

The company requested that its accounts should be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, and the Government agreed.

Can any company ask to have its accounts audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, and will the Minister accede to such request?

No. There are a number of companies in which the State has a paternal interest, the accounts of which are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General.

It has more than a paternal interest in this case; it has a financial interest. Is that the reason why the Comptroller and Auditor-General audits its accounts?

Will the Minister define "paternal interest"?