Mr. David Pierce:

Chairman, Members of the Oireachtas and invited guests, we, the Irish Monumental Firms Association, are here to seek help in achieving a level playing field, fair competition, fair procedures and an end to a charity dominating the headstone trade. Cemeteries, by their nature, are anti-competitive. Everybody goes to his or her local cemetery. If it becomes ridiculously expensive, the market does not correct itself. That is why we need a regulator. Planners will not give permission to open a new cemetery in a locality where an existing one is still viable. Therefore, the business of operating a cemetery is outside the normal checks and balances of a competitive environment.

We are a group of ten headstone businesses based all over Dublin. We are struggling to survive in business, most of us having had our turnovers decimated. The Dublin Cemeteries Committee, DCC, trading as Glasnevin Trust, is the main reason we are on the verge of collapse. The DCC is a private statutory body and a charity controlling four of the largest cemeteries in Dublin, namely, Glasnevin, Palmerstown, Newlands Cross and Dardistown at Dublin Airport. It does not pay corporation tax; we do. It does not pay rates on its showrooms and factories; we do. The DCC uses burial data to send brochures to relatives of the deceased. We do not have access to that information. It has huge displays inside its cemeteries and its registrars double up as salespeople, pitting them against us on a daily basis. Until recently, it received 12.5% commission when selling a grave or a headstone. Some of the staff can have wages of €2,000 a week. It insists on doing foundations for our headstones, charging us €1,000 in Glasnevin. We have offered to pour these foundations for €80. It charges us €500 to spend a day working in its cemeteries. We have to pass these outrageous fees on to the bereaved of Dublin. It insists on doing all work on stone cremation walls. We are not allowed work on any cremation plots, even though this is the only growing part of our business. It has begun to sell pre-erected blank headstones on graves. This totally excludes us from the market. No other cemetery operator anywhere allows this. So far seven monumental firms within close proximity to Glasnevin have closed. Just last year, Farrell's of Glasnevin, which had been in business for 126 years, had to shut down.

We are not allowed meet potential customers in the DCC's cemeteries. We are not allowed take photographs of our completed work. The DCC has, over the years and for spurious reasons, barred seven Dublin monumental firms for operating in its cemeteries. These firms have never been in any dispute nor ever even queried by any other cemetery owners. Kerry County Council operates more than 130 cemeteries and Fingal County Council operates more than 30 and none of them has ever had any reason to ban firms or men from going about their business. The evidence strongly suggests that when a body is both regulator and competitor, it cannot be trusted to be fair and impartial.

There are many more examples of abuse of Dublin sculptors, far too many to mention. The firm I represent has seen its turnover drop from €1.3 million to €350,000. It could be said that, through loss of earnings, Dublin sculptors have contributed more to Glasnevin than anybody else. Glasnevin Trust has taken our trade, aided and abetted by the State. The Oireachtas has given the DCC a far better deal than Apple or Google has received.

Some 115 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th US President, said:

Artificial bodies ... depending upon any statutory law for their existence or privileges, should be subject to proper governmental supervision ... in the interests of the whole people, the Nation should ... assume power of supervision and regulation over ... [such bodies]. This is especially true where the corporation derives a portion of its wealth from the existence of some monopolistic element or tendency in its business.

Over the years we have written to the DCC. We have suggested arbitration and we even suggested a yearly voluntary contribution by us if it were to stop selling monuments. The last correspondence we sent to it was nearly two years ago. It answered us with a solicitor's letter, sent to our individual homes and business addresses, not our association's office, threatening to sue us personally if we continue to protest about it.

As we said in our opening statement, the Dublin Cemeteries Committee now owns and controls five cemeteries and when it doubles in size again, we will no longer exist. It is now by far the largest provider of burials and cremations in Ireland and its monumental firm is also the largest in Ireland. It now sells headstones tax and rates-free all over Dublin and beyond, not just in its own cemeteries but in cemeteries from Balbriggan to Bray. It has now branched into boulders for housing estates and nameplates for houses, all tax-free.

We ask the Oireachtas to pass the Cemetery Management Bill as it is the correct action to take. New South Wales in Australia and New Zealand have recently introduced new cemetery regulators. In the Dáil debate, some Deputies hoped this would not be another quango, but the DCC is the oldest quango in Ireland. It is a body of perpetual succession, with no role for a Minister. Is it a case of swapping an unaccountable quango for an accountable one? In The Dublin Cemeteries Committee Act 1970, the Oireachtas entered into a bargain with the owners of Glasnevin Cemetery, conferring powers on it but with no safeguards for anybody whose private interests could be destroyed by it. To compound the problem, the Oireachtas allowed it to become our competitor with a tax exemption and regulator not answerable to any power in the land.

Heretofore, when the State interfered in a trade or business, the affected parties received some sort of compensation. For example, those involved with farming, fishing and turf-cutting and even taxi drivers received tax concessions after deregulation. Make no mistake, Members of the Oireachtas have interfered in our trade and they must make it right. We are not looking for compensation and we just want fair play and the opportunity for firms to survive. We sculptors are not out of step but the Oireachtas is, as no other country in the world allows a charity to sell headstones. An expert on competition and consumer affairs stated that charities must raise money. Glasnevin Cemetery is a member of what are called the historical cemeteries of Europe, and that group comprises 150 cemeteries. The other 149 cemeteries do not sell headstones as their staff see it is unethical and immoral. They do not interfere in the trade.

I had much more to say but I will change my plan. In August 1988, at the age of 24, I set up a headstone business in Swords, County Dublin. Business went very well and over time my turnover reached €1.3 million, with ten employees. I erected headstones in cemeteries in north County Dublin and north Dublin city. The Dublin Cemeteries Committee opened a large cemetery in Dardistown, just beside Swords. At the time, I considered this to be a good opportunity but two years after opening the cemetery, the DCC erected just inside the main entrance a large display of new monuments for sale to the bereaved. It erected signs suggesting that when the monuments are purchased from it, the graveyard would be better maintained than if they were purchased from me or my colleagues. My first exposure to the power of the DCC was when I met a family in the cemetery who wanted to see some of my recently erected monuments. I received a phone call the next day to say that if I ever met a family in the cemetery again, I would be barred from all the DCC cemeteries.

Most of the members of this Oireachtas committee would be familiar with their local sculptors and cemetery. Imagine if the sculptor were not allowed to discuss a headstone with a client or family in a local cemetery. That would not happen anywhere else in Ireland and it is why Glasnevin Trust, as it now calls itself, cannot be both regulator and competitor. A few weeks later I was taking some photographs of my recently erected monuments and the following day I received a phone call indicating that no photography was allowed in the cemetery. This was all the more galling as Glasnevin Trust has pictures of my work all over its offices. Sculptors all over Ireland inscribe trade names and phone numbers in small letters on the side or base of newly erected work, as this is historically the best way of selling monuments. I was told not to put my phone number on monuments or I would be barred. Again, this does not happen anywhere else and it is why Glasnevin Trust cannot be both regulator and competitor.

It has been suggested that we have room to go to the courts. Glasnevin had a so-called Irish stone rule and although I will not bore members with the details, it dropped the rule when I took the matter to court. I was left paying €16,000 as a new business. The legislation is the 1970 Act and there are no internal or external safeguards for us. The Competition Authority has told us it cannot help us and the issue is one of state aid rather than competition. The Revenue Commissioners will not talk to us about this because of client confidentiality.

We do not want to know anything about the tax affairs of Glasnevin; we are just saying a charity should not sell monuments. With regard to charities trading, Glasnevin does not have to sell headstones. There are many other monumental sculptors. It can raise money other ways. How come 149 other members of the historical cemeteries of Europe think it is unethical to sell monuments?