That particular fact has relation to the question of cost. We have always been producing here the bulk of our requirements in spades. In the near future, our productive capacity in relation to spades will be substantially increased. Consequently, one may look for a decrease in price, resulting from the duty in respect of spades. Certainly there will be no increase. In relation to shovels, the same thing does not apply. We will be able to produce shovels here in or about the cost at which they are now procurable, but the cost at which they are now procurable is the cost of a highly centralised mass production firm which is supplying huge quantities of these shovels, not merely to this country, but to a number of other countries as well. The smaller unit, having proportionately larger overheads per unit of production, will not be able, except by rigid economy and efficiency in every department, to compete with that huge English firm in the matter of price. It would not be able to do that except with this measure of protection. There may be some slight increase, but the whole position will be carefully watched by my Department to secure that there is no undue increase.
If we are going to let the factor of prices determine our position as to whether or not an industry is to be established here, then we can abandon the whole idea of industrial development at once. There is no single industrial commodity which we are capable of producing here which we could not buy more cheaply somewhere. If the standard set is the lowest price at which a commodity can be produced in some factory on mass production lines or by sweated labour, then we can reconcile ourselves to the fact that we will not have any factories producing these commodities here. I am not going to set up that standard. If the conditions of the country and the resources in material and skilled workers make it reasonable to assume that we should be able to produce a particular commodity here, it will be the function of the Government to secure that that commodity is produced and that the industry is protected during the initial stages, when it is developing.
On the main issue raised by the Deputy — decentralisation — at the moment the Government has no power to enforce decentralisation. Whether or not we will require power to enforce decentralisation has not been considered. It is, undoubtedly, the policy of the Government to encourage it, and up to the present that policy has been implemented in this way and in this way only—that we have been bringing to the notice of people proposing to engage in particular industries the special advantages which exist in particular districts. There are special advantages in Dublin, Cork and certain other centres—the advantage of being at the centre of the country's distribution system, of being close to the ports, and of having a large supply of skilled labour available. As against these advantages, there are, in a number of provincial districts, a number of local advantages which might offset those available here, and which, if brought to the notice of persons proposing to engage in industry, might induce them to locate their factories elsewhere. For a long time, however, I think the industrial centres will be the towns situated at the ports where railway and other facilities are available.