I will not press the Parliamentary Secretary, because I recognise that the question I raised was not anticipated. However, I am in a position to inform him that quite rents go to the Woods and Forests Fund, and I would be grateful if the Parliamentary Secretary would tell us now what is the position of the Woods and Forests Fund. Is it being used for any purpose, or is it a dormant fund, simply with an intake and no outlet? I think it is a dormant fund, and I think it is now reaching a pretty considerable figure. I hesitate to reveal this nest-egg to the present Government, for I have very little doubt it will be promptly raided for some wholly unworthy purpose, but if a useful purpose were at hand I think it might be very properly employed. I take it, Sir, that the Parliamentary Secretary is responsible for the Quit Rent Funds, and the disposal of those funds I understand is purely a matter of administration. I, therefore, suggest that this fund, which now amounts to the substantial sum of about £300,000 should be used not for the purpose of dissipating but as a fund to finance a semi-autonomous committee to guide and direct Gaeltacht industries. In the old days, forestry was pretty well identified in the Government mind with the congested areas and Gaeltacht problems. I imagine the old Woods and Forests Fund had some connection with forestry originally. Now that there is a Department of State for that purpose, this fund has ceased to be employed for that purpose.
I put it to the Parliamentary Secretary — in fact I put it to the House rather than to the Parliamentary Secretary, because I do not believe the Parliamentary Secretary is particularly interested in this matter — that what is wrong with the Gaeltacht Services at present is that we have not got any guidance for the producers as to fashion trends and suitable markets for the products of the Gaeltacht Industries. I do not believe that you can ever get any group of civil servants satisfactorily to do that job, because it is not a Civil Service kind of problem. You want people with an artistic sense; you want the very type of person to whom Civil Service employment would be perfectly intolerable; you want the very type of person whom you will never induce to go into the Civil Service. You want the very type of person whose genius for this work would be sterilised and destroyed by the necessary regulations under which all civil servants must live. I put up a memorandum to the Department of Lands and Fisheries suggesting the establishment of an autonomous body which would be charged with the responsibility of directing the development of Gaeltacht Industries in fashionable and luxury goods.