Before we adjourned last night, Deputy O'Reilly had been telling the House of the satisfaction which the people derived from the fact that a Fianna Fáil Government had been in office for the last seven or eight years. He feared to visualise what the condition of this country might be if there was any other Party in office. If Deputy O'Reilly is satisfied with the position of the country at present, it is extraordinary. What have we had for the past seven years? What have we to-day? We have declining production, a declining population, and a decline in wealth. We have increased unemployment and increased expenditure on Governmental services. If that is something about which Deputy O'Reilly or anybody else feels satisfied, it is extraordinary. Deputy O'Reilly told us that were it not for the Fianna Fáil Government we would have lost the art of wheat growing. I did not know there was an art in it, and I have always been growing it. What, however, we have not found is that Fianna Fáil has made the growing of wheat economic in this country. After all the talk about self-sufficiency, and of the great relief it was to this country to have that policy in operation, we have no evidence yet that all the wheat we require in this country could not be more economically supplied from foreign sources. It is a good thing, and a right thing, that in times of stress we should be able to go back and produce whatever we require, but I have yet to learn that it is a good policy or that it is good business for me or any other farmer to grow a crop that does not yield me a profit while I can grow another crop that does yield me a profit—that is, if the first crop is a necessary which can be bought elsewhere. If I can make £5 an acre on growing oats, and if I lose, or the State loses, £5 by my growing wheat, I should not grow wheat unless it is an absolute necessity. That is exactly what is happening. Every acre of wheat that happened to be grown in this country was a national loss, because some other use could have been made of the land which would have yielded a profit. The growing of wheat has not alone put up the price of flour in this country but it has been used by the flour millers as an excuse to rob the people of the country. Nevertheless, Deputy O'Reilly and other people are quite satisfied that the people of this country should be grateful, and have a right to be grateful, to Providence that a Fianna Fáil Government has been in power for the last eight years.
We are confronted with a new situation. We are in the middle of a crisis, a world war. Is there any evidence of that in the Vote on Account before us to-day? Bar the fact that we are making provision for a Ministry of Supplies and—although it is not disclosed in the Vote on Account, it has to be paid for—that we have set up an absolutely superfluous Ministry for the Co-ordination of Defence, we have no evidence of the existence of the crisis in this Vote on Account. If there was any attempt made to deal with the crisis as it developed, we would have some evidence of it in the Vote on Account. We are just simply jogging along in the same old rut—increased expenditure and unemployment. There is one item in the Vote asked for to-day which is a condemnation of the Government policy because the Government itself offered to stand upon success or failure in that regard. That is the provision in regard to unemployment. Of the total of £10,500,000 asked for in the Vote, practically £1,000,000 is provided for employment schemes, unemployment insurance and unemployment assistance. The very fact that we have to provide such a large amount for the relief of unemployment, not withstanding all the protestations that the self-sufficiency policy would provide a cure for unemployment, carries its own condemnation. Here we are at the end of eight years and we have not gone a step further. We have, in fact, gone back on the position which the Fianna Fáil Party found in existence when they came into office.
There are quite a number of well-meaning people in this country who want all Parties to co-operate to try to bring to the country whatever measure of relief and success it is possible to bring to it. Now we are quite prepared to do that, but on what basis? Is there anything in this Vote that would induce us to go in and say to the Government: "We now see a change of heart and a change of policy. You have, as the Minister for Industry and Commerce has said recently, made foolish speeches in the past but we believe you are now ready to change your policies and your tactics." So far as this Vote on Account is concerned there is no change indicated. What are we asked to co-operate with? Increased expenditure and increased unemployment? Has any attempt been made to produce more in this country, beyond telling the people that they must till more? What provision have we made for tillage in this country? What provision have we made for greater productivity? On this side of the House, we have been endeavouring for years to try to induce the Government to make some provision for supplying cheaper artificial manures. I have been at it for years. We could find millions of money to put into bogs and industrial alcohol factories to turn out a substitute for petrol at 3/- or 3/6 per gallon, but we could not find money to put into the land.
Everybody realises now that the land is the only staple asset we have, and that once that fails the country fails. That is a truth which, I am afraid, the Government and the members of their Party did not recognise in time. They have recognised it in the last few years, and they also have come to realise that this country has been living on live stock. Having realised it, however, they have sat down and done nothing, and now the position is that we have reached a crisis. We are asked to till more land and we have no manure. There may be numbers of people on the far side of the House who do not appreciate the importance of that, but I am sure there are others who do. So far as I am concerned, I am quite prepared to co-operate with the Government or with anybody who tries to encourage increased production. If we do not secure increased production now, when we have an opportunity of getting a good market for our produce, we will never get into it, and it is absolutely essential that we should do something in that connection now.
What is the position at the present time? We had a tariff on foreign manures and, as a result of the economic war, we had a cutting down of the purchasing power of our people. The farmers, since the time of the economic war, were not able to use artificial manure; they were not able to buy it. The result was that the manufacturers of artificial manure in this country, instead of extending production, were forced to restrict it, and they were also obliged to restrict the importation of the raw materials utilised in the home production. When the crisis came we had a tariff on foreign manure and a restricted importation of the raw materials for home manufacture. How could we be expected to co-operate?
If any Deputy on the far side of the House can go through this Vote on Account, and can point out to us any items in it in connection with which during the last eight years, the Government have been successful, he ought to do it. There does not appear to be any standard by which we can judge the Government and claim success for it. Instead of attending to the things that mattered in this country, the Government devoted the finances of the people towards an unplanned industrial campaign. Instead of attending to the thing that really did matter, the land, the Government simply frittered the money of the people away uselessly in other directions. Then we had the hankering after constitutional codology when people ought to have been minding their own business.
We have now reached the day of reckoning. Now the stewards have been called to account for their stewardship. What have we confronting us? The policy of the Government, once it got into power in 1932, was simply to spend, spend, spend. They worked on the assumption that the more favours they showed the more votes would come, that there would be more votes gained through spending rather than through saving. That percolated right down through all the local authorities. We have now come to the end of our tether. This Vote on Account does not represent by any means the burden that is being placed upon the people. The rates have gone up to an enormous extent. The cost of living has gone up. We have a situation at the present time where people who have pigs to sell cannot get a price for them. Other people have not sufficient money to buy bacon, the prices are so frightfully high. The whole thing has been made a complete mess.
The Minister for Supplies seems to enjoy all this, but the people in the country do not enjoy it. I can assure the Minister that there are people, particularly those living in the small towns, who are very badly off. They are the people whom the Minister misled into supporting him when he told them that not alone would he put them working, but he would have to send to America and other countries for their sons and daughters and bring them home in order to put them working here. Those unfortunate people are now unable to buy the ordinary necessaries of life. That is the position in the country and especially in the small towns. If we are going to have any change of policy there ought to be some indication of it, but there is no such indication forthcoming.
There is an unfortunate position growing in the country. There is a feeling of want of confidence and a feeling of unrest. I am sure the Government are aware of that. What are they doing to allay it? They just bring in a Budget the same as last year with increases here, there and everywhere. If this country is going to get anywhere it must have confidence in the Government. There must be a feeling established that the right thing is being done. We have had evidence within the last five years that the efforts of the Government to create employment—they took the taxpayers' and the ratepayers' money in order to provide employment—have been a complete failure. Figures were given in the House yesterday by Deputy Mulcahy showing a new angle on unemployment. His statement certainly came as an eye-opener. If you take the National Health Insurance contributions and the Unemployment Insurance contributions you will find there has been a decrease in the increment of employment during Fianna Fáil's term of office. The Deputy's statistics give a true indication of the conditions in regard to employment and unemployment. We had all the factors relating to that under consideration yesterday and the information that was supplied to the House was very illuminating.
The Government should take its courage in its hands and drop its flabbiness, because it always has been flabby. It has carried out experiment after experiment with the people's money on schemes that were of no value, but so far as anything else was concerned it was just a flabby Government without backbone. We have now come to a situation in which it will take a supreme effort on the part of somebody to redeem democracy, because those people over there have pratically ruined it in this country. We are travelling along a road to which apparently there is no end. If the people become dissatisfied, and they are becoming dissatisfied, and if they feel that they are being led up some kind of boreen which will get them nowhere, then you will have an end of democracy. A feeling of confidence is an absolute necessity. If the Government want to put the country on its feet, it must endeavour to engage the people in profitable employment. If it merely engages the people in employment of a nature which, in the main, requires to be subsidised, then a feeling of lack of independence will inevitably appear and only dissatisfaction will result.
There is no use in telling the people of this or any other country that there is a certain debt owed to the community, and that because of that people must work for small profit or no profit. The only incentive there is to work is to make a profit so that one and one's family can live in comfort. That is the only basis on which people will work and give of their best, but apparently this Government does not realise it. We are quite prepared to co-operate with the Government in the present crisis if they will give us anything to co-operate with them on, but so far they have not done so. Deputy O'Reilly told us last night that he does not see any hope, and I am afraid he is right. I hope some other body will take the place of this Government that will give the country hope and relief to its people who are being sorely hit, and thus redeem faith in democracy.