I am suggesting that the Parliamentary Secretary should address himself to wealthy land proprietors, holding adjoining land, who do not want any assistance and who would not be eligible for assistance under the farm improvements scheme, and point out to them that they must, without any assistance or guidance from him, do their part of the work on their own land so as to make the drainage of the area a success. I am not asking for help, supervision or guidance from the Government. I am asking the Parliamentary Secretary to bring home to the people that he cannot single-handed make a success of the drainage of the area unless the people in the area do their part. Far from seeking assistance, the thesis which Deputy Coburn has often submitted in this House is peculiarly true in relation to this matter—that people have a duty to look after their own land and help to make the drainage scheme successful by doing their duty in their own close and encouraging their neighbours to do the same.
Now, I touch upon a detail dear to the heart of the Parliamentary Secretary as it is to mine. I should be glad if he would say whether he intends to put the Dromore drainage scheme on an early priority in the schemes he proposes to put in hands. If he does, I can assure him that it will bring comfort to the soul of Ballybay Town Council and I have no doubt that the reverberations of joy will be heard in Cootehill and other areas in County Cavan.
Now, in this connection, I should be interested to hear from the Parliamentary Secretary whether he has given his attention to the work of the Tennessee Valley Authority in America. It marks a completely new departure in the administration of the kind of job for which the Parliamentary Secretary is primarily responsible. Therefore, the Federal Government of the United States of America have taken a certain territory and they have withdrawn, from a wide range of Federal agencies, all their functions in that peculiar territory and have transferred those functions to a semiautonomous body, closely analogous to our Electricity Supply Board. The result has been that the Tennessee Valley Authority has been made responsible for industrial development, drainage, rural electrification, land improvement, provision of raw materials to these ends in that particular area. Now, I confess that my information with regard to the results of that experiment is largely drawn from sources which would be prejudiced in its favour. I have not seen an exhaustive exposé of the criticisms, but from what I do know of it, it has been an extraordinary success.
We have to bear in mind, however, that the Tennessee Valley is many times the size of our whole country and that the river constituting its backbone passes through territories of widely different characters, which complement one another in a general economy, but in connection with the Erne, where we propose to have a hydro-electric scheme under the Department of Industry and Commerce and under which, perhaps, we might be undertaking drainage works, under the Board of Works, and in respect of which land schemes may be put in hand under the Department of Agriculture, and in respect of which also industries may be promoted under the Department of Industry and Commerce, the point arises whether all these various matters could not be vested in a body similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority. That body could say: "There is the Erne Valley, which is delineated on this map. You are going to be charged with the production of power. Your district will have first claim on the power generated by this river. You can use it for the manufacture of artificial manures, for instance, for distribution at a very low rate in that area. You can supply current for the promotion of industry within that area. You can, out of the profits derived from your operations, subsidise, if needs be, drainage, or you can relate your drainage schemes to the general purpose of water control which you will require for the efficient use of the river as a generator of hydro-electricity." It is quite possible—and this is the difficulty that an Opposition Deputy always finds himself in—that on the examination of such a plan by the Minister's experts, it would become manifest, at a moment's glance, that the scheme was quite impracticable.
I have not the means at may disposal to pursue the matter fully or get expert advice such as the Minister and his Department would have, but it does seem to me that if an experiment of that kind were made in connection with a limited scheme such as the Erne, if it were found to be practicable and if it prospers, then the Liffey, and other rivers, conceivably, would be susceptible to similar development. Now, it may be held that our departure would be so small individually as to make it ludicrous to compare it to the Tennessee Valley Authority, but if our purpose is to distribute industries through the country rather than to allow the natural trend of concentration in cities to prevail, I consider that even on quite small rivers the matter of drainage, hydro-electric, and general development along the lines of the Tennessee Valley Authority might prove a very valuable expedient in this country.
Now, in connection with building, I have a few brief remarks to make. There is plenty of work to be done in regard to building, and I think it is a terrible mistake for us to shy away from undertaking great enterprises in the immediate future because they appear to cost a lot. This is a time when we should mobilise credit and use it boldly and resolve, if necessary, to repay it over the next 100 years. The extension of credit should not deter us from embarking on bold schemes at the present time, always provided that they are good schemes. As a start in that direction, one good thing would be to build a new Oireachtas, and it would prove to be an economy in the long run. We are eternally patching and tinkering with these buildings in order to make them adequate to fulfil the functions of an efficient Parliament. It is common knowledge that half the Deputies cannot find accommodation in which to write a letter. Even the Ministers' rooms are inadequate and they have not proper facilities. We are trying to get our meals in a Restaurant which is built on top of the boiler-house and in which no person could sit in the months of August and September. The permanent officials are obliged to sit in cramped quarters up at the top and their teeth are made to chatter with the noise of the machinery in the basement, because we are trying to dislodge a beetle through the medium of a vacuum cleaner in the roof. I understand that the roof is now infested with beetles and that it shall have to be rebuilt. Of course, some facetious individuals will possibly say that we ought to transfer all our activities into the museum and there function under the shadow of Taoiseach de Valera's boots, but I am not one of those who believe that democratic institutions are best accommodated in the museum. I believe that they are dynamic things which should have adequate facilities in which to work. Now, that is work which could be planned at once and put in hand as soon as material is available.
There is another matter to which I shall refer. I am told that one of the great difficulties of housing the poor in Dublin is that if you want to pull down the tenement houses you must have some place in which to put the people until such time as proper substitutes can be built for them.