Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 15 Nov 1951

Vol. 127 No. 5

Reports from Committees. - Adjournment Debate—Unemployment in Balbriggan.

Mr. Dunne

I was constrained to put down this question to the Minister for Industry and Commerce by a number of considerations, first, by the most important consideration that there is in the town of Balbriggan, which is the largest town in my constituency, a very great degree of unemployment among the workers who ordinarily make their living from the hosiery mill in that town.

I asked the Minister:—

"If he is aware that the town of Balbriggan is very seriously hit by large-scale unemployment of workers engaged in the hosiery mills; if he will state whether the importation of goods from foreign sources is contributing to this situation and, if so, what steps he is taking, if any, to secure the re-employment of these workers whose sole dependence is the hosiery industry."

The Minister in his reply indicated that, in his view, the situation in Balbriggan, the slump in the hosiery industry and the consequent unemployment, was attributable more to a recession in trade than to any other factor. He also indicated, by inference at least, that he did not consider that the reference I had made to large-scale unemployment was founded on fact because he stated that he was aware that there was partial unemployment. The Minister's reply published in to-day's papers has, to say the least of it, caused indignation and astonishment in the town of Balbriggan, and that is a fact which is known not alone to me but to the Minister's supporter, Deputy Burke. It has been drawn to Deputy Burke's attention no later than this day.

Mr. Burke

That is not correct at all.

Mr. Dunne

It is correct and will be later shown to be correct. The workers in the town of Balbriggan to whom I refer have been dependent upon this industry for their livelihood for very many years, and I am quite certain that the Minister is well aware of the tremendous importance the hosiery industry has for the population of that town. It has been the foundation of the economic life of Balbriggan for the best part of a century and a half, and, when that industry is hit by any kind of slump, when unemployment develops, it means that the entire town is very badly circumstanced and the slump makes itself felt in every family in the town and every aspect of the town's economic life.

It is a matter of considerable concern to traders and all classes of people that this situation should exist. It is commonly believed by the workers in the hosiery industry and also by the managers of that industry that this situation has been brought about by the importation of large amounts of foreign goods. The Minister, in his reply yesterday, did not subscribe to that idea, although Deputy Burke was strenuously endeavouring within the past few days and over the past two or three months to bring home to the people of Balbriggan, and the people of Lucan who are also hit to some extent in a similar fashion, that it is the importation of foreign goods which has brought about this situation and that there is no other reason for it. Deputy Burke, in his usual fashion, has sought to give it a political twist by suggesting that the previous Government has responsibility for that situation.

Mr. Burke

And I claim it still.

Mr. Dunne

If that is so, Deputy Burke is at complete variance with the Minister, because the Minister has denied that.

Mr. Lemass

I did not.

Mr. Burke

The Minister did not deny it.

Mr. Dunne

In his reply he made it very plain that he did not consider that the present situation came about as a result of stockpiling or abnormal importation of foreign goods.

Mr. Lemass

I said the stockpiling of hose or half-hose. The other goods are prohibited.

Mr. Dunne

Hose and half-hose are the goods in which this factory is mainly dealing. These and a line described as fully-fashioned hosiery in the coarser end is the technical description given to the main line of hosiery upon which this factory depends. The Minister said in his reply that, in his view, there have not been abnormal imports.

Mr. Lemass

There are not now.

Mr. Dunne

The Minister said yesterday that not alone are there not now but there had not been abnormal imports and had not been stockpiling.

Mr. Lemass

I told the Deputy that the goods subject to quota are not now being imported, that the quota has been reduced to nominal levels.

Mr. Dunne

The Minister, of course, is mending his hand.

Mr. Lemass

That is what I said.

Mr. Dunne

The Minister made it clear and the people of Balbriggan and the management of this industry were astounded to read the statement he made that this situation had, in his view, nothing whatever to do with imports or with stockpiling but came about through a recession in trade.

The primary consideration which prompted me to put down this question was that of unemployment. The Minister described the situation in Balbriggan as one of partial unemployment and I am afraid he is misinformed in that connection. I am informed by the management of the factory concerned that their normal number of employees is 300 odd. Of these, 100 are now in continuous employment; 100, approximately, are laid off entirely and signing on at the labour exchange, and approximately 100 are on short time on a three-day week. These workers, who are unemployed and whom I have met and talked to more recently than Deputy Burke, are dependent for their livelihood at this moment upon picking winkles in the harbour of Balbriggan and can find no other means of getting a few shillings to ward off economic want. I believe the Minister has a duty in this matter to see that this situation is brought to an end as quickly as possible and to see that these workers are restored to full-time employment with the least possible delay.

A further consideration which induced me to bring this matter up for discussion was a letter which I received dated 5th November and which reads:—

"Last week I entered a shop near O'Connell Street to buy a pair of socks and the enclosed tag was attached. Naturally I gasped with astonishment as my people have been interested in the welfare of our country since '67, did our bit and suffered our bit. Was it to have a Government of our own to license imports from Hong Kong?"

"You can have the socks, if necessary," he adds, as a postcript. It is not necessary to have them, as it is quite obvious what he states is true because he encloses the manufacturer's tag attached to this pair of socks, sold just off O'Connell Street—"Made in Honk Kong"—while up to at least 200 skilled workers are idle in the town of Balbriggan.

Now, whatever the reasons are which brought the situation about, I am interested in hearing them. It is not unreasonable to ask the Minister to fall in with the view that, if there have been large imports of these goods, some steps must be taken to ensure that our own people are protected and are not thrown on the employment market without any hope and particulary with the hardship that must ensue during the oncoming winter. It is hard enough for workers to be unemployed when the sun is shining, but it is particularly hard for them in a small self-contained town like Balbriggan, coming up to the Christmas period. The Minister may say that these imports are not affecting the situation unduly, but then, though he may be expressing his opinion and what he believes to be correct, he is in conflict with the views of the workers, of the management in the factory and also of other interests in the hosiery trade.

I am told that buyers for Irish wholesale firms, who have had to go to England within recent months to purchase nylon, have had it imposed upon them as a condition that for every unit of nylon they purchased they would perforce purchase three units of other types, of rough work, for sale in this country——

Mr. Lemass

What?

Mr. Dunne

What is described as rough work—different types of cotton socks, and so on. This may be an answer to the problem. It may be that this trade practice has been in progress and has resulted in an unduly large import of foreign goods. If that be so, it should be looked into by the Minister and stopped. This situation cannot be brushed aside as a simple recession in trade. It is beyond question that the foreign imports have influenced the position and have contributed in a large degree to the great hardship which the people of Balbriggan are undergoing now.

I want to put to the Minister the proposal that he should examine the situation in so far as lies in his power, in order to find just how much of these goods lie in this country, how much are lying in wholesale warehouses— and in retailers' hands, if it is possible to discover that. Then some arrangement should be made with the wholesale and retail interests to have the foreign goods—if they are there in large supply, as they appear to be— filtered onto the market, so as to ensure that the Irish product would be bought, that the Balbriggan factory would go back to full production and that the workers—and this is an important consideration—who are suffering at present can resume full-time employment.

I do not need to describe to Deputies or to the Minister the importance of this industry to the town. It is not necessary to go into detail to show that when the factory concerned goes out of full-time operation it is indeed in the nature of a catastrophe. These skilled men are valuable assets, not alone to Balbriggan but to the country. I am told by responsible people from Balbriggan that numbers of them have already emigrated, that numbers have sought references from the local clergy to go to England to work there in the factories.

That is a definite loss to us, to our country and to the nation. That consideration, allied to the ordinary humanitarian outlook, the need for providing employment, should impress the Minister. If exceptional steps are necessary now, they are justifiable. The steps which I have suggested, the investigation of the position with a view to a restriction on the sale of these foreign goods, may be exceptional, but I think they are justified by the circumstances.

There is one other point which I want to clear up. In his reply yesterday, the Minister stated that he was informed that the workers who had been disemployed from this particular factory in Balbriggan had been absorbed by another factory.

Mr. Lemass

I did not say that.

Mr. Dunne

These are the Minister's own words, in reply to a supplementary of mine:—

"I understand that the situation to which the Deputy refers applies to only one hosiery factory in Balbriggan and that in fact some of the workers laid off in that factory have been employed in another hosiery factory there."

The Minister has been misinformed in that. It is not correct. I am told by the management of Smyth's factory, and I am also informed by the management of the other factory to which he refers, that there is no foundation for that statement. Therefore, it is not just a question of one factory closing and some of the workers being taken into employment in the industry in another factory: it is a question of a definite slump hitting the town and the nature of the slump represents to the people of Balbriggan very great hardship.

Would the Minister tell me now whether he is prepared to investigate the possibility of having the suggestion I make to him implemented, that is, that these foreign goods which appear to be lying here in such abundance, goods from Hong Kong and other places, should be filtered for sale to the public, that arrangements should be made with the trade to ensure that they will not be allowed to go on the market in such a fashion as to kill the industry here, even for a period, for the benefit of foreign interests?

Mr. Burke

The position in Balbriggan as stated is true, but it did not arise overnight. Last June, a month after the change of Government, some workers came to me and told me they had been dismissed.

Mr. Rooney

Is that because the Government was changed?

Mr. Dunne

Leave him alone. He will make a mess of this, the same as he did of the Great Northern Railway strike.

Mr. Burke

I will not carry on as much bluff as the Deputy did, anyway. Deputy Dunne wants to put over on County Dublin that this thing has only started since we came into office, but he knows in his heart that he clapped the previous Minister for Industry and Commerce on the back when he started to stockpile. How could people be sacked in Balbriggan a month after the change of Government, except by the very bad management of the inter-Party Government, which brought that position about?

Mr. Dunne

The Minister is saying the exact opposite to what the Deputy is saying.

Mr. Burke

When I took up this matter with the present Minister last August, and again in September, he took all the steps necessary to try to rectify the blunders that the Parties opposite had made by importing manufactured goods instead of raw materials.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Minister is entitled to the remaining ten minutes, so I will call on him now.

Mr. Lemass

I do not care personally how this situation came about or who is responsible for it, except in so far as knowing that will help to find the way for dealing with it. It is true that there is in this factory in Balbriggan a situation which has resulted in the reduction of employment there. The precise figures are that, out of a normal number of employees of 303, only 118 are in full-time employment and 92 are on half-time employment. The number of unemployed is 93. That is a serious situation in a town like Balbriggan and one that as soon as it was brought to my notice I took steps to rectify, such steps as were open to me.

The situation has been developing for some time. As Deputy Burke said, a number of workers were laid off some time ago. When the information came to me, I examined the trade and shipping statistics with a view to ascertaining to what extent it was due to imports and in the case of hosiery goods which are subject to quota restrictions, I took immediate steps to reduce the quota so as to stop the influx of goods of that character from abroad until this situation had rectified itself. Some of the goods produced by this firm are not subject to quota restrictions but are subject to tariff. In the case of these goods, I was concerned to find out whether the tariff was sufficient and the trade and shipping statistics seemed to suggest that the tariffs are sufficient. In the case of hose and half hose, the commodities to which I referred in my reply to the Deputy yesterday, statistics show that imports to the end of September this year were less than in the same period last year and constituted a very small proportion of the total sales of these goods.

The Deputy's suggestion, however, that this situation could be eased by taking some measure to reduce the release for sale of the stocks of imported hosiery goods held in this country does not deal with the real cause of the problem. There is at the present time in the hands of wholesalers and retailers of these goods a very large supply of goods of all kinds. It does not make any difference from their point of view whether this large supply is of hosiery products or of other drapery products; they are all overstocked with some form of these goods.

I am not going to criticise now the decision to permit exceptional imports of these articles of clothing for stockpiling purposes earlier in the year. If there had been a war or a similar emergency we would have been glad to have them, but there has not been a war and the existence of these stocks is a complication in our problem. It has accentuated the other causes which are producing a decline in the activities of these trades at the present time. There is a falling off in sales, whatever the reasons for it. It affects not merely this country but every country in the world. Reports even from the United States of America which is in the middle of a rearmament boom reveal that there is a glut of these products in the markets and a slowness of sale at the present time. The position in Great Britain is much more acute than here and that constitutes a danger that manufacturers in Great Britain with surplus stocks on their hands will seek to dispose on our market of these stocks to the detriment of our own producers. We must be on the alert to see that that does not happen. In so far as the problem can be solved by restriction of imports all steps have been taken and whatever further steps are required will also be taken. In so far as it is due to a development among our people which makes them reluctant to buy at present prices, I think it is likely to be a problem of short duration because I think that it is possible to say now that the price position is stabilised and that being so it is almost certain that trade will begin to move again. There may not be for our manufacturers precisely the same volume of business as there was previously when these stockpiling measures were in progress, but I think that we can, by confining the existing business to our own manufacturers, get them back in full production even though the total volume of trade may be somewhat less than it was earlier.

The situation which exists in this hosiery business is similar to that which exists in other branches of the clothing trade. In the case of the woollen industry—that is the spinning and weaving of woollen cloth and the manufacture of that cloth into garments—a conference was arranged between all parties concerned, manufacturers, distributors, trade unions and wholesalers, and as a result of that conference there was not merely general agreement as to the measures it was practicable to take but some useful suggestions were made which are being adopted. I intend to hold a conference of a similar kind with other branches of the clothing trade including the hosiery trade and I am hopeful that as a result of that conference equally practical and useful suggestions will emerge and I would undertake, if they do emerge and meet with the general agreement of those concerned, that they will certainly be adopted.

It is unfortunate that just at the present time when we are hoping to secure a considerable expansion of our economic activities in other directions this set back should have occurred in the clothing industry. I hope that we will be able to remove the essential cause of it in a short while but it must be clear that so long as there are substantial stocks held by traders throughout the country completely normal conditions will not be restored until these stocks have come down to normal and that depends entirely upon the psychological reaction of the public to the measures which have already been taken and to the stability of prices which I hope has already been established in this industry at least. I may say that I have some doubt in my mind whether our price control arrangements are not retarding the course of normal trade. At least it has been reported that the regulation which requires the marking of prices on the goods by the manufacturers is having a bad effect in so far as traders holding price-marked goods are reluctant to buy goods marked at lower prices until these dearer goods are off their shelves. However, I will look into that question.

Perhaps Deputy Dunne will assure the gentleman who bought the socks in Hong Kong that if he had a licence, that licence was not issued since the middle of June.

Mr. Dunne

One question to the Minister. Will the Minister examine the question regarding the flow of foreign goods?

Mr. Lemass

I do not think that the problem of stockpiling can be related to this particular class of goods. It must be related to the total stocks held by traders who are reluctant to order further consignments not alone of hosiery but of every other type of goods. I hope, however, to secure in regard to the hosiery trade what we have already succeeded in securing with regard to the woollen trade, that is agreement on the part of the organised traders to submit their orders for spring delivery now.

The Dáil adjourned at 11 p.m. until 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 21st November, 1951.