If the real purpose of this Bill is to improve the economic and social conditions of those of our people who reside on the Atlantic seaboard, then I welcome it as a move in the right direction. The problem along the Atlantic seaboard is a very old problem. It is deep-seated and widespread. Generations of oppression, generations of neglect, poor land, shallow land and no industries have given us the problem of the western seaboard as we know it to-day.
While I would be happy to regard this Bill as providing a solution for the problem, I am afraid the problem is of such dimensions that it must be approached with the sobering thought that it will be extremely difficult to solve and that we are not likely to see a solution of it for a considerable period of time, if indeed we ever do, unless we marry the problem of development of the area to the migration of people from poor land along the seaboard to better land elsewhere.
As one reviews the legislation that has passed through this House in the past 30 years one must come to the conclusion that 30 years of legislation here have made little if indeed any impression on the economic and social life along the Atlantic seaboard.
The problem of to-day is the problem of 30 years ago and it seems as insoluble to-day as it did 30 years ago. I have listened to the problem of the Gaeltacht and the undeveloped areas on the western seaboard being discussed in this House for more than a quarter century. Yet the problem is there in all its nakedness to-day just as it was when this House was first set up. That fact has got to temper our whole approach to the difficult problem that confronts us in finding a solution for the difficulties thrown up by these undeveloped areas. To-day we have in the Gaeltacht areas and along the western seaboard the same old standard of life as we had 30 years ago. To-day we have got practically as little employment there as 30 years ago. To-day we have the same gross underemployment as 30 years ago; the same problem of migration and the same problem of emigration. In 1951, these are the same characteristics of the Atlantic seaboard as they were 30 years ago.
We have to face up to that problem and there is nothing to be gained by any attempt in this House to say that we have found a solution in this Bill. It will be a difficult problem, a problem which requires tact, patience and an ability to comprehend human beings and to get on the right side of human understanding. I do not think there is any one solution to the problem of the Atlantic areas. I do not think any attempt to provide industry there, especially under private enterprise, will make the Gaeltacht or the Atlantic seaboard any different in ten years' time from what it is to-day. The problem will have to be approached from a number of angles. It is only the product of the approach from all these angles which will in the long run make some perceptible contribution to a solution of the problem thrown up by these areas.
The problem falls under a number of headings. The first is the problem of finding employment, of trying to stop emigration overseas and even to stop, or at least curtail, migration to Great Britain. However bad migration is, emigration is the worst of all our national problems. One can look with less concern on the problem of migration where a man, perhaps with his sons and daughters, migrates for a portion of the year when there is no work at home to garner a living in Great Britain, then comes back with what he has earned and manages to finance himself through the lean period. That is an understandable pattern of life in a place like that— that a person should move from where there is no work to where there is work and then come back and see himself through with the produce of the labour he has given elsewhere.
The basic problem, however, is to try to provide employment for our people in the western areas. So long as children are born there, the problem is what to do with these children when they come to 14, 15, 16 and up to 20 years of age. The little crofts on which they live are incapable of employing any more than the head of the household and perhaps one son. The rest of the family have got to be kept out of whatever produce these two can win from poor land. It is because the whole family has to be kept out of the miserable pittances wrung from hungry soil that the standard of living in these areas is appallingly low. We have to try to provide not only regular employment for the bread winner, but employment for the adolescent sons and daughters. It may be possible to provide employment of an intermittent character, even to provide employment for some of the children during the summer periods when, perhaps, a particular type of employment is available for them under conditions which do not, of course, impair their health or in any way tend to dwarf their development.
Some Deputy suggested in this debate—I think it was not intended as a serious suggestion—that the State should encourage the manufacture of poteen along the western seaboard. I can only regard that as an effort to wipe out the Gaeltacht areas, because there is nothing more calculated to annihilate the inhabitants of the Gaeltacht areas than to promote or help to develop poteen-making in these areas. The two by-products of poteen-making are lunacy and murder. They go hand-in-hand with the manufacture and sale of poteen on an uncontrolled basis. If anybody wants to develop an industry calculated to stimulate lunacy and to multiply murders in this country, the way to do it is to take the lid off State control and allow anybody who likes to make this murderous concoction. I hope that nobody will listen for two seconds to a suggestion to legalise the manufacture of poteen. Not only would it produce murders and lunacy in greater volume in this country, but it would destroy for all time any concept of being able to lift the Gaeltacht areas out of the present economic mire into which they have been allowed to degenerate.
I think the development of these areas is a problem of trying to get together a number of possible phases of activity all of which when combined will provide a reasonable measure of employment in those areas. I have never been able to understand why an area like Connemara, like Donegal, like portion of Kerry, such areas as in most countries are associated with mineral development, do not yield up any minerals at all. Any examination of mineral-producing areas in the world will show that it is areas akin to the areas we are talking about that produce mineral deposits. Yet there is not a single mineral mined in any of these places to-day on anything like a satisfactory commercial scale. In fact, in some of those areas it is quite unknown.
I know, of course, that the geologists will say that a geological survey has shown that there are no minerals in these particular areas or that it is unlikely that there are minerals there. It has been shown, however, over and over again that the geologist is by no means always right in his exploration for mineral deposits. The modern method of ascertaining whether there is any mineral wealth in the earth is not the method of the geological survey but the method of the geophysical survey which enables the explorer to bore into the earth and there ascertain whether minerals are available and the density of the mineral deposit. All that work is expensive but we could well spend, and fruitfully spend, a substantial sum of money in geophysical surveys of these Atlantic areas in order to ascertain if there are minerals there.
If we find minerals we have a medium for immediately employing a substantial number of adult men and we have also a new and hitherto undiscovered source of wealth for the nation. I would urge this board, no matter what the cost, to explore the possibilities of finding minerals in these areas; firstly, because I think the establishment of any mineral operating concern affords the best means of providing employment for the adult population of these areas and, secondly, because that will give us commodities in the form of minerals of which we are extremely short to-day.
An investment of this kind is, I know, a highly speculative investment, but we are dealing here with a problem which is not only a commercial problem affecting the nation as a whole but also a problem of trying to find and providing in these areas some type of permanent activity which will anchor the people to the place they naturally regard as their home. I hope, therefore, that whoever is responsible for directing this board at the outset as to the work in which it should engage will not hesitate to tell the board to spend money in the thorough exploration of the mineral possibilities of these areas because I believe if minerals are found they will represent a very substantial contribution to the problem of providing employment for our adult men.
We have another problem and another potential industry in these areas which, I think, could provide a greater measure of employment than it does to-day. In all the areas mentioned in this Bill there are considerable deposits of turf. Now, in my view turf is a very valuable national fuel. In any other country in the world that would be exploited to the fullest extent; but here we develop it only in times of emergency when we cannot get sufficient coal from outside sources. In the production of turf there is a very valuable source of employment. It can provide employment on a commercial scale through, for example, Bord na Móna or through other agencies of that kind. It can provide employment for the head of the household and for other members of his family in winning not only fuel for themselves but fuel also capable of being marketed at a good price so long as we control the sale of coal in these areas.
I think it is the height of economic folly that a county like Galway should use coal brought from Pennsylvania when just outside the door there is a turf crop waiting to be harvested. One does not need to sink a shaft, to cut underground and tunnel through roads and avenues in order to find the fuel. The fuel is there looking at you. The crop is there waiting to be harvested. Despite the fact that we can produce in these areas a first-class domestic fuel, we still continue to walk over the fuel, look at it with disdain and go into the shop and order coal from Pennsylvania.
No country in the world would do that except the unpredictable Irish. It seems to me nothing short of folly to allow our people to migrate and emigrate when, if the State would direct in an efficient and competent way the fullest exploitation of our turf deposits, we could provide a substantial measure of employment for our people in these areas. Last year I had some responsibility for endeavouring to induce local authorities to cut as much fuel as they could for this year, not only for their own requirements but also in order that they would hold in each area a local iron ration which might be used should the fuel situation become extremely serious. Following agreement by the local authorities to cut fuel within their capacity, I then took up with them the question of cutting fuel each year by semi-automatic machines for the purpose of heating their own establishments.
I am glad to say that up to June last quite a number of local authorities had agreed to buy these semi-automatic machines and had agreed that, where turf could be burned in local offices, furnaces, boilers and grates they would cut turf each year and use it in their own institutions. Is there any reason why every local authority along the Atlantic seaboard where turf abounds should not be required to cut turf and use it instead of simply sending an order to a Dublin coal merchant to get them coal from Lanarkshire or, if it is not available there, to send to Pennsylvania for it?
If local authorities can be required to do that—and I think they should be required to do it as a matter of good national housekeeping—then a very substantial measure of employment in winning fuel can be given regularly each year to people who are not employed to-day and who certainly were not employed last year or the year before instead of having our local authorities heating their institutions with British or American coal and neglecting the heat-providing qualities of a fuel just outside their own doors.
I hope the board will be directed to explore the immense possibilities that reside in the fullest exploitation of our turf deposits. If they do that, then they will make a tangible contribution to providing regular employment and a good income for those who engage in turf production.
It is fortunate in one way that these areas, which one might call the depressed areas from an economic-point of view, have a coastline which is relatively rich in fish if sufficiently up-to-date equipment is provided for the fishermen. One of the ways in which we can help to provide employment in these areas is by developing our inshore fisheries. That can best be done either by the establishment of a State organisation for that purpose to deal with the catching, canning and marketing of the fish or by the creation of a co-operative organisation for the purpose of undertaking fishing on a national scale, not merely from the standpoint of catching and selling the fish but also from the standpoint of marketing it under the best possible conditions and canning the surplus for subsequent disposal.
Similarly, many of our inland rivers in the West are rich in salmon. In many of them salmon fishing is preserved. In some of them it is let at fees which make it an expensive luxury. I think the State would be well advised to take over, in the public interest, all the inland rivers, at least along the Atlantic seaboard, to bring these under public ownership and public control, to cheapen the fees for salmon fishing and to encourage anglers to come here, realising that the more you bring into these areas the more money will be circulated there, and, again, the more employment you provide in all the activities associated with the inland fisheries.
It happens, of course, too, that these particular areas have considerable scenic attraction. Their tourist possibilities are considerable. Most of the tourists who come to these areas are struck by the extraordinary natural beauty which they find there. Most of them go away feeling that we have not done enough to advertise these scenic beauties. I should like to see the Tourist Board concentrate especially on endeavouring to popularise these areas as tourist centres, even to the extent of providing special facilities for the hotels to attract visitors, and in that way bring not only the tourists but the money which they will spend, thus providing additional employment in the areas.
Afforestation is a problem which affects the nation as a whole. There is little doubt that the possibilities of afforestation are probably greater in these areas than they are elsewhere. Elsewhere, the problem is that of acquiring land. If the land is any way good at all, it will yield a much better return, if utilised for grazing, than it will from afforestation; but there are immense possibilities in afforestation in the West, in the NorthWest and South-West. This is the most tree denuded country in Europe. Even in Iceland, there are more trees than we have here. That gives one a picture of the problem that confronts us. Even if we were to concentrate our afforestation programme on the Atlantic seaboard counties, I think we would be able to provide, at the outset, employment for a considerable number of people, and, ultimately, provide not merely timber for our national requirements, but perhaps encourage the establishment of industries which are usually to be found in areas which are adequately afforested.
I do not suggest, of course, that we should proceed to put trees down at the tide's edge in Connemara, but once trees can be sheltered from the wintry blasts of the Atlantic, they offer the possibility of being able to grow there. In that way they would not merely help to improve the soil, and improve the conditions of living there, but would provide a valuable raw material, and more important than all, would help to provide regular employment throughout the year for a fairly substantial number of workers who in these areas to-day can find no employment in that valuable work.
Even if we do these things, and do all of them, we still have to take cognisance of the human factors which operate in these areas. If one travels through these areas, and meets the people there and talks to them, the one thing that strikes a person is the absence of the facilities for amusement and healthy recreation which are found in other parts of the country. In many of these places, there is no hall in which the people can meet, in which they can have a dance, in which they can hear a lecture, or in which they can see an educational film, and very often the street corner is the only club in the town or village. I think we have got to take cognisance of the natural and understandable requirements of the people who say "life under these conditions represents boredom", and who, naturally, hope to be able to find somewhere else amenities which attract them and fill in the blank gaps in their social life.
I would like to see this board, or some other body, endowed with money for the purpose of erecting parish halls in these places so that the local people could meet in them and promote healthy amusement and recreation for themselves. I think, too, that a play field should be provided, and that somebody, or some other local committee, should have the responsibility of endeavouring to develop a bright communal life among the people in the towns and villages there. Many of the emigrants who have left these areas and gone over to Britain will tell you of the great attractions which they have found in Britain, the facility with which they can meet friends, the facilities available for dances and for the various amusements which can be held in places where there is a hall capable of holding a crowd. We have neglected too much in the past our approach to the human problem in these areas. I hope that that side of the problem will be tackled by this new board, or some other board, so as to ensure that we make some kind of a psychological appeal to the people to remain there. But that will not be achieved merely by providing an industry if the local circumstances are dreary, bleak and drab, and if you cannot provide them with a lively local life where they can get the amusements and the recreation which are to be found elsewhere in the country, and employment as well. If you can do that, then you will probably do more to anchor them in these areas than if you approach just one side of the problem and neglect all the others.
The outstanding fact which we have got to face so far as these areas are concerned is the problem that they are black spots from the point of view of employment. I think I calculated on one occasion that more than 50 per cent. of the people receiving unemployment assistance benefit were registered in the Counties of Donegal, Mayo, Galway and Kerry, with less than 50 per cent. being drawn by people in the other 22 counties. That shows the problem you are up against. In many of these areas unemployment, if I may use what may seem to be a paradoxical term, was the normal avocation of the people, because, except for the short period when they were cut off unemployment benefit by means of an Emergency Employment Period Order, they were automatically in receipt of unemployment assistance benefit from the local employment exchange. That position was only relieved whenever there was a relief scheme operating in the area, or some additional road work to be done. Otherwise, the normal avocation there was signing for unemployment assistance, because there was no other work available for them.
I think that anybody who examines the figures relating to unemployment assistance will arrive at the same conclusion which I arrived at after a close examination. That is a situation which everybody regrets. It is a challenge to our ability to sit in this Parliament to-day, and a challenge to our powers to govern ourselves. That is a challenge to the obligations which we owe to human beings whose lives are cast in these economic circumstances. In so far as this Bill will make a contribution to relieving that situation, to improving the social and economic conditions of the people along the western seaboard, I most heartily welcome it. In so far as it makes that genuine effort, I would be prepared to make all the money necessary, even in excess of £2,000,000, available to the board, realising that we are expecting the board to undo in a relatively short time all the neglect and to reverse the process which has been in operation for generations.
As I said at the outset, I do not think there is any one solution to the problem there. I think substantial alleviation should be found and will be found by getting a number of agents to co-operate to relieve the problem. But the problem is there and I think everybody concerned with relieving it and relieving the plight of these people will welcome a Bill of this kind especially if it is used as a genuine effort to face up to a problem which is a challenge to the existence of this House.