On the motion for the Adjournment, Deputy O'Donnell has given notice to raise the subject matter of Question No. 1 on to-day's Order Paper, which is emigration from the Donegal Gaeltacht.
Committee on Finance. - Adjournment Debate—Emigration from Donegal Gaeltacht.
At Question Time to-day, I addressed a question to the Taoiseach asking: "If he were aware of the unprecedented flow of emigration from the Donegal Gaeltacht, due to unemployment in that area, and, if so, what immediate steps he proposed to take to stop this emigration flow." The Taoiseach, in the course of his reply through the Parliamentary Secretary, denied the fact that there was an unprecedented flow of emigration from the Donegal Gaeltacht. When, in the course of a supplementary question, I said that there was an unprecedented flow, the Taoiseach interrupted me to say: "Of course that is not true. It does not matter who said it, it is not true."
The Parliamentary Secretary who replied, stated inter alia, that: “Of the special allocation of £400,000 from moneys voted this year for the improvement of roads of tourist value, £50,000 is being allocated to County Donegal, and that most of it will be spent in or near the Gaeltacht and the Breac-Ghaeltacht.” If my recollection serves me rightly, those moneys were voted at the end of last year for expenditure on tourist roads in the Gaeltacht and in the Breac-Ghaeltacht areas.
I would like now to tell the Taoiseach that there is an unprecedented flow from this cradle of the Irishlanguage, and further, I should like to tell him what the Donegal County Council, which have the administration of this allocation of £50,000, think of the allocation and of the manner in which it is proposed to spend it. I propose to quote from the People's Pressof Saturday the 4th July, last. At a meeting of the Donegal County Council this was said:—
"Do those people in Dublin—referring to the Government—think we are imbeciles? Despite all the talk that is going on in Dublin about our young men, women and children leaving the country, they hold up this scheme for four months. I think the thing is outrageous. I think there is a Government inspector gallivanting around the country, and he considers that the county organisation cannot carry out the work. Are they blind? Have they seen all the machinery that is in the country? In the Rosses, there was an allocation of £30,000, but, as yet, not one penny has been sanctioned by the Department or spent. Any works that have been carried out are by way of taking from one fund and putting it into another."
The statement goes on:—
"Do these people see thousands of our finest young men and women leaving the country? Surely, during the last three months they could have sanctioned the work and employed the men who are leaving. The letter states that the council's machinery is working at 50 per cent. capacity in the Rosses. The Deputies should ask the Department for an explanation of this delay."
They are the words of Councillor Seán Ó Cinnéide, a Fianna Fáil county councillor, and an official Fianna Fáil candidate at the last general election. There you have his indictment against the Government for denuding the Gaeltacht of its manhood and womanhood. Mark his words: "Do these people in Dublin think we are imbeciles? Do these people see thousands of our finest young men and women leaving the country?"
To-day we had the Parliamentary Secretary and the Taoiseach himselftelling us that there is no unprecedented flow from the Gaeltacht. On Saturday last, the 25th inst., the Derry Peoplecontained a report of a meeting that was held in the heart of the Gaeltacht at Derrybeg, Gweedore. The meeting was held under the auspices of a protest committee organised in Belfast. This committee organised in Belfast, drew attention to the neglect of the Irish speaking areas by successive Irish Governments. This was a meeting of a committee formed in Belfast to bring to the notice of the public generally, and particularly to the notice of the Government, how our Gaeltacht is being treated. I propose to quote from a speech made by the chairman, Mr. Cathal McChrystal of Belfast, as reported in theDerry People.He said:—
"The object of the protest committee was to draw attention to the gross neglect of the Gaeltacht areas by national Governments. It was not their intention or aim to tell the people of the Gaeltacht what they should do in regard to the Gaeltacht, but it was their intention to put the Irish Government to shame because of the manner in which the Gaeltacht had been neglected. To see the way in which the Gaeltacht areas were being rapidly depopulated, one would think there was another famine in the country. To-day, just as in 1846-47 the best of our Irish stock were leaving the country, carrying with them their country's most precious possession—the national language. In regard to the mistreatment of the Irish speaking areas, there was no difference between the British Government they had known in the old days and the Irish Governments they knew to-day. If the language died so too the nation died. Something could yet be done to arrest the appalling neglect of the Gaeltacht which had contributed to the present ominous decline in the Irish speaking areas."
In the face of that statement, the Parliamentary Secretary stands up, backed by the Taoiseach, and tells us that our Gaeltacht has not been depopulated. We are told of the various schemes that it is proposed to put intooperation for the purpose of giving employment in the Gaeltacht. We have been hearing that for the past 25 years, of schemes which it is proposed to put into operation to try and keep our people employed at home.
I have been reading about the new hospital which is to be erected in the town of Dungloe. I remember, as a member of this House attending a conference, accompanied by my fellow Deputies, with the then Minister for Health, in an endeavour to iron out the difficulties which had arisen between the Department and the local council. I remember some three years ago being assured by the Department that all difficulties had been smoothed out, and that the erection of the hospital would proceed.
I know that the Parliamentary Secretary, in his reply to-night, will tell me that they are about to build the hospital. We have been hearing that for years back. We have been hearing, since 1936, that they are about to build the hospital. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Government. Deputy Lynch, told us to-day that they propose proceeding with the Clady scheme which would give considerable employment in the Gaeltacht. We have been hearing of that for the past six years. We have been told, and read some months ago in the Sunday Pressthat a turf-producing plant was about to be erected in Dungloe. To-day, in reply to a question by the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, the Tánaiste informed us that the exact location of that plant had not yet been decided.
It is a mile from Gweedore.
In reply to a question, the Tánaiste informed me two months ago that it would be in the neighbourhood of Dungloe. When I tried to pin him down as to whether the station or plant was to be erected a mile from Gweedore he would not tell me. Is the Tánaiste aware that there is no such place as the townland of Gweedore. Gweedore is a parish approximately nine miles in length and eight miles in width. Whereabouts will this plant that is going toemploy the people of the Gaeltacht be situated? To-day we heard the Parliamentary Secretary—and I congratulate him on it—introducing an Estimate for a grass meal experiment. I merely asked one question: "Is this grass meal experiment to be carried out in the Gaeltacht?" The reply I got was: "No, it would be in the Breac-Ghaeltacht."
And Gaeltacht.
He did not say that.
Yes.
Very good—the Gaeltacht. Here we have the largest Gaeltacht in Ireland, the most thickly-populated Gaeltacht in Ireland and, I defy contradiction on it, a Gaeltacht well known to both Parliamentary Secretaries here present, a Gaeltacht visited by the Taoiseach two years ago, a Gaeltacht in which there were more Irish speakers than in any other Gaeltacht in Ireland and here we have a Fianna Fáil county councillor, a Fianna Fáil candidate at the last election, making this statement, and I agree with every word he said, about the Gaeltacht being denuded day after day. Why was no effort made by the Parliamentary Secretary to have such an experiment carried out in the heart of Donegal? I cannot understand it.
I made an appeal here two years ago to the Tánaiste to help us to keep our people at home. The first thing we require is electricity and power. I asked him to extend into the Gaeltacht the E.S.B. network. What do we find? It comes to the very fringe of the Gaeltacht, practically to Gweebarra Bridge, but there it stops. We have these grand schemes on paper but no effort is being made to put them into practice. While that is the position we have people from the City of Belfast coming down to try to shame the Government into doing something for this cradle which will soon be vacant.
We cannot blame the present Government, and I do not wish to suggest that the present Government are completely to blame for depopulatingthe area. It is a crying shame to successive Irish Governments that, after practically 30 years of freedom, not one industry has been established in the Rosses or Gweedore other than an industry employing a number of young girls making dolls.
Mr. Lynch
And a very successful one at that.
I am not saying one word against it, but remember that everything in it, the raw materials going into it, are imported. Tell me one solitary article, other than the labour content, which is not, whereas in that Gaeltacht there is ample raw material. All we want is electricity and power.
Mr. Lynch
The raw material for that industry is largely made in the County Mayo.
Of course it is—in the County Mayo.
Mr. Lynch
Yes.
I agree, but why should we have to transport raw material from Mayo into Donegal?
Mr. Lynch
To diffuse the amount of labour around the Gaeltacht areas.
Of course, but cannot we get raw materials and industries in the Gaeltacht which could be developed, for instance, fishing, tomatoes. We are told this tomato scheme is a success. I am a believer in it but not as it stands. We require heat in every glasshouse and I am glad that the Minister accepted my advice and experimented with heat. I want to see that scheme extended in the county. I want to see electricity there and I want to see these tomatoes canned. I want to see the Dillon scheme of day-old chicks progressing from day to day. I want to see these chicks eventually put into cans in the area. That can only be done with electricity. We have some of the finest cockle strands in the coast. We may laugh and sneer at them, but I have seen cockles in glass jars sold in the shops in England which were bottled in Boston, Massachusetts.Is there any reason why our cockle strands could not have a labour content in the collection of cockles and the bottling of them? I know of none.
In the old days of the Congested Districts Board there was net making, barrel making, substantial loans to fishermen to purchase boats and gear. Deputies from the area now know the reply which these unfortunate fishermen receive from An Bord Iascaigh Mara. We know the deposit which is required from them if they wish to secure gear for whatever craft they may have for fishing.
I know that these plans may be difficult to put into operation but there is nothing to prevent it and there is nothing to prevent the Minister for Local Government sanctioning the expenditure of this £50,000 allocated to the county. What is holding it up? I am not a member of Donegal County Council but there is the indictment. The money was sanctioned; the plans were submitted, but they have never yet been sanctioned. It is the Minister's fault and nobody else's and he cannot pass the buck. There is the indictment by a Fianna Fáil county councillor. I would appeal now to the Parliamentary Secretary to see that sanction is given for the expenditure of money on these plans forthwith.
Sanction has been granted by the Department.
Do you suggest, therefore, that Councillor Seán Ó Cinnéide was talking through his hat?
That was on the discussion in connection with the scheme as sent back by the Department with the sanction of the Department.
Shall I read it again?
As a matter of fact, I have read it. It is not necessary. That was a discussion on the return of the scheme from the Department with ministerial sanction.
The councillor knew that.
The councillor should have known that. Anyhow,there is a bald statement by Councillor Ó Cinnéide: "Do these people in Dublin think we are imbeciles? Do they see the flow of emigration....?"
That is getting away from it again. It has been sanctioned, and if the Deputy were a member of the county council he would know that.
I am not a member of the county council, but what I want to know is why this money is not being expended.
Mr. Lynch
Are you serious? You do not travel.
Is not it being expended?
I am quoting from the People's Press, July 4th.
Mr. Lynch
That is no authority.
Do you mean to say that Councillor Ó Cinnéide is not an authority?
Mr. Lynch
None whatever if that is what he says.
The Deputy has one minute.
I agree with everything Councillor Ó Cinnéide has said and I say that he has spoken the truth and had the courage to say it. I would appeal to the Taoiseach, through his Parliamentary Secretary to do something for this Gaeltacht or we will not have an Irish speaker left in it five years from now.
Is Gaeilgeoir dúchais líofa an Teachta Pádraig Ó Domhnaill. Do réir mar thuigim, rugadh agus tógadh sa nGaeltacht é agus, san am céanna, níor cuala mé oiread agus focal Gaeilge á labhairt aige sa Dáil ó tháinig sé annseo.
Níor labhair mé leatsa ach Gaeilge ó thainig mé sa Teach.
Céist í seo a bhféadfaí í a phlé í nGaeilge amháin agus d'fhéadfaí a fhreagairti nGaeilge amháin Is mór an truagh nar dhein sé é sin agus an teanga bhinn, bhlasta atá aige chomh fl úirseach sin.
Tógfaidh mé na pointí ar dhein sé tagairt dóibh agus é ag plé na ceiste ar athló na Tigh anocht agus déanfaidh mé mo dhicheall eolas a thabhairt dó, nach bhfuil aige do réir deallraimh.
Tá súil agam go n-éireoidh leis na hiarrachtaí atá ar siúl cheana féin chun rudaí a chur i gceart i nGaeltacht Dhún na nGall agus i ngach aon Ghaeltacht eile ar fud na tíre agus go mbeidh cabhair agus comhairle an Teachta le fáil maidir leis na hiarrachtaí sin in ionad an ghéar-ghearáin a rinne sé anocht.
I do not understand why Deputy O'Donnell raised this question on the Adjournment at all. He had nothing to tell us except quotations from a local paper about a county council meeting that dealt specifically with one subject and on subject only, the new scheme of this Government providing grants from voted moneys for the improvement and the repair of tourist roads, particularly in Gaeltacht areas all over the country.
Under that scheme a sum of £50,000 was allocated for these roads in County Donegal. That is something new and additional to all the other moneys allocated, and there was a general increase in road allocations by the Department of Local Government this year to Donegal and all other counties. But this £50,000 was in addition to all that other money which has been made available. The row at the county council and all the talk of my friend, Councillor Seán Ó Cinnéide, whom I have known very well for many years, arose because of his dissatisfaction with the distribution of that money.
Deputy Ó Domhnaill has stated that unemployment is rampant in Donegal and that there is an unprecedented flow of emigration from the Donegal Gaeltacht. The information available to the Government would not bear out that statement. The position is no worse this year than it was during the year there was another Government in office. As a matter of fact, all the indications would go to show that it isnot even as bad. Of course I agree that, while there is emigration of that nature and while there is any unemployment, there is a challenge to the Government, and this Government have accepted the challenge and are doing their best to meet it. The reply which I gave on behalf of the Taoiseach to Deputy Ó Domhnaill's question to-day is an indication of the efforts that the Government are making to try to deal with that very serious problem, not alone in Donegal but in other Gaeltacht areas and all over the country, efforts which I hope will in due course meet with the success they deserve.
Deputy Ó Domhnaill referred to the Clady hydro-electric scheme and the turf-fired station which will be situated in the Donegal Gaeltacht. The history of the Clady hydro-electric scheme is rather interesting. For the three and a quarter years the Coalition were in office Deputy Cormac O Breisleáin, now Leas-Cheann Comhairle, put down many questions to the then Minister for Industry and Commerce. I have one sample of a reply given on the 13th March, 1951:—
"I am informed by the E.S.B. that their investigations regarding the rural electrification of the areas in West Donegal mentioned by the Deputy have shown that an extension of the scheme to these areas would be uneconomic, due principally to the high cost of a transmission line into this region. The matter is being kept under continuous review by the board in the light of the extension of the board's networks in the county. It is not, however, possible at this stage to give any indication as to when it may be feasible to give supply to West Donegal".
The other replies from 1948 down were couched in similar language. Now we are getting somewhere. Not alone have we launched the hydro-electric scheme, but we were told by the Minister for Industry and Commerce to-day that he hopes to have the contract for that advertised at the end of the year so that work could commence in the spring of 1953. That is definite progress.When that scheme is in operation it will give a large amount of employment to the residents in the Donegal Gaeltacht. That is definite information. There is also to be a turf-fired station, so that progress is being made because there is drive and enthusiasm behind it now which there was not before.
I should like to go back again to the discussion which took place at the Donegal County Council on the 4th July, in connection with this Gaeltacht road scheme. I have seen the report of the speech made by Councillor O Cinnéide, and Deputy O Domhnaill and Councillor O Cinnéide are natives of the same locality.
And very good friends.
The suggestion about unemployment and emigration cannot be sustained, according to the figures. As a matter of fact, the figures go to show that any increase there has been in the numbers on the unemployment register is due practically solely to the effects of the new Social Welfare Act which came into operation in January last.
I have said already that any information available would indicate that in fact there is no basis for the statement made, no matter from what source it came. Councillor Ó Cinnéide was making a case for his own area and with a certain effect too, because I see that £15,000 of that £50,000 is being spent in the Kilmacrennan-Creeslough area and another £15,000 in the Gweebarra-Dungloe area, according to the letter from the Department of Local Government read at the county council meeting which gave rise to the discussion.
We did not hear about that.
What I am worried about is when the job will start.
Deputy O Domhnaill says that the moneys were voted last year for this purpose. They were not. The decision was taken by the Government only last February and the moneys were provided for in this year's Budget.
I accept that.
A sum of £400,000 is provided. It is only now that the scheme is getting into operation. Of course there were members of the Donegal County Council, Fianna Fáil members as well as others, who were dissatisfied with the allocation of the money. They all wanted to be in on the ground floor, but that is not possible. We must remember that it will take eight years to give effect to this proposal. There will be £400,000 provided every year for eight years, unless, of course, another Coalition comes in and drops it, like they dropped a scheme of a similar nature before and decimated the population of Donegal and other Gaeltacht areas in the years 1948 and 1949. That scheme is there now. It is only in its infancy. Next year the areas not provided for this year, both in Donegal and everywhere else, will have their chance so that all these roads, particularly in the tourist areas in the Gaeltacht, will be provided for and put in a state of repair. That will be of immense value to the whole community in these localities from the tourist point of view.
The Dáil adjourned at 11 p.m. until 3 p.m. on Thursday, 30th July.