Ba mhór an trua é, dar liom, már labhair oiread agus aon Teachta amháin Gaeilge ar an dtaobh eile den Tigh imeasc an cháineadh sheirbh go léir a dheineadar. Tá's agam gurbh fhéidir le cuid de na Teachtaí Ghaeilge labhairt go líofa ach dobé a ngnó féin é labhairt nó gan labhairt i nGaeilge. I think, a Cheann Comhairle, that, having regard to the fact that most of the debate and most of the attacks on the Estimate for Gaeltacht Services, and particularly the attack on the Estimate of the office of Oifig na Gaeltachta agus na gCeantar gCúng, were conducted in English, I will reply to it in English to-day. Many of the Deputies from the other side went to particular pains in their all-out attack on this office to exonerate me personally from any lash of their tongues. I want to assure them that, much as I appreciate their concern for me personally, I have no desire to shield behind the fact that I am the occupant of the public office.
I do not intend in any way todissociate my personality—and I use the word personality in its physical and mental senses—from the public office which I hold. After two years of it, I am used to attacks both front and rear and even broadside sniping. Therefore, I want to assure them that I am a bit more thick skinned now than I was when I took up office a little over two years ago.
There is one point, however, in the case made by the other side particularly against Oifig na Gaeltachta agus na gCeantar gCúng and that is that there is much inconsistency not particularly in the manner in which it was presented yesterday but in the manner in which it was presented yesterday compared with last year. Much of the debate was conducted both this year and last year by the same Deputies. Last year, it was attacked because it was felt that Oifig na Gaeltachta agus na gCeantar gCúng was set up largely as a publicity medium for the Government and that it was set up with ballyhoo and, as Deputy McQuillan said, with a flourish of trumpets. For my own part and on behalf of the Taoiseach who was primarily responsible for setting up this office I want to say that the contrary was the case. I am sure that the Deputies who met me when I visited their areas will admit that I went to considerable trouble to impress on the people whose grievances I heard, and whose suggestions I heard, and later examined, that I had no false ideas that my office, no matter how powerful it might be ultimately, was going to change the face of the West of Ireland overnight, or even in a period of two years.
I should like to impress on Deputies here generally, though I am sure I do not have to impress it on most of the Deputies who spoke in this debate, many of whom are natives of the West of Ireland, that the problems in the West of Ireland are largely historical and that many of them are centuries old. For that reason, there is no way out for me to say that these problems will take centuries to solve. There is no reason why they should; but, on the other hand, I never claimed thatthey were going to be completely solved in the short period of two years.
The tone of the debate yesterday would indicate to me that Deputies, on the other side, expected that by now emigration should have ceased in the West of Ireland, and that all the amenities available in big towns and cities should be available in the West of Ireland, with the result that industries should be thriving and bright lights shining along the western coast. The line of attack, generally, seemed to be based on the alleged ineffectiveness of Oifig na Gaeltachta agus na gCeantar gCúng.
I should like to explain to Deputies, for the third time, the purpose of this office. It was set up as a co-ordinating machine, to co-ordinate the activities of the different Departments of State in so far as their activities affect the West of Ireland, the Gaeltacht, the Breac-Ghaeltacht and the congested districts generally. Everybody knows of the existence, at one time, of the Congested Districts Board. They know the amount of valuable work it did in many spheres. They know also that, on the setting up of this State 30 years ago, the Congested Districts Board disappeared, and that its various activities were absorbed in the different Departments of State which were set up at that time.
According as the work of administration of these Departments increased, it was not unnatural to expect that the same attention might not be given to the particular requirements of the congested district within these different Departments. It was mainly with that end in view that the necessary attention should be given to the particular requirements of the congested districts that this office was set up. The figure in the Estimate, something exceeding £7,000, relates purely to salaries. Therefore I cannot understand what some Deputies were referring to when they mentioned this huge sum of money that was at my disposal and that was not being spent to any degree in the West of Ireland. I think it would be superfluous and only adding to complexity, at this stage at any rate, if I were given moneys to expend which up to the present arebeing expended by the various Departments. Each of the Departments, whether it be Lands, Agriculture, Forestry (which is a branch of the Department of Lands) has over the years built up technical staffs and systems of administration, and to superimpose another body of administrators and technicians on the existing ones would, I think, make for confusion.
On the other hand there is a necessity for co-ordination. I think I need only mention one particular aspect of work which is peculiar more to the West of Ireland than to any other part of the country to illustrate the necessity for co-ordination. There are all along the coast small piers, slipways and small harbours, the responsibility for the construction and maintenance of which is reposed in different Departments, whether they be county councils, the Office of Public Works, the Department of Industry and Commerce, and with a certain amount of responsibility in the case of the Department of Agriculture.
When the need arises for having certain works and repairs done in these places, it is obvious that some co-ordinating machine should be there. I think that a scheme, working through the aegis of the inter-departmental committee attached to my office, with the co-operation of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, and as approved ultimately by the Government, will make for more expeditious treatment of complaints with regard to the maintenance and repair of these minor marine works throughout the West of Ireland. As a result of the increase in the engineering staff that is being recruited, and, with the speeding up of these necessary works—the clearing away of bottle-necks and obstacles—there is evidence of considerably increased activity in minor marine works along the whole coast-line. I believe that this activity will increase still more in the future.
Deputy Blowick led the line of attack when he opened the debate from the other side of the House yesterday. I should like to remind the Deputy that there is hardly a bigbusiness organisation in any part of the world to-day—and we hear a lot about business methods and management and their importance at the present time—that has not got some co-ordinating machine attached to it. Surely, when dealing with the problems that are peculiar to the West of Ireland, and which are so complex, and the responsibility for which reposes in so many different Departments and branches of Departments of State, some co-ordinating machine is at least as necessary as we are told it is in the case of any big business organisation. We can differ about the type of machine to be set up, but I do not think it can be denied that co-ordination is necessary. In saying that, I am not attempting to try to take any credit away from the Departments which have been doing this work over a number of years.
Last year, Deputy Blowick complained that I had not given a sufficient indication as to how this work of co-ordination had been carried out. Yesterday, in my opening statement, I gave, I think, a fairly full indication as to how this work of co-ordination is being done. It was not complete by any means, because it could never be complete, since there are so many different aspects of work involved. But then Deputy Blowick was trying to have it both ways, and sought to establish that I was trying to claim credit for work that was being done by a number of other Departments. I can assure Deputy Blowick and the House that that is very far from the truth. If my job is to ensure the economic and cultural betterment of the West of Ireland, it matters little to me what agency or what Department of State carries it out if the job is done. Deputy Blowick then proceeded to act like Little Jack Horner, telling us what a good boy he was and of the impetus he gave to the work of the Department of Lands during his three years of office. It is a fact—and I am sure Deputy Blowick will admit it—that in the past two years more work, particularly with regard to afforestation, has been going on in the Department than in the period in which he was Minister.
To pinpoint some of the claims thatDeputy Blowick made in that respect, I will refer to part of his speech. For one thing, Deputy Blowick suggested that the work on tourist roads which was initiated early this year and which was sponsored—and I am not saying this in a boastful manner—by my office was carried out at the expense of local authority works. I would like to remind Deputy Blowick that, in 1950-51, the last complete year in which he was Minister, the amount of the Road Fund grants to county councils was £2,265,000, at that stage a reduction of several hundred thousand pounds on the amount given to the Road Fund by the Fianna Fáil Government before it went out of office in 1948. The grant out of the Road Fund to county councils for the current year is £4,100,000 and when one adds to that the £400,000 special grant for the tourist roads which is being made available this year it brings the total sum to £4,500,000 in this single year——
