I shall try not to take up much more of the time of the House. I would not have entered into that long talk at all were it not for the suggestions that there was no planning, no proper thought as to the problem or the lines we should take in order to try and get a solution of the problem.
I mentioned the immediate thing to concentrate upon—and when I say "concentrate" I do not mean to say we should neglect the other things— was that we should give enegetic attention to getting more from our land. The Minister for Agriculture seemed to be satisfied to-day. I do not think that anybody else is. We cannot be satisfied with the condition of our agriculture to-day. I am not saying that our farmers are idle or that they are de serving of attack or reproach in any way; but we do want to get a combined effort from the farmers to get more out of our land.
Everybody knows that the foundation of that is the right amount of tillage and the right treatment of pasture, and that both of these, under present conditions, mean that the soil has to get the nourishment which is required and the additional constituents which are necessary. We are short of lime to the extent of 12,000,000 tons and the present output is not sufficient to meet the annual need. We have arrears 12,000,000 tons to make up. There is no production at the present moment that is facing towards that. I will admit that there has been a gradual increase towards it, but we are very far from the amount that is necessary if we are to treat our land properly.
We must get lime for the land. We must have the right amount of cultivation because, unless there is, you will not get the best pasture. We want to have the pasture treated properly. Thanks be to goodness, we have not to-day to meet the fallacy that the more tillage you had the fewer cattle you would have. That is gone and we had not to meet the fallacy that you cannot grow good wheat in this country. We know now that we can, and the question is how much we can grow. If we have a balance of payments position like the present, surely it is not going to be suggested that what, under ordinary circumstances, might be regarded as a fair target would be the target for that situation? Surely everything that can be done to do without foreign imports should be done? The land is one of the places on which we can do it. I was delighted to hear we were to have so much barley as was suggested. That is splendid. I hope we will have the pigs and so on to use it and the other animals to which it might properly be fed.
Let us, then, concentrate on trying to get our farming right. That brings me to the question to ask the Taoiseach what has happened to the Institute of Agriculture. I thought we were being blamed for not going ahead with that some few years ago. I thought there were some proposals put forward. You will never get unanimity in this world on anything. There will always be people who, for one reason or another, will have objections to something. We have to work in the general national interest, in the interest of the greatest number and, so far as we can see it, in the interest of the common good. I would like to know whether the criticisms and so on have put the Government off this project altogether; or are the present circumstances such that you cannot have it? I do not think it cuts across the present position in the slightest. I think quite the contrary. To provide the economic teaching and scientific knowledge which is necessary for the improvement of our agriculture is one of the fundamental things that should be set going. Before the Dáil adjourns, I would like to hear from the Taoiseach what is happening that project. Is it dead? Is it in Limbo?
Next to that, there is the question of trying to make a sound proposition of our fisheries. Is it beyond the possibilities of our people to get over the difficulties in this matter? We are an island nation and we surely ought to be able to face the sea in modern conditions as well as other people. Our men have done it in the past when facing the sea was a much different thing from what it is to-day. Is it too much to hope that there will be a concentrated effort towards improving the fisheries and doing that in a way which will enable us to stand up against competition, because we will have to do that if we are going to expand? We will have to face up to the fact that we must meet any competition that comes. Is it impossible therefore for us to build up this industry which has such an export potentiality?
I appeal to Labour to help us in our efforts. In modern times, a trade union movement occupies in every society in which it exists a predominant position. It has responsibilities placed on it now which it did not have in the past. If there is to be a strike in the bakery trade, for instance, who will suffer most? Surely it is the other sections of the community, and other members of trade unions are within that community who are going to suffer for the want of bread. Is it not necessary, therefore, that there should be some co-ordination at the top and that the various elements of the trade union movement should be got to a realisation that they have a most important part to play in the welfare of the community as a whole and of course trade unions themselves are included in the community as a whole.
I should like to hear the representatives of the Labour Party speaking in this debate because they are of fundamental importance in the future welfare of our country. I have been put down by the Labour people over recent years as an old conservative. There is no truth in that. In the circumstances in which I was brought up, I was much nearer to Labour and the needs of Labour and the life of the labouring people and the small farmers than I was to other classes of the community. I have never lost that realisation of the needs of Labour and the small farmers and I have always worked to try to help the working classes and the small farmers in the struggle between the various classes. I think that the working community are entitled to their fair share, but I ask them not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, but to co-operate in trying to get done here the things that will enable us to have the higher standard of living which they naturally desire for their members and for the other sections of the community.
We cannot achieve that, unless we can enter into competition with outside countries and we cannot enter into that competition if we are to be priced out of it. We have to produce here on terms which will enable us to compete with outsiders. Surely the intelligent people in the Labour movement realise that and they ought to throw their weight in behind the national effort to get these things done. I do believe that the Labour sections of this community are as patriotic as any other section and that the small farmers are equally patriotic.
As the word "patriotism" has come to my mind, I do want to say that one of the things which is essential in the schools is that there should be instilled in the children a sense of patriotism. What we should get into the minds of the children is that they have a country and we should get that brought into the minds of every individual in this country. We should get it into their minds that patriotism is a noble thing. In pagan countries, it was considered a noble thing to die for one's country; surely it is a noble thing to work for and serve the country and the members of the community. That is one of the things which in our schools, I hope, will be done—that young children, besides being taught proper behaviour, will be given a love of their country. It is a christian and natural element of virtue, and, if we do not practise it, we are going to fail in the realisation of the aims of those who in the past struggled that this nation might survive as a nation. That is what we are trying to do. We are trying to get our people to realise that this is a nation worth serving and that its survival is worth while, not only for our own people in the nation but for those of them who have gone from home.
We on this side of the House will do everything in our power to see that the present crisis is surmounted successfully and quickly. We will do everything in our power to help whatever Government might be in office, and to do it ourselves if we get the responsibility, to try to see that emigration will be stemmed and unemployment lessened. There was hope of achieving that in 1953 and it continued into 1954. I do not know what happened afterwards to change that trend, but we want this trend back and we will get it back if we are prepared to work for it. We promise from this side of the House and from everybody we can influence in the country to get full support in that matter and whatever hardships are necessary to get over the present crisis, I believe the people will be prepared to undertake them to see that the efforts that we are making will be for the advantage of our country.