I was speaking last night about cross-Channel container traffic. I believe it is one of the most important matters mentioned in connection with this Estimate this year. We are seeking efficiency in industry and efficient marketing conditions and I think that the utilisation of container traffic would help to a great extent to increase efficiency in the transport of agricultural and industrial goods. It is a matter which has a bearing on our whole economy. It would be a great advantage if industrialists here could pack their goods into these containers on their own premises and send the goods direct, without any rehandling, to their customers in Britain or elsewhere, instead of having to pack them in separate containers as they had to do, up to the present.
I should like to bring to the Minister's notice evidence given at the recent inquiry into freight rates by Mr. D.D. Lovell, Joint Managing Director of the Bristol Steam Navigation Company, Limited. He said that his company had had special containers made for traffic for Britain and had used them until 1956 when the Dublin dockers refused to handle them. The company had suffered a loss of £10,000 net on freight as a result of container traffic going by other routes. Some of the lost cargo went by the Preston-Larne ferry service and then by road to Dublin and some went by air. He believed that in the long run the introduction of containers would enable them to recover the business they had lost to ports in the Six Counties and elsewhere, and would lead to increased employment in Dublin.
When new systems are introduced into industry, naturally enough the workers feel these may create unemployment and that many workers will be let off straight away. They do not appreciate that, if these new methods are not brought in, industry is bound to decline. That is what is happening at the present time in regard to cross-Channel traffic when container traffic is not being used in the port of Dublin. Industrialists both on this side and the other side will send their goods by other routes using containers, so that in the end, the port of Dublin and dockers in Dublin will be the greatest losers.
Other cuttings I should like to quote refer to the same inquiry on the 22nd May. One states:—
"When the inquiry into the cross-Channel freight rates was resumed in Dublin to-day, Dr. Louis P. Smith, economic adviser to the National Farmers' Association, said discussions between the National Farmers' Association and the trade unions about the use of containers for turkey exports from Dublin Port had borne little fruit. Turkeys had arrived in Smithfield market in bad condition. Irish turkeys made from 6d. to 10d. per 1b. less than English ones did. This cost Irish turkey producers between £200,000 and £300,000 in the 1956 season, he said. Some turkeys from the Twenty-Six Counties were sent to England through Northern Ireland and they made prices very close to the English prices... In meeting international competition Irish farmers must seek every opportunity of increasing efficiency."
I believe that is the real case for container traffic and I do not think the Minister is doing his duty by just handing this matter over to the Labour Court. The Minister has a strong Government and a big majority here and it is up to him to deal with the unions and tell them we must have container traffic and have it immediately. Our agriculturists and industrialists want to market goods in proper condition and it is up to the Minister to take action. If my words this morning are a help to him he is welcome to them. He should be in a position to tell the unions: "We want this matter closed up and regulated." We cannot let it carry on. The dockers concerned are taking a very short view. If they took the long view they would see that instead of reducing employment, employment would be increased.
I wonder if the same position still holds in regard to men who describe themselves as dockers and who are paid by a shipping company to remain at home rather than have them on the boats. They are being paid to remain at home. These men exact a charge of anything up to 10/- per head on any beast exported to Germany from this country. I do not see why a small group should hold the trade of our country up to ransom so that their demands may be met. If they were a little far-seeing they would realise how unwise that is. I am sure some of the sensible men in the unions have made that point already but apparently other people have not agreed to it and are not willing to take a long-sighted view when there is the immediate prospect of extra money to be gained. It is up to the Minister to insist that they will take the long-sighted view. He has powers behind him and he should use them.
I am very glad we are having a survey of the Leinster coalfields—arrangements which were made by the Minister's predecessor. Three years seem to be a very long time for that survey. I live fairly close to one of the principal producing parts of the coalfield. People there have the idea that this survey can, to a large extent, be carried out in the area within the coming six months and that immediate results would flow from it.
It was stated that £45,000 worth of anthracite coal has been brought into this country in the past few years. If the survey were carried out and if people were fairly well assured of the amount of the deposit which they could develop they could go ahead with the work. It is not easy for an ordinary private concern to go into the coal-mining business. It is very risky. There may be a seam in one place but it could disappear. Therefore, it is very risky for an ordinary person to go into that business.
I saw a report recently that Cement, Limited, were making excavations in Cork and intended to spend something like £75,000 with a view to developing and producing coal for their own factory at Limerick. That would be a great advantage to the country. It would save a big importation of fuel oil for that industry. A company such as that ought to be congratulated on its enterprise. I know people who burned their fingers badly in the coal-mining business. It is very hard for any individual firm to go into that business unless assured, through a complete survey, that very good deposits are close at hand. I am sure we should all like these mines developed as soon as possible. As the Minister said yesterday, several other mines on which much money was spent —I will not mention their names— closed down during the past 12 months.
I congratulate the Minister on making an advance of about £1,250,000 to St. Patrick's copper mines. That will give them an opportunity of finishing the job they started with a lot of foreign capital. It would be a pity to have to step down when about three-quarters of the job has been done. It is a large sum of money, but I think it is money well spent.
Tourism comes under the Minister's Department. We are told that, according to statistics, it is our most important industry, next to the cattle trade. We are told it is bringing in £30,000,000 a year and that it is being developed. I am sure many of the tourists who come here each year are emigrants coming back from England. However, I am glad to see that something extra is being given towards the development of that industry.
I am glad to note that grants will be made available to hotels for the provision of extra bedrooms. I join with Deputy Brennan in asking the Minister to see to it that these grants will be given as from the 1st January of this year. It would be very hard luck now on an enterprising hotelier who started such work two months ago inasmuch as he cannot avail of the grants which are now being made. Such building would probably not yet be completed. It should be very easy to check up on the matter.
The Minister also mentioned guaranteed loans to hotels. I had some experience of that. With further regard to the grants for hotels for extra bedrooms, I hope the people will not be told: "You started building before your plans were sanctioned", and so on. I know of cases where people spent a year to two years trying to get this money from the board. The tourist inspector said they ought to make the extension. The people concerned thought that was enough for them and they went ahead with the work. Then, afterwards, when they applied they were told their application was not in order as they had started building before making the application.
Another difficulty that arises is that sometimes such people are told: "You have enough reserves without having to get a guaranteed loan to do the work." People may have reserves but they may not be prepared to use them up to the last penny. They may like to have some reserve, which is a very good thing. I hope they will be treated with a little leniency and properly advised when to apply if they intend to do the job rather than be told that they had laid the foundation stone before they had got sanction.
I did not hear the Minister make any reference to the Dún Laoghaire-Holyhead ferry service. That is a most important service. It is being held up by the unions. If it were allowed into this country it would help to bring in the better class tourist and the motorist. The ordinary tourist coming in here is all right for Dublin, Bray and Dún Laoghaire and other places around Dublin. They will spend their time and their money here. The ordinary tourist on a fortnight's holidays here does not go down the country. If you encourage the motoring tourist he will spend a night here and there throughout the country and various places throughout the country will benefit. Possibly the Minister is on the way towards settling that matter: I do not know.
I understand that a special ramp was built for the ferry service and that, just when everything was in order, they were clamped down on and were not allowed to go ahead. That is a big loss. People going to the Continent get every facility to bring their cars there. If we are not prepared to give the same facilities to people coming to our country as are offered to them when going to the Continent they will not come here but will, instead, go to the Continent. These people would be ideal tourists throughout the country and would help slightly to decentralise tourism.
The Minister made a passing reference to guaranteed trade loans. I feel that the point in relation to these guaranteed trade loans should be brought home to people more fully. People should be given more information about them. Some people get the idea that they will start some project and get a guaranteed trade loan. They think there will be no trouble in getting such a loan. Again, an industry may run out of money and the people concerned may think they can get the money from the Government. Such people are very foolish. They do not know the trouble involved.
It is only right that applications should be scrutinised very carefully as public money is involved. However, I fear the procedure is too long drawn out. A full officer's report is required as well as various other things. Then the application has to go before a committee. I realise that the people on the committee give their services free. They are good businessmen but they are inclined to play safe and we cannot blame them. Many applications come from people who, through bad business methods, lost their money in their business and hope to get a renewed source of wealth through a guaranteed trade loan. Frequently, people are held in suspense for months and months on the matter of these loans.
If a person goes to a bank for an overdraft to carry on or to extend his business he gets word from the bank in the course of two or three days as to whether or not they are prepared to give it to him. I know one could not expect the same speed in a Government Department. The bank is already aware of the type of business that a person has been in during the years previous to his making an application for a loan, and knows the type of individual with whom it is dealing. The advisory body to which the Minister refers applications does not know these things, but, despite that, I believe that the advisory body's investigations should be completed within at least a fortnight or three weeks. Applicants should be asked to supply whatever particulars are required straight away, and the whole process should be completed within a fortnight or three weeks. The applicant should be told at the end of that time whether his application has been sanctioned or refused.
As far as I can see, it is very hard to get a trade loan. If a person is credit-worthy, he will not get a loan because he will be told that he can raise the money through a bank, or that he can buy whatever new machine he wants on the hire purchase system. If a person is not credit-worthy, he will not get a loan because he cannot raise the necessary security. I believe that the only chance of securing a loan is when the applicant or company applying is starting business and they apply in the original way. It would be a good thing if people knew the difficulties which face them when applying for such loans because they are deluding themselves down the country in thinking that they will get trade loans without any trouble. Some system should be devised to clear up this business.
I thought the Minister would have announced that we would have increased development during the coming year in the E.S.B. programme, especially in the rural electrification programme. Last year, when unemployment was very high, was a particularly bad time to cut down on that programme. I remember hearing the Taoiseach mention that if we had something productive, we would put our money into it. What could be more productive than the extension of rural electrification? People on farms want to use electric pumping machines, milking machines and such equipment which they can get from the E.S.B. Deputy Brennan brought out the same point last night and when one of the Minister's supporters brings this point before him, I think it deserves the Minister's attention. When employment was very scarce, and when the house building programme was practically closed down last year, that was the time for the Government to step in and create more employment. Instead of that, the Government cut down on rural electrification. Perhaps I was mistaken last night when I took a note from the Minister's speech that 80 areas were developed last year. Maybe I did not hear the Minister correctly. How many areas did the Minister say were developed last year?