When I moved to report progress yesterday evening, I was addressing my remarks to tourism. Many Deputies who have spoken on this Estimate have expressed the opinion that there should be a vast expansion of the tourist trade. There can be no dispute on that point. One of the limiting factors to the extension of tourism in Ireland is that practically all our outside advertising and all the energies of Bord Fáilte, those who conduct tourism here, are directed towards bringing people into the City of Dublin. If one travels about the world and visits the capital cities of other countries, one finds that there is not a great deal of difference between one capital city and another, apart from the difference in language and the customs and habits of the people. If we are to build up an extensive tourist trade, we must cater for people who will return year after year. The difficulty is that people who come to Dublin are the type of people who pay us one visit and go elsewhere the following year. We should base tourism on the idea of having families coming here. That can be done only by encouraging people to visit parts of Ireland outside the city. That state of affairs will not obtain if all our advertising is directed towards bringing people into Dublin.
I would suggest that in our advertising in Britain and other places, we should indicate an area south of a certain line and encourage people to come to that area through the southern ports, such as Cork, Waterford and Rosslare Harbour. People can bring their own cars through those ports. The main ferry into Ireland at the moment is through Rosslare Harbour. When they bring their cars, people can travel to various parts of the country and will be encouraged to come back again. The wealthier classes, who spend a short time in Dublin, are birds of passage and not potential future visitors. There should be more advertising of places outside Dublin and outside, perhaps, Donegal and Kerry, which seem to get the most prominence on the posters that one sees outside this country in British railway stations and other places.
The position with regard to employment and trade here is somewhat peculiar as compared with other countries. The majority of other countries are short of manpower and direct their energies to encouraging manpower to produce more and to get more out of their factories and industries generally. Our difficulty is the opposite. Here there is an excess of manpower which we seem to be unable to absorb and which we lose annually by emigration.
Our external trade returns for 1956 with countries concerned with O.E.E.C. show somewhat alarming figures. If the figures at my disposal are correct, they show an adverse balance of payments with all European countries, with the exception of France. The only reason we had an export trade with France in 1956 was the fact that we exported large quantities of live stock to that country. There is a moral behind that. That was the first year in which we exported cattle to France. The credit for securing that market must go to the previous Government, whether Deputies opposite like that or not. That was the first time that first-class meat was exported to France, and when the French people tasted that meat they realised what fine stuff we had to export and they bought more of it. It was the balance of payments that put them into difficulties so that they could not continue to buy our meat.
The Federal Republic of Germany is one of the most prosperous States in Europe. It has been built up in an almost phenomenal way since the disaster of World War II. In 1956, our adverse balance of payments with the Federal Republic of Germany was in the neighbourhood of £5,000,000. In the streets of Dublin and in practically every part of Ireland, one can see innumerable Volkswagen cars and Mercedes-Benz cars. In fact, even Ministers are driving about in Mercedes-Benz cars now. One can also see numerous German harvesting machines, combine harvesters, and so on, in every part of Ireland. That is because the Germans had something to sell and went out and sold it by good salesmanship.
Admittedly, the Federal Republic of Germany is a big and powerful nation, financially strong and in a position to advertise its wares, whereas we are a small nation whose expenditure on advertising abroad is necessarily restricted.
That brings us to two schools of thought. Are we going to try to get European, British or American industrialists to come in and start industries? We have done everything possible to encourage such people to come here. In fact, we have almost begged them to come. We have offered them magnificent terms, freedom from income-tax if they manufacture for export and even special concessions, such as building factories for them. We have the manpower available. We have the advantage of Imperial preference and we are closer to that great market, the United States of America, than any other country in Europe. Yet, the results appear to be negative. It is very difficult to analyse the reason for that.
Anybody who has been associated as I have been, with the Industrial Association or any of these organisations will know the extraordinary frustration that exists in trying to get those people to come here. Apparently they are all keyed up and ready to come, but for some reason or other they fail to come. I have had that experience with two foreign industrialists. Could it be that we are offering them too much, that we are more or less saying they can have everything they want, so long as they come in here and start a factory, that we will be only too glad to have them?
That brings us to the other school of thought. We are a small country with a limited amount of capital at our disposal. At the same time, I am sure that there is within the confines of the country sufficient money to establish industries of our own, provided we had the know-how. That seems to be one of our great difficulties. First of all, there is the difficulty of inducing those who have money to invest it in an Irish industry with the assurance that they will get a good return. Another great difficulty is that, on account of our political history, and so on, we lack people who have a knowledge of industry and who can give us the technical know-how required to establish industries and put them into production. In addition, there is the outstanding difficulty of marketing.
The Government have at their disposal the sum of £250,000 which has been lying idle since the 1957 Budget, of which, as far as our researches in this House show, they have spent only £80 so far. I suggest to the Minister that that sum could be directed towards encouraging and creating a co-operative system in this country; a co-operative system, to begin with, to set up industries and a co-operative system to assist in marketing. I do not suggest for one moment that a sum of £250,000 would be sufficient to set up these industries themselves, or even to assist financially in the marketing of their products, but it does seem to me that, as we are a small country, if we have something to sell, quite obviously one firm—its capital might be £20,000 or £60,000—cannot compete with American, continental or British industries. Surely we could form a co-operative system amongst such firms. Somehow or other, one can never get anything going in this country, unless you have some sort of quasi-State body behind it.
What the people want to-day is something specialised, something attractive, and things which were attractive 20 years ago are no longer so. People are looking for something which strikes the eye and the Minister could direct his energies in that direction. There is already in existence in this country a small body from which could be built up the co-operative system, that is the Plunket House organisation. In effect, you get, say, the textile group to come together and to advertise outside extensively. If they advertised extensively in Britain, where we have a huge Irish population living, the people could be encouraged to buy Irish goods. The same applies in America and other places, and it would have a snowball effect and we would be able to put our things before the world.
The same probably applies to the whiskey industry. We have some six or seven distilleries, and I believe if they came together as one group they could create considerable sales in the United States, for instance. I am told that there is quite a demand for Irish whiskey in the United States. I am also told that firms over there, who would stock Irish whiskey, do not like to do so because they feel that if they wanted large supplies—after all, Irish whiskey is an acquired taste, over and above the Scotch whisky, and it is quite a different thing—they would not be able to get those supplies because Irish whiskey has to be matured for seven years, or ten, if possible. I am given to understand that apparently, by some chemical process in recent years, it is possible to put out Scotch whisky in a very short time. It is somewhat on the lines of what they have been doing to wines in France. Therefore we are, vis-a-vis the Scotch distillers, at a disadvantage. Were we to get a large order from the United States, we could not supply it all. These are things which ought to be gone into. If any country is going to buy, and buy extensively, they want to make sure that they will be able to get the goods. I do not think the Minister can gainsay that.
The same applies to tweeds. I have often heard very high tributes being paid to Irish tweed by Americans and Europeans, but again, if they want to get large supplies of such materials, they are not available. Two courses lie open to us. The first is that we invite the foreigner in here, and is that going to be a success? I thought so at one time, but I am rather inclined to change my views now. We have Canadians in the mines at Avoca carrying on the work done by the State. When they have been there for a year or so, they come back to the Government and the State has again to find the money. It again poses the question: would it not be better to have an Irish company, with Canadian know-how behind it, running it? We need to have more confidence in ourselves. The Government can do a lot, but the people should not expect the Government to do everything. They should be given the confidence to do it.
There is no use in the Minister standing up here, and, in his opening statement, telling us that Ireland is brimming with confidence in the Government, that confidence has reestablished itself, and so forth. The sorry picture is just the same and the flower of our country are still going away. There is no other country in Europe in which that is happening, and surely it behoves us to try to do in bulk, and in the co-operative system, what individually we have failed to do. There is no reason why we should not, within our own limitations, be able to concentrate on industries, based, if possible, on our major raw material, agricultural produce. We should have confidence in ourselves and not wait for the Government to do it, but the Government should direct all its energies to helping in every way any scheme which will encourage people to come together and fend for themselves.
That is what we lack to-day, that confidence which is so necessary. We should concentrate as far as possible on specialised things and on those things which we have been able to produce at all times as good as anybody else. If we concentrate on those things, our future will be good. If we try to base our industries on letting anybody in here who is prepared to put up a bit of capital and start a chancy sort of venture, we will only create a position of instability which we do not want. We want to try and stabilise our country as much as possible.
I feel that the Minister should, as far as it is possible, direct his energies towards procuring whatever markets are possible in Europe. Whether we like it or not, and particularly now with the possibility of stability in France, it seems likely that the Free Trade Area will soon be coming into being. It is repeatedly stated by the O.E.E.C.—a body to which we belong and which was set up to advise us on our affairs—that we have all our eggs in one basket and that it is not a good thing. It should be a warning to us to look for markets in other countries.
As far as I know, negotiations are going on at the moment—I do not know whether or not they have been finalised yet—between the Federal Republic of Germany and this country. In view of the facilities and heavy trade which they are getting from us, there should be reciprocity and they should buy far more from us than they do. The Germans were always people who could strike a hard bargain and you got nothing by being weak. I would advise the Government that it is in the interests of this State to see that Germany gives us a fair return for what we buy from her. A £5,000,000 trade deficit is not encouraging, and if we stand firm and negotiate through our embassies and consuls abroad, we should be able to build up a nucleus of trade abroad which may be invaluable to us when we have to go into the Free Trade Area. Then at least we will have a certain standing in those countries and will not be in the position of being just another island.