I was saying when I moved to report progress that I was anxious to use this debate to bring a few points to the attention of the Government. In common with most Labour Deputies and in common with most Deputies in the House I view with alarm the steady emigration of young boys and young girls. Only the fit and the best qualified for work leave our shores. In the main, the reason for that emigration is lack of employment at adequate wages. Anyone who glosses over the position is doing a disservice to the country.
Some time ago the Taoiseach sought to prove by figures that for the past few years emigration has been steadily declining. To say that people are leaving our shores more for adventure than for economic reasons is doing a disservice to the country. It must be clear to anyone who takes an interest in the position that if advertisements appeared in our newspapers offering employment at even ordinary rates of pay there would be hundreds of thousands of applications for the jobs from persons wishing to return from Great Britain and elsewhere.
Every month since I first became a Deputy I have received requests from Irish people abroad to help them to find even menial employment in this country. They always conclude their letters by saying they would prefer to live here and to bring up their families here. It is ridiculous to suggest that in the case of 95 per cent. of those who emigrate the reason is anything other than economic necessity. It may be true that some people are leaving employment here but if they are it is because the wages are altogether inadequate. That is mainly our trouble.
It would appear that the average national wage is between £6 and £7 per week. Probably the very low wage paid to those employed in agriculture is responsible for that. I shall not dwell now on whether agriculture can afford to pay a higher wage but it is a fact that the agricultural worker's wage is taken as a standard on which wages in other industries are based.
All the time when increases are sought we are referred back to the basic wage of agricultural labourers. There is strong objection in this country to the fact that people engaged in industry should be so restricted. It has a deflating effect on the economy of the country. It means that the people who work cannot receive sufficient by their industry and their productivity to keep themselves in the ordinary frugal comfort to which they are entitled not to speak about their lack of money for what might be considered luxuries.
That kind of thing must have a deflationary effect on the consuming market. I cannot understand why it is that Irish workers engaged in industry here must suffer great disadvantages by comparison with their counterparts in Britain and elsewhere throughout the world. They work as hard, possibly harder, but do not get the same proportional reward. On the other hand, it cannot be said that the goods produced in this country are not as good as those elsewhere. In fact sometimes they are much superior. I cannot understand why our employers who have the advantage of cheap labour in plentiful supply also seek tariff protection. Why can they not produce their goods as cheaply as some of the articles we import here, having the advantages to which I have referred?
I believe the reason is that many of our industrialists—not all of course; there are some exceptions—want to make quick and large returns from their investments. Many of the people who went into industry when the State was founded, while their activities were laudable, believed that their investments should yield an immediate high return. Consequently the products their factories manufactured were not turned out at a competitive rate.
If the Government could achieve a higher standard of wage rates throughout the country, I feel sure this would be reflected in an upliftment of conditions in industry and in agriculture. I accept the Government's claim that they are anxious to solve unemployment. I think any Government taking office in this country would be just as keenly interested in that problem. I accept in good faith the Government's promises that as time goes on a solid foundation is being laid that will produce results in the future, but I would say that in the meantime there is an urgent need for the Government to face up to its responsibilities of providing as much work as possible, even short term employment. The Government must realise that while our register of unemployed may show figures of between 60,000 and 70,000 there may be thousands of boys and girls leaving school who are not on that register and who will be on the labour market very soon to be added to the large numbers already unemployed. Unless the Government devises and pushes forward a short term policy of employment in such projects as house building, sewerage, water supplies, road development, land reclamation and various other projects, we will only be adding to this flood of boys and girls who are leaving this country every day.
Many excellent projects put forward have been nullified by the fact that the local authorities have been asked to make a local subscription towards any grants available. That condition may seem a worthwhile way of working out employment problems. It is only natural that where a particular scheme favours a particular county the local authority concerned would be asked to contribute part of the cost but there are many instances where this nullifies efforts to give greater employment in rural areas. I would suggest that the unemployment problem should be tackled immediately by the State, even to the point of setting up a special Ministry to deal with it.
On the question of State aid to investors in this country. I deplore the fact that many counties not west of the Shannon should be deprived of the aid they would secure had they been situated in a depressed area. The conditions of employment in a county cannot have much relation to geography. In a case in my own constituency an industry could easily have been secured were certain State grants available. Unfortunately our geographical position forbade the Government to make a grant and consequently the industry was lost to the district.