I wish to say a few words about various matters which have been discussed by Deputies. In regard to the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area Agreement, this year can be regarded as the marginal year. It is the mid-year between the tariffs as they were at their apex and the situation that will exist when the tariffs are abolished. The tariffs on goods from England, which is our main source of supply, will be down to 25 per cent. I well remember after the war the hosiery duties group looked for a doubling of the tariff. They did not get the increase of 37½ per cent and 50 per cent for a period of about two years. I certainly got great pleasure from the fact that these people were no longer able to make such a great profit as they had made before the war.
We in this party believe that the effort which was put into establishing our light industries—the products of which I regard as equal to anything produced elsewhere—should not be thrown into the Irish Sea. From this year onwards the pressure is certainly going to be felt by all the small manufacturers. While the talk was going on about entering the EEC they did not take any part in it; they were making plenty of money, tariffs were high and they did not bother themselves unduly. I agree with Deputy Tully that we have now reached a situation in which this country is chock-a-block with British goods. Some of them are excellent goods. It is well known that when people become reasonably well off they always look for variety and this is particularly true from the woman's point of view. It is much easier to produce variety in clothing in a country like Britain than in a small country like ours. This factor is very important to women who do not like to buy articles of clothing which they know will be sold in mass quantities throughout Ireland and which, by virtue of the size of our country and the market available, inevitably means there will be much uniformity in style and type. It is much easier for a British manufacturer to distribute his products throughout that country and from the consumer's point of view this ensures a greater variety from which he may choose.
I have always been of the opinion that whatever defects there may have been in the free trade area agreement it certainly was much better for this country that we made that agreement rather than that we went into the EEC when discussions were in progress in 1951-52. To the best of my recollection, at that time only two people in this city spoke out publicly on this matter. One was Mr. David Hamilton, who produced a pamphlet on the subject, and I said a few words and also wrote about it in an article in the Irish Independent. I would not mind having this article reprinted now as an example of very accurate forecasting of what was about to happen. I am not often very accurate but at least on that occasion, perhaps because I had given much thought to the subject, I was quite on the mark.
Our farmers were in favour of entering the EEC. However, they woke up and when Mr. Richard Deasy was president of the NFA they became aware of the fact that the benefits would not, in fact, be nearly as good as they had expected. At the moment only 30 per cent of our people are engaged in farming and this makes the problem all the more difficult. If we take the value created in this country in relation to exports, our agricultural exports are still immensely more important than our industrial exports. Government Ministers frequently talk about our industrial exports exceeding our agricultural exports but they never tell us that half our industrial exports are made up of imports because raw materials are brought in and the finished product is made here. In this connection I might say that in the Shannon Free Airport development area imports constitute three-quarters of the products finally exported.
I am not decrying what the industrialists have done; indeed many of the companies have made remarkable progress. However, we ought to have some sense of reality because the percentage of imports in our agricultural exports is negligible—about 9 or 10 per cent. Therefore, our agricultural exports are of much greater importance to the economy than our industrial exports. I take it that the day will shortly come when our industrial exports will be greater than our agricultural exports and this I would welcome.
I should like to say a few words about the NIEC report on prices and incomes. The original report had certain views and now we have the NIEC report No. 27 on incomes and prices policy. In comparing one report with the other I noticed a diminution in the verbiage. All it suggests really is that a body be set up which it is hoped will do some good by impressing on the people the desirability of all agreeing to moderate their claims.
As I said to the Minister for Industry and Commerce earlier, he wants to change human nature and he will not succeed. If this is the only answer the Government have to the problem of inflation, that they expect people who make claims for wages, usually after an increase in the cost of living, to moderate their claims, the Government are on a bad bet.
The members of the NIEC are distinguished people in their own fields. Presumably a small group of them write up the report and then the whole 28 of them sign the report unanimously. This is the first time there has been a minority report. It is not exactly a minority report but there is an addendum by Percy H. Greer, Charles Cuffe and Daniel McAuley, who, I think, are the representatives of industry on the body and are nominated by the Federated Union of Employers. They say:
We are in broad agreement with the general principles of an incomes and prices policy as outlined in this report.
So are we all in agreement with the general principles.
We are concerned, however, about the possible effectiveness of the proposals as they relate to the methods to be applied in determining changes in contractual incomes. We consider that these proposals would make a greater contribution to the overall objective of achieving a closer relationship between the growth of money incomes and the growth of output if they were accompanied by arrangements which would assist in containing industrial disputes.
Then they go on to develop that idea, but it is not really a minority report. In all there have been 28 such unanimous reports from 28 people. This must be the greatest case of unanimity ever, because normally you would be lucky to get 18 or 19 people out of 28 to agree if they are considering important problems.
