Quite some time ago in the course of his speech Deputy Ryan referred to the sheer volume of documentation supplied to Deputies. I recall not so long ago that the complaint was that Deputies were not getting sufficient information. By implication, the Deputy suggested that the information being supplied could be presented in a much more concise form. He might have practised a little of what he preached in his own speech. He also suggested that the sheer volume of documentation was preventing people from thinking. Without intending to be in any way discourteous to Deputy Ryan, I would suggest that a great deal of his own speech was, perhaps, a justification of the criticism he made because it seemed to me, judging by some of his remarks, that Deputy Ryan is of the opinion that inflation is the equivalent of price increases. That appeared to be the case especially when he referred to our likely entry into the EEC and talked about the increased prices of foodstuffs and so on.
He referred to this as an inevitable further round of inflation. Inflation is not, of course, just price increases and the sooner all of us are clear as to what is involved in inflation the better it will be. Inflation means an increase in prices and incomes which is not related to increased production; in other words, it is an unreal increase. It is the real increase in incomes that is of proper relevance. I shall return to this later.
The occasion of the Budget debate is the occasion on which we review the economic activities of the country in previous years and look forward to the coming year. There are some aspects of economic activity with which I, as Minister for Industry and Commerce, am particularly concerned. I want to refer to them and I want to give the House some information which may not be available to it. First of all, I should like to refer to the performance of the economy in the export field last year. Deputies are well aware, as are most people, of the vital importance of exports for this country and of the fact that failure to expand exports will lead directly to a serious drop in our standard of living, to failure to provide new jobs and to the creation, therefore, of a good deal of unemployment.
Therefore, the performance of the economy in exports is a matter which concerns all of us. In 1969 both our total exports and our industrial exports broke all previous records. In that year our total exports amounted to £409 million as compared with £367.5 million in 1968, which was an increase of 11 per cent. Our industrial exports increased by 17 per cent and in 1969 for the first time represented just over 50 per cent of our total exports. This is a milestone in our economic history and one that should be noted for its economic and, possibly, social implications. There cannot be much doubt that the future trend will be that industrial exports will increasingly exceed nonindustrial exports. The passing of this milestone is a tangible indication of the progress we have been making over the years in industrialising this country and changing from a predominantly agricultural economy to a mixed industrial and agricultural economy. The implications economically and socially are very important and must be borne in mind in relation to future planning of the economy.
In 1969 some of the principal increases in our industrial exports were as follows: metal ores increased from £9 million to £17 million; pharmaceutical products from £9 million to £11 million; clothing and footwear from £16 million to £19 million; textiles from £16 million to £18 million; surgical and medical instruments from £5 million to £7 million. All these figures exclude Shannon. Perhaps of more interest is the destination of our exports: 34 per cent of them went to countries other than the UK in 1969 as compared with 29 per cent in 1968 and 27 per cent in 1967. The principal increases in these non-UK markets were, in the case of EEC, 39 per cent, and in the case of the USA, 21 per cent.
Large percentage increases were also recorded in exports to Eastern Europe, 47 per cent; Australia, 38 per cent and Spain, 84 per cent. In these cases, of course, we are operating on a much smaller base. The significance of these figures is that, as the House will remember, following the imposition of the British import deposit scheme I called a meeting of the employers and trade unions at which the serious position which could arise for this country was discussed and I made an effort to demonstrate to those present that it is vitally important for our future that we make special efforts to diversify our markets. Following this, a special programme of aids and services was introduced by Córas Tráchtála early in 1969. This included improved grants for travel, for trade fair participation, brand advertising and for technical demonstrations of capital equipment and engineering goods as well as extended consultancy and market investigation services. The increases in our exports and the increase in the total percentage of our exports going to markets other than the UK are a satisfactory outcome of those efforts, not by any means satisfactory in the sense that we can now afford to be complacent but a satisfactory indication that we have achieved substantial progress and that much more progress in this regard can be achieved.
As the Minister for Finance said in his Budget, a scheme to provide credit on favourable terms for exports of capital goods is being prepared. I hope that an announcement in that regard will not be long delayed. In addition, arrangements to provide improved export credit insurance facilities are also in train. A special effort is being made to make arrangements to enable exports to Eastern Europe to grow. A trade agreement has now been concluded with Bulgaria and talks with Russia, Poland and Czechoslovakia have been opened. All the items I have mentioned involve considerable effort on the part of many people and involve considerable expenditure but I have no doubt that they are well worthwhile from the point of view of the economy as a whole because failure to increase our exports would have most dire consequences for the whole economy.
In regard to industrial development last year there is one matter I want to mention. It is a statement made recently on television by Deputy Tully in a party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party. In the course of that broadcast he said, or suggested, that various advances in our industrial development programme which I had announced over the past year had not materialised. While one must, and I do, allow for a certain amount of oratorical licence in the uncomfortable situation in which Deputy Tully found himself in relation to this Budget, nevertheless the programme for industrial expansion is too important in terms of jobs and our whole economic wellbeing to allow these misleading and inaccurate assertions to go uncorrected.
Our success in the field of industrial expansion is a major reality. In the 12 months ending in September of last year a record total of 16,000 new jobs in the non-agricultural sector was created. Allowing for a fall of 12,000 in agricultural employment, this represents a net gain of 4,000 new jobs. One may say, perhaps, that this figure is not very impressive but, in relation to the problem we have in this country about the fall in the numbers engaged in agriculture, the still very high proportion of our work force engaged in agriculture, and the record of our efforts over the years this, I claim, is a very impressive performance, a performance for which I do not attempt to claim credit for myself or for the Government, a performance which was achieved by the Irish people and one that all of us should know occurred, because there is too much pessimism, too much lack of confidence in our own ability to overcome our problems.
All of us should know of and take pride in the achievements of our people, achievements, I may add, which were made possible by the economic climate created by the Government. That is the only credit I claim for the Government in this context—the economic climate and the various incentives put forward. The real achievement was by the Irish people and that achievement, as I have said, was the creation of 16,000 new jobs in the non-agricultural sector in that one year.
Deputy Tully in that statement went on to imply that my announcement of 44 new industrial projects on the 11th January, 1966, was an election gimmick. In fact, as far as I can recall his words, what he said was that the Minister for Industry and Commerce returned from Canada waving four new factories about. By the time of the election these had magically become 44 and now there are none. As far as I recall they are the words he used. The facts are as follows: in 1969, some 90 new industrial projects actually went into production. A further 98 projects were under construction and, at the end of that year, 76 further projects were approved but construction had not actually commenced. In addition to that, in that same year, some 228 projects were approved under the small industries programme.
The national effort to provide a continuing improvement in social and living standards depends on our ability to maintain and step up the pace of industrial growth. Statements like those of Deputy Tully, throwing cold water on the nation's achievements, can only undermine the urgency of the effort here at home and possibly create confusion overseas amongst those whom we are trying to attract to this country to invest capital and technical and marketing skills. I would hope that we will not have many more of such glib and inaccurate statements.
Reference was made by the Minister for Finance in his Financial Statement to certain changes which it is proposed to make in the small industries programme. The House will recall that that programme, which was initiated in April, 1967, operated in the beginning mainly in the designated areas or, as we used to call them, the undeveloped areas, and was subsequently, early in 1969, extended to the country as a whole. Up to the present the programme has covered firms employing up to 30 workers and having fixed assets up to £60,000. This programme has provided small firms with a comprehensive range of services in the areas of management, finance, production and marketing.
The results to date have been highly encouraging. The figures for the period from the inception of the programme to the 31st March this year show that 395 firms or projects were approved for grants and that the grants approved amounted to £2.8 million. The net increase in employment is estimated to be 2.749. It has long been appreciated by the Government that industry in the designated areas faces particular problems. The results achieved under the small industries programme clearly demonstrate that there is no lack of entrepreneurial skill in the designated areas. Indeed, those results justify further encouragement of these qualities of initiative and enterprise amongst our own people.
The experience gained under the programme indicates that the breakthrough from small to medium sized operations is accompanied by increasingly complex problems in marketing and in management. In an effort to ensure that these transitional problems will not inhibit the growth of successful small scale industry in the designated areas, it has been decided to extend the services of the small industries programme to firms with up to 50 workers and with fixed assets up to £100,000.
In the operation of the small industries programme to date, the county development teams and their development officers have worked closely with the small industries division of the IDA. As already announced, the IDA will shortly be establishing regional offices designed to provide at regional level the full range of the authority's services. The close co-operation between the IDA and the development teams to which I have referred will be maintained in this new situation and, indeed, it is hoped that the benefits of the county development team concept will be enhanced and improved as a result of the new arrangement, and the co-operation between the county development teams and the IDA especially through their regional offices.