I move: "That Dáil Éireann re-affirms its confidence in the Government".
This debate takes place because the Opposition Parties are anxious to press home any political advantage they might see accruing to them out of the events of the past week. Confidence or no confidence motions are part of political life and, though their outcome can decide the fate of a Government, their main purpose, when precipitated by an Opposition, is to provide a vehicle for debate on topics from which they might expect to get some political advantage. I am glad to note that the debate will not follow the marathon lines of the debate we had last week because there are many things the Government are anxious to get on with, many important issues, many important functions but, important and urgent though this work before us might be, we as a Government welcome a debate on this issue, the issue whether we as a Fianna Fáil Government will continue to do the work of the nation or whether the Opposition, who claim they can do it better, will be permitted to do so.
Within the past year the electorate emphatically decided that the Opposition could not do the work of the nation better than Fianna Fáil. In that election the people gave the Fianna Fáil Government a firm mandate, as it had done on so many occasions since 1932. I do not propose to dwell on the history of Fianna Fáil but it is necessary to emphasise why this party enjoy the confidence of the country over so many years since then.
The Fianna Fáil Party were founded in 1926. They had the specific task of restoring national confidence following the tragedy of the Treaty and set out clearly their fundamental aims and objectives which have continued to be the basis of Fianna Fáil policies up to the present day. In order to achieve those aims it was not sufficient just to provide an Opposition at that time, as it did, but as quickly as possible to provide an alternative Government to Cumann na nGaedheal. This was the only effective way in which the republican ideal could be restored, our aspirations to reunify the country could be fulfilled and a distinctive way of life in accordance with Irish traditions, culture and ideals could be developed.
On first assuming Government in 1932 Fianna Fáil resolutely set about achieving those aims and, recognising that political strength was dependent on economic growth, realistic and appropriate economic policies were pursued. It was especially recognised in those early days that the strengthening of our industrial arm was essential if we were to have balanced progress. It was because Fianna Fáil then had, and still have, a realistic and farsighted industrial policy that we can now face with confidence entry to the European Community which will provide the strongest test so far for our industrial skills and expertise.
There have been many difficulties, obstacles and frustrations in the way in coming thus far, but Fianna Fáil always had the will, the determination and the ability to overcome those. The shaking off of the shackles imposed on us by the Treaty was also foremost in Fianna Fáil policy and this, as we all know, led to the economic war in the middle 1930s. The fight was won mainly through the steadfastness of the Fianna Fáil Government, backed by the loyalty and support of the ordinary people, especially the small farmers of Ireland. The settlement terms of that so called economic war ensured that our Government and Parliament could take independent, democratic decisions on many matters, economic and otherwise, but more particularly about our involvement in the second World War. Therefore, after being only seven years in office, we find Fianna Fáil leading Ireland at three critical periods in recent history—in the early 1930s, when our policies were able to pull the country out of the economic depression and political degradation of the previous decade in the middle 1930s when it needed a Government of courage and firmness of purpose to preserve our national dignity and to defend our economic independence against the might of Britain; and on the outbreak of World War II when as a sovereign nation we took our own decisions to stay out of that conflict.
It was inevitable that unpalatable decisions had to be made in the years of the war and immediately following but hard decisions then, as at present, are not conducive to popularity, so in some by-elections in the years shortly after the war and in the 1948 General Election Fianna Fáil lost some ground and enabled the first Coalition Government to come to office. When that Government broke up after three years they left in their wake not only a political shambles but a critical economic situation as well. Fianna Fáil were at the ready to answer the call of the Irish people once again. On assuming office in 1951 they were again faced with serious financial problems, which again required drastic remedies for their solution. Again, many unpopular decisions had to be taken to restore economic sanity to the affairs of this country. The major one was the partial removal of the food subsidies in the 1952 Budget. Although those were introduced during the war as a temperary measure, and were never intended to be permanent, their withdrawal was naturally unpopular. It was a courageous decision to take at that time but a most necessary one in the light of the grave financial position the country was left in by the 1951 Budget of the Coalition Government.
The people's reaction was predictable again, the reaction to unpopular decisions, and again the results of subsequent by-elections indicated they were influenced by the tactics of the Opposition who were quick to exploit the inevitable increase in food prices. It was powerful propaganda and it influenced not only the by-elections at that time but the general election of 1954 as well. This brought back a second Coalition Government. Most of us know only too well the sorry mess they left behind them when an element of that Government, realising the economic difficulties which faced them, pulled out and in the words of one of the former members of a Coalition Government, "pulled the carpet from under them."
In a period that should have been one of growth, with the influence of a burgeoning and buoyant economy in Europe, the 1954-57 Coalition Government recklessly neglected to earn for us even a place at the bottom of that European league of economic upsurge. On the contrary, alone among the nations of the world our country failed to make any economic progress whatever. Indeed, in the last year of that Coalition Government our economic state began to retard.
Again, the Irish people turned to Fianna Fáil in their hour of need and again Fianna Fáil did not fail them. In 1957, having been restored to Government, the first task was literally to lift the Irish people off their knees, to restore in them not just morale but simple confidence in themselves and in the future of their country. It was not easy to do this; it was not easy to pull the country back again from the downhill slide of despair and despondency for the second time in the space of three years; to reverse the trend of emigration that had then been reached, the appallingly high total of 40,000 annually; to pull down the number of unemployed, which had climbed to a record level of some 96,000 weekly in the winter of 1956-57.
The Fianna Fáil Government did this. The results of the three general elections since 1957 give proof that the people understand, appreciate and continue to support the intelligent policies of Fianna Fáil that made this possible. In 1957 everybody knows that we took over an ailing economy. It was debilitated by emigration, there was mass unemployment; population was declining; living standards lagged behind those of Western Europe; employment, industrial production and national output were all falling. In the face of these trends the country's economic viability was questioned openly and there seemed to be meagre hope of proving the pessimists wrong.
However, Fianna Fáil proved the pessimists wrong. They proved there was just as much potential, just as much enterprise and as great a will to succeed as existed in other countries in Europe. Fianna Fáil proved that these qualities and our natural assets need not go to waste or be employed outside our country. We proved these qualities could be used to advance the Irish economy and for the betterment of the Irish people. The Fianna Fáil Government harnessed these qualities, applied them to the solution of our economic and social problems and thereby initiated more than a decade of development that bears comparison with anything achieved in Europe in that same period.
The Government's achievement is on record; it cannot be gainsaid and no criticism can diminish it. Since 1958 agricultural output has risen by more than one-fifth, industrial production has more than doubled and gross national product is more than half as high again as it was at the beginning of that period. Perhaps that might not be regarded as tremendous progress over a period of 50 years but one must take account of the many years of occupation, when we were deprived of the right to self-determination, and when one compares the years prior to 1958 or 1959 one can only have admiration for the achievements of the past decade.
Since then the drastic decline in overall employment has been arrested. It has been possible to lower the rate of emigration from the figure of the 40,000 in the 1950's to approximately 15,000 in 1969. However, this is only part of the story. The quality of employment has also been improved; many of our workers have been able to move from underpaid jobs, where their talents and capacities were to a large extent under-used, to well-paid work in the progressive and modern sections of our economy. More workers and young people are being trained to make the same transition and new job opportunities are being provided for them. In the past year some 16,000 new job opportunities were created in industry. For the first time in this century there has been a sustained rise in our population. This has been going on for some years past and we may expect in a few years time to have a population in this part of our country exceeding three million persons.
No less worthwhile than the growth in development that has been achieved are the uses to which this has been put. In the period I have reviewed, private consumption of goods and services has risen by 45 per cent and there has been a substantial advance in our living standards. The volume of growth of fixed capital formation has almost trebled. Whereas in 1958 we were investing little more than 13 per cent of our gross national product the corresponding figure now is between 22-23 per cent. In this way, the rising living standards to which we have been accustomed have been underpinned. More than that, their continuance in the future has been ensured.
The other main support of future progress—export potential—has been equally well developed. The volume of exports, visible and invisible, has risen by 120 per cent since 1958. In value the rise has been even more spectacular; it has been 190 per cent, representing an increase from £170 million to £500 million in that period. This remarkable advance has meant that the import demands of our growing economy have, to a large degree, been matched by the growth of our exports. External balance has been broadly maintained and what was lacking has been more than made up by the inflow of capital from foreign investors who are confident of the future of our economy.
With increasing dividends arising from economic growth, the Government have continued their policy of improving the general welfare of the community over a wide range of services. No one can deny that our people are much better off, better housed and better educated. This progress was brought about by successive Fianna Fáil Governments and it was part of their deliberate policy of devoting a greater share of our resources to the betterment of the community. Expenditure on social services including education, health, housing and income maintenance rose from a figure of 15 per cent of gross national product in 1959-60 to 20 per cent of a much bigger national output in 1969-70. The current Government programme has been appropriately designated the Third Programme for Economic and Social Development of 1969 to 1972. In this programme the increase in public expenditure on social services is projected at the annual rate of 5.8 per cent—which is greater than the projected rate of 4 per cent for gross national product. The attainment of this target will depend on the continued growth of the economy in an orderly way but our confidence in the future is well based on our attainments of the past.
Fianna Fáil have a proud record of achievement in the social field. In the area of education tremendous strides —and I say this deliberately—have been made. Public expenditure jumped from £19 million in 1959-60 to £70 million in 1969-70. While the number of pupils attending primary schools has remained fairly static at about 500,000, there has been a large increase in the numbers availing of secondary, vocational and technical education. This number has doubled from 100,000 a decade ago to about 200,000 today. The provision made for universities and colleges has involved an increase of 70 per cent in the number of students which is now at the 19,000 mark.
Special attention has been given to improving conditions of primary education. New schools and better facilities have been made available and school life generally has become more attractive. To this should be added the free transport scheme which means the elimination of hardship in travelling long distances, especially in remote rural areas. We should recall that many of our citizens, even many people in our own generation, were unable to progress beyond primary education due to economic circumstances. All this has been eliminated by the provisions we have made for post-primary education since 1966.
Greater opportunities are now available for all our children to develop their potential. More attention has been concentrated on gearing the school curricula to accord with modern requirements. A career guidance service for second level schools was introduced in 1968 and this will be extended to provide maximum benefit to our young people to enable them to prepare for their chosen roles in society.
Health expenditure has risen in the last ten years from £19 million to £61 million in the last financial year. This reflects the improvements in the health services generally. Curative and preventive measures during the years have greatly reduced the incidence of certain diseases and infant mortality rates have been very substantially reduced as well. Unfortunately other illnesses, notably cancer, heart disease and some psychiatric ailments are now posing problems, but I am convinced that with the energy and the study done and the application to the task of the Minister for Health we shall have in these fields equal success. The Health Act enacted this year provides for the abolition of the dispensary service and for the introduction of a choice of doctor scheme for eligible persons. The Government will continue to ensure that improvement in health services will not only be kept under attention but will be put into effect.
Tremendous strides have occurred between 1959-60 and 1969-70 in our housing programme, no matter what people say about it. The number of new dwellings more than doubled, rising annually from 6,300 to over 13,800. During the sixties more than 98,000 new dwellings were completed at a total cost to the State and to the local authorities of £284 million in capital and subsidies.
However, we are not content to rest on our oars. With the economy expanding in the seventies we can expect a rising demand for new houses because of more marriages and an increasing population. In the White Paper "Housing in the Seventies" the Government have stressed their basic objectives for housing, namely, to ensure that as far as the resources of the economy will permit every family can obtain a house of good standard at a price or at a rent they can afford. We are confident that having regard to our past performances we can and will meet the challenge of providing the 15,000 to 17,000 houses annually which the White Paper considers would represent the country's needs during the 1970s.
Total expenditure on income maintenance, that is, the social welfare payments, including unemployment benefit, has trebled in the ten years to which I am referring, that is from £33 million to £97 million, taking unemployment contributions into account. The Government contribution in this period rose from £25 million to £59 million. Over the period the payments made to the social welfare beneficiaries, that is to say, the sick, the unemployed, the old, the widowed and the other disadvantaged members of our community, far exceeded the rise in the cost of living, so that in real terms these beneficiaries are relatively better off, but we believe we can make them relatively still better off by pursuing the policy in which we are engaged.
The Budgets in recent years have, as everybody knows, devoted considerable expenditure to the social welfare classes, and big increases have been made in many spheres, particularly in children's allowances and in old age pensions. In this respect the Government have clearly shown their concern for the poor of the community and the disadvantaged members of our society. The current Budget is a further illustration of that social concern. I believe, too, that the people will have full regard for the manner in which these successive Fianna Fáil Governments have come to the aid of the underprivileged.
The Third Programme stated the Government's intention of formulating a comprehensive social development programme. Already steps have been taken among the social Departments to study means of assessing the effectiveness of existing social services, identifying existing and emerging needs, making provision for them and establishing principles and criteria that will help to guide the evolution of these services in the future. This study will, in view of the complex issues, take some considerable time to arrive at conclusions and much research will be involved to assist in this task. The Government, with their record of social progress, are confident that we can formulate decisions on these measures in the best interest of our people. Indeed, the fruits of the past years are indicators of the harvest that can be gleaned in the future.
I have no more than outlined the bare bones of the Government's social and economic achievements. These have been real and tangible and progress has been equally real and tangible throughout the country. It is in this that the transformation of our economy is most apparent, in the greater number of families that are now finding a satisfying livelihood in Ireland, in the prosperity of our countryside, in modern factories, in the progressive approach to the further development of our agriculture, industry and commerce, in the readiness to reduce trade barriers and face international competition, in the eagerness to seek new opportunities and to turn them to the advantage of Irish people working and living in Ireland. Where we had a depopulated economy, stagnant and inward-looking, we now have vigorous growth and a confident people. The transformation has been the result, not of a happy accident, but of a careful analysis of our problems and of determination, imagination and consistent effort in finding solutions for them.
The Fianna Fáil Government have looked to the areas where change was needed, to our agriculture and our industry, tourism and transport, to our education and manpower policies, to our investment needs and our social needs. In all these areas the Government, having sought the changes they saw necessary, have implemented those changes. We have planned all these changes and consistently applied the policies to make our plans become achievements.
I do not deny there are still difficulties to be overcome. Our very progress has brought its own problems. The year 1969, although another year of progress, manifested many signs of danger, and these dangers are still with us. They are to be seen in sharply rising prices, in industrial strife, in the shortsighted pursuit of excessive increases in money incomes, in the falling off of our savings, in the weakening of our export competitiveness, and the unacceptable size of our current balance of payments deficit. The problems posed are as great as any that have faced us in the past, but we the Fianna Fáil Government are aware of them. We faced them with a stronger economy and the confidence born of progress. As well we have the confident knowledge that we have overcome, too, similar problems in the past, and I have no doubt we shall overcome, too, those that now lie before us.
I do not want to go over again the same ground as I covered in replying to last week's debate. I outlined the investigation by me of the events that led up to that debate, and I outlined the reasons for the actions I took. Whatever further action requires to be taken will be taken by the appropriate authority. I assure the people of this part of our country of our vigilance to ensure that our territory will not be used as a base from which to precipitate further strife in the North. I assure them especially that no effort will be spared to frustrate any attempted, unauthorised importation of arms. Indeed, the action that was taken in respect of the recent attempt and the vigilance that was exercised then will continue. I think that is an earnest of our determination in this respect and an assurance that further attempts will not succeed.
We know the problems of the minority in the North but to turn a blind eye on the terrible prospect of armed conflict in Northern Ireland, to facilitate or to condone in the slightest degree a situation that could lead to Irishmen shooting Irishmen would, in my opinion, not serve the minority in the North but, on the contrary, would be a tragedy for them and for their neighbours in the Six Counties and indeed for the entire country.
We have helped them as much as we could in the past. We have tried to do everything in as practical a way as we could. We will use our influence to ensure that the forces needed for their protection, for the protection of the minority who have genuine fears, will be adequate for the purpose—that their rights as citizens will be fully protected and that the reforms necessary to ensure those rights will be implemented speedily and fully. We will continue to give every help in every legitimate and practicable way we can.
At the same time, this will not in any way diminish our desire to take action that is conducive to the coming together of peoples of all faiths and persuasions in a re-unified Ireland, in a healthy democracy in which account will be taken of all political affiliations and religious beliefs.
On the basis, then, of our economic progress, of our concern for the citizens in the North, of our determination to find solutions for Partition by peaceful means, there is no reason for anything but confidence in the Fianna Fáil Government. As I have said, there are problems ahead, but we are confident of our ability to tackle these problems and not only to tackle them but successfully to overcome them.
One of these will be the negotiations for entry to the European Community. Can anyone—I ask this question deliberately—contemplate the terrible dilemma that would face this country in this context if the only alternative to Fianna Fáil Government were—and the only alternative appears to be—a coalition? What a terrible dilemma we would be in if such a Government were charged with negotiating our application for entry to the EEC, Fine Gael, presumably, in favour but the Labour Party opposed utterly to it? As a nation, we would be going into these negotiations as a boxer going into a ring with one of his arms tied behind him. Deputy FitzGerald can smile, but I have seen him earnestly pleading with his colleagues in the Labour benches for heaven's sake to change their minds on the matter of EEC entry. I know his pleading will not succeed. The Deputy has heard them pronouncing as loudly and as solemnly as I am now their total opposition to our entry to the EEC. Such a coalition would not only have to persuade me but the countries of Europe of the genuineness of any application for membership by a Fine Gael and Labour coalition.