The British Government in their White Paper proposals face the difficulty that whatever they do may confirm the fears of one or other community. I submit that this is properly the business of the incoming Government. I ask the question: is there any way out of this dilemma? It should be clear at least that there is simply no hope of creating now, after 50 years of failure, a new and stable Northern Ireland in which the present minority will accept that status permanently and abandon their aspirations. I believe the British Government would be wrong to see any hope of a settlement on this basis.
The British Government know where the outgoing Government stood in relation to the White Paper proposals. I believe that where we stood was along much the same lines on which the incoming Government stand on these proposals and I have no doubt that the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste informed the British Prime Minister of where they stood as well. I think it should also be clear that there can be no hope of stability or peace in any settlement which would try to impose a united Ireland, a settlement under which the present Unionist community in the North would become, or feel themselves to be, a disadvantaged and dissident minority. May I say, with the deepest sincerity, that this is not our aim and that we too no less than the Unionist community would reject this as a settlement. Neither approach I have mentioned could prove stable or lasting because either would create a dissatisfied and alienated minority and we cannot afford to do this again in Ireland. There is, therefore, I believe, only one long-term solution to the dilemma in which we, and I mean all of us, find ourselves in this island. It is to work towards an Ireland where there will be no politically disadvantaged minority, where the existence of diversity will not be a basis for minority alienation and consequent political instability, but a source of richness and strength. In such an Ireland diversities and differences between traditions and religious groupings would remain but they would enrich our society and not divide it and they would be less important to all than their common status as Irish men and women.
I simply say that this dark cloud has overshadowed much of our thinking and actions in recent years. It is our firm belief that the policies we pursued and the actions that were taken in relation to the Northern question represented the only same path towards a new Ireland in which all Irishmen may live and work in peace and harmony.
With an incoming Government interest naturally centres on future prospects rather than on past performances and this is probably especially true in the case of the present Government. Here we find them having committed themselves fully to a detailed programme of action, with some aspects of which we disagree. Whatever the future may bring, it is also appropriate to dwell for a few moments on the past since it is the performance of the outgoing Fianna Fáil administration that has laid the solid foundation on which the new Government hopefully will build.
When Fianna Fáil took office in 1957 emigration was at an appalling level of 60,000 per annum; there were almost 100,000 people unemployed and the economic collapse was so severe there was widespread despondency and even despair for the future of our country. In the 16 years that have elapsed since then the picture has altered dramatically. Emigration has been brought to a halt so that for the first time since the Famine there is a steady increase in population, living standards have improved by more than two-thirds and the results of this improvement are to be seen everywhere in vastly improved social welfare benefits, in record levels of house building, in better educational opportunities for all and in the more extensive and improved health services that are available.
All of this social progress was made possible because of a solidly based economic development, a development that has seen our industrial base transformed from an unhealthy dependence on a heavily protected home market into a competitive exportoriented sector that can look forward with confidence, along with the equally dynamic and expanding agricultural sector, to the challenge and opportunity of participation in the new Europe created by our membership of the EEC.
These are achievements of which any administration can be proud and we in Fianna Fáil are proud of our 16 years of stewardship. We are proud, too, of our record during the last four years of our term of office when we were faced with some of the most difficult and intractable problems ever to confront an Irish Government. In the economic sphere we had to tackle the most severe peace-time inflation ever experienced, an inflation that was accompanied by a dangerous rise in the incidence of strikes and other forms of industrial strife. In dealing with these problems we created new machinery in the form of the Employer/Labour Conference and the National Prices Commission that not alone helped to overcome immediate problems but, more important, created the framework within which satisfactory long-term solutions to these problems can now be found.
The work of the Employer/Labour Conference in producing two national pay agreements was of major importance not alone in helping to moderate inflationary pressure but in demonstrating that constructive dialogue was superior to suicidal strife as a method of tackling and resolving the complex issue of pay levels. In the field of prices the work of the National Prices Commission was seen as a realistic way of trying to control prices in that it commanded the support, by their co-operation in it, of representatives of trade unions, housewives and business firms. At this stage I should like to pay a tribute to those who contributed not only to the Employer/Labour Conference but also to those who contributed by participation in the National Prices Commission.
The success of these actions on prices and incomes can be judged not alone on the falling off in the rate of inflation, which is now more than 2 per cent below the level of two years ago and is still falling, but also from the fact that the British who have been suffering from the same kind of problem of severe inflation and its associated industrial strife are now setting up prices and incomes machinery that is very similar to that set up by us.
I have already referred to the problem the Government faced in the Northern Ireland situation. Our approach towards the Northern problem was founded on the same attitude as our approach to the other problems to which I have referred, such as inflation. In every instance we refused to seek instant popularity by responding to the emotion of the moment. Instead, we sought to identify the policies that best represented the true interest of the Irish people. Having determined these policies we pursued them resolutely and sought to win public support and understanding for them. Through such action we believe we have helped to build a more mature and deeply-rooted democratic approach to political questions. It is our intention to continue this approach from the Opposition benches.
We fully recognise the task of building a new Ireland is far from complete and that it calls for further enlightened action in the political, legal and economic spheres. Any policies of the new Government that will result in further progress towards this goal will have our support and approval. Similarly, policies that help to promote full employment or foster social progress, or which help to strengthen our role in the EEC, will receive our support. We will not oppose merely for the sake of opposition but, equally, when in our view the policies of the Government are unwise or run counter to the interests of the people then they will receive total and unrelenting opposition from us.
Here I feel bound to say that, in our view, the new Government have not made a very auspicious start. We regard many of their pre-election promises as misguided and ill-conceived. For example, their proposals on social welfare spending, the removal of VAT from food and the rates reform are not the best way of dealing with these issues, because we believe they do not give benefit where it is most needed. The Fianna Fáil proposals on these matters are not only less costly but they also gave greater benefit to those in greater need.