We welcome the additional provision for Córas Tráchtála in keeping with the normal expansion. Inflationary trends have made their problems much more severe. The CTT is one of the services which Irish industry appreciates and if one finds criticism from some sections of industry it is due to the fact that they have not availed of the services to the extent which they might have. CTT have grown beyond what they were originally set up to do. I remember when CTT were instituted it was visualised that they would be an advisory service, particularly a market research service. Such a service is most important, particularly for the small industries. These industries which require advice on marketing and wish to have market research carried out but have not the capital to carry out such research are the ones which most value the services of the CTT.
There are a great many organisations dealing with industry here. That is only to be expected because if we are to reach full employment and improve the standard of living we must export. Our home market is only fractional in so far as industrial development is concerned. We must export the major portion of what we produce and if we can go on exporting more, as we have been doing, particularly in the last ten years, then there is a hope that we will one day reach that very much sought after goal of full employment. In regard to the IDA, the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards, the Economic and Social Research Institute, the Council of Industrial Design and the Committee on Industrial Progress I hope the work of all those bodies is co-ordinated and that they are not overlapping. They are all for the benefit of the industrial manufacturer in the main. I am not for a moment inferring that there is any unnecessary duplication. All those bodies are very necessary and as our industry continues to expand they will become more and more indispensable.
The ten years from 1962 to 1972 were the most interesting in the industrial development of this country since 1932 when we first got industry going with the aid of tariffs. Those who have taken part in the industrial drive—what will be described as the industrial revolution in future years— look back with pride on the tenacity of those who with the use of Irish capital, granted with the protection of tariff walls, which in some cases absolutely prohibited the importation of goods that would rival home-produced products, established Irish industry. A tribute must also be paid to the Irish public who tolerated the situation and were aware at times that they were paying more for goods produced at home than they would pay for goods if they were freely imported.
This situation provided an opportunity for Irish industry to establish a base from which to develop. Industry used that opportunity and has come to the stage where it is virtually facing free competition. Yesterday or the day before the tariff on goods coming from the Six Counties disappeared completely. In another year the tariff on goods from the UK will disappear and indeed we will see our tariff, in the case of most countries, gone by 1976 or 1977. Indeed, before that time the tariff will be so low, with the annual reduction which we have accepted, that it will hardly be noticeable. The EEC are negotiating a reduction of tariffs with non-member countries, associate members, and even with the less developed states. Irish industry today is on the threshold of free trade and open competition. The necessary protection that was afforded by tariffs in the past is now history. Industry must look forward to the time when it is on its own.
It is in that context that organisations such as Coras Tráchtála, the IDA, the Economic and Social Research Institute, the Institute of Industrial Research and Standards and the Council on Industrial Design have a most important part to play. I am sure they are well aware of the important part they have to play if we are to maintain our competitiveness and get our goods into the markets where they are well established in many cases now and continue to have the same rate of expansion as we have experienced in recent years.
The value of our exports in 1972 was the highest ever. The volume of our exports was also very high. I think there was a six per cent increase in that year. Granted, agricultural prices played an important role but manufactured goods rose and accounted for a greater share of our total exports. They must be now verging on 50 per cent. At that stage I think they had reached 44 per cent. The 1972 Córas Tráchtála Report, and I think that is the latest one that is available, outlined a dramatic increase in exports from 1962 to 1972. It is a concise but very illuminating account of the activities of Córas Tráchtála since their establishment under the 1959 Act.
The years ahead will be a challenging time for Irish industry. The fluctuation of the unit of currency on foreign markets has at times been helpful and at times not helpful. This is where Córas Tráchtála can anticipate, if it is possible to do so, and advise in relation to coming events. There are at the moment good and bad signs on the horizon so far as Irish exports are concerned. One bright spot in our economy that is still showing signs of standing out in a difficult time, when inflation is engulfing everything and rendering the money in our pockets worthless, is that our exports continue to rise. I hope that will be maintained because our exports have a fairly solid base and the ability to export is not something that is generated overnight. It must be deeply rooted in the past, well established and organised and well-founded. Some of the good signs on the horizon are that certain commodities are tending to fall in price on the import market. While most of them are not in the engineering or heavy goods class they are signs in the right direction and some of the bigger merchants and builders' suppliers inform me that they expect timber prices which have reached an all time high to show signs of easing. The bad signs are that the consumer in some of the markets where we sell is showing signs of dithering. This could be bad. So long as the purchasing power of foreign markets remains buoyant there remains hope that our expansion of exports over the last ten years will continue in the years ahead. These are only temporary setbacks which industry has got to face from time to time. It is a testing time for them. The industries which depend on cash flow could find it very difficult to carry on. If there is a weak period in relation to exports they might not be able to continue. Those who are well established and have a reasonable liquidity may be able to ride the storm but those who are dependent on a cash flow and the buoyancy of their business from day to day, could fade out.
Organisations like CTT have a very important role to play in foreseeing the likelihood of depression or a recession in consumer purchasing in any of the markets where we are selling our goods. I admit that forecasting is the most difficult part of industry either at home or abroad. All the experts can tell us what happened after something goes wrong. We have become accustomed to forecasts which are not borne out. I remember when I was Minister at a Cabinet meeting we prepared to pay a subsidy on beef if the price dropped below a certain figure. Our advisers told us that the price of one cwt of beef would drop well below a particular figure. The Cabinet decided it could not go below that figure and they would subsidise. it. We never had to pay that subsidy. Despite the advice from our experts the price continued to rise and before two years the price was almost double that quoted at that particular time. I am merely saying that to show how difficult it is to forecast.
In the Department of Labour we had an expert, a professor whose duty it was to advise on economic trends and he was the first to admit that it was almost impossible to forecast with any accuracy. One could only read the economic trends as one saw them, make one's computations based on the signals but they seldom worked out as forecast. CTT now have offices in many countries of the world. I notice an office in Copenhagen is to be opened in the near future. They have offices outside Dublin in London Manchester, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Beirut and some other places mentioned by the Minister in his brief.
These contacts in those far flung capitals of the world should enable CTT to have their finger on the pulse of the economic sensitivity in the markets of the countries to which we are exporting. I think our tentacles, with the co-operation which I hope we have from diplomatic circles, should be sufficiently spread so that future markets can be reported back. This would enable many firms to diversify, to produce what is required and to produce a cheaper product or perhaps a more expensive product.
One has only the opportunity at a time like this to pay tribute to the various organisations that are working for the benefit of industry in this country. Somebody said:"We export or die". That was said many years ago but it is as true today as ever it was. We are a small community and we are trying to bring back some of our people scattered all over the world who had to go abroad to find employment. In recent years we have shown signs of a growth in population and lower emigration figures. I believe we have come in on the verge of a completely new Ireland in relation to standards, employment and in relation to our whole economic set-up. This has been happening during the last 10 years.
I sincerely hope in the inflationary world in which we now live, that nothing will occur to set us back on the road of progress in the one field where real progress has been recorded, the expansion of exports. I do not want to delay the House by going into the question of domestic inflation. We are not always ready to admit that wage demands that are not justified by improved output are the biggest contribution to domestic inflation and the greatest hazard industry has to face. When one says that openly one is accused of keeping down the working man. If demands for improved incomes are kept in line with productivity and increased output and do not reach out for more than what the increase in the cost of living index justifies, then what the workers get is real money. When it goes beyond that it becomes inflationary and generates demand in the spiral of inflation.
The unions have a duty in this regard. We have been talking for a long time about worker participation. There is great good in that if the workers participate in whatever level workers' democracy calls for participation in. If it calls for a better understanding by the workers of the problems of industrialists and producers and what real demands should be and the extension to which they can be measured in real money, then the sooner we have workers' democracy the better. If it creates that education and that knowledge of the problems involved in industrial production, the problems of inflation and the question of real profits, as compared with inflated profits, which when brought down to the nett can be very small indeed, and bring about that high standard it will have reached a new high level and, perhaps, have developed a sense of equilibrium as regards the two partners in industry, the employer and the employee.
That, perhaps, might seem to be getting away from the purpose of this little Bill, but it is quite relevant, to my mind, in so far as in this Bill we are providing more money for one of the organisations that is doing a lot for exports, market research and information, and in the encouragement generally of industry.
The Minister also mentioned the opening of an office in Brussels. The last time I was over there, many people paid tribute to Mr. Byrne who was in charge and I think still is. The amount of work which that office can do in the matter of keeping industry abreast of developments in the EEC would in itself justify the extra money we are providing for them here tonight. Again it is understandable that the improvement one would expect to take place in exports and in industrial development as a whole is affected by inflation, and it is only natural that more money should be provided for one of the most useful and helpful industrial organisations we have.
