I was dealing on Friday last with the contribution of the Minister for Finance when he introduced this amazing budget. He did a certain amount of referring back to what he had already said when he introduced his January budget. He built into his contribution on Thursday last a statement he had made in January when he said that his budget was carefully expansionary and that it was designed to preserve employment and maintain living standards. It can truthfully be said that his January budget failed to do either. I do not have to deal with the fact that employment has not been maintained. We now have the highest rate of unemployment this country has had since the breakdown in the former Coalition regime.
The Minister in his speech said:
Unemployment, which is a chronic and a corrosive evil with deplorable social effects, is an inevitable consequence of inflation.
Such a statement by the Minister for Finance cannot be allowed to go without comment. It is an outlandishly stupid statement for a man in his position to make. Inflation at a slow or a fast rate has been taking place all over the world over a period. That sort of situation does not necessarily mean increasing unemployment. For a Minister for Finance to make such a statement establishes beyond yea or nay that he does not know what his job is all about. The Minister went on to say in regard to inflation:
Unless it is swiftly reduced, this could be a recipe for unemployment on a scale previously unknown and intolerable living costs at home.
That statement is an indication that the Minister for Finance has given up the ghost from the point of view of trying to get the economy back on a proper footing. An indication of the fact that the situation has almost got completely out of hand and, left in his hands, will, in fact, get completely out of hand, is the statement he made that 20 per cent of the expenditure that has to be provided for at present is needed to fund the national debt. That is an indication of the manner in which this Government have been selling the country down the drain.
I recall, as a comparatively young Deputy, 15 years ago, listening to Deputy O.J. Flanagan, my constituency colleague and a man who is renowned for flinging mud right, left and centre. He was pointing to the Sliabh Bloom mountain and saying that in a very short time due to Government borrowing, the forest and the mountain itself would be owned by the Germans. It is rather pitiful that a Government backed by that gentleman have brought us to the point where we are well on the way to having our island owned by foreigners. This is a direct result of the maladministration of this team of geniuses who were brought into the Government two and a half years ago.
We had the extraordinary admission from the Minister for Finance that £76 million had been spent over and above the estimate that was prepared in January. We are further in hock to that extent and, according to today's newspapers, it seems that even that was an underestimation of the actual position. The Minister, using the services of his advisory staff in the Department of Finance, four or five days before the end of a six month term deceived this House and the public by not being up to date with the financial position of the country. He had to admit that tax revenue was running lower than the rate expected. We can see from the six months statement of accounts that revenue does not measure up to what he expected in January. Everybody recognises that as Minister for Finance he has a vested interest in inflation because in its own way it improves the tax revenue position. It fell short under the straightforward tax revenue heading, excluding motor vehicle duties: it fell short of expectations under the heading of motor vehicle duties and in the non-tax revenue end it was on a par or slightly exceeded the expected revenue for the six month period which was £11 million.
It is a desperate situation that any Minister should have to come into Parliament and admit that he has so misconducted the affairs of State that the rate of foreign borrowing has risen fivefold in the last two years. That is two years of the two-and-a-half years the Government have been in office. That is the greatest condemnation of any Government. It did not come from the Opposition. It came from the mouth of the man who has to handle the financial affairs of the country. It is an establishment of the fact that he is the most unfit Minister for Finance this country has ever had.
It is rather sad that the Minister had to say:
The Irish economy does not have an unlimited capacity either to borrow resources or to repay them —a fact no less apparent to our creditors than to ourselves.
That is a significant statement coming from the mouth of the man who had been traipsing all over the world during the previous week. It was all right to say that the Irish economy does not have an unlimited capacity either to borrow resources or to repay them, but to have to admit publicly and openly here in Parliament that this fact had become apparent to the countries to which he had travelled in an effort to borrow further to keep the country going is a very serious matter. That very significant addendum to a sentence appeared in the budget presented here last Thursday by the Minister for Finance. If it were not so serious it would be a laughing matter for the Minister for Finance to come in here and state, on behalf of the Government, that there is no question of reneging on or abandoning the national wage agreement. He went on to say that, if the modifications are inadequate, the Government would be obliged to consider revoking the price reliefs. Who is the Minister trying to fool? He clearly calls categorically for the abandonment of the national wage agreement and then goes on to say that the purpose is to maintain the real value of incomes which, in the absence of Government action, would be further eroded by inflation.
Why are the Government afraid to take positive action? Why the necessity for turning to these blackmailing tactics operated by the Minister for Finance? He established beyond yea or nay the criticism in the leading article in last Sunday's Independent that this Government is a spineless and leaderless group. Deputy Colley stressed on Thursday last the fact that one of the principal problems the country has is lack of confidence. One of the things that breeds a lack of confidence is being leaderless and that is exactly the position with this Government at this moment. This morning, a Cheann Comhairle, you yourself witnessed the leader of my party asking the Leader of the Government a straightforward question, asking if the Taoiseach would make Government time available to discuss a very serious situation that has developed due to mishandling by the Minister for Defence, with the connivance of the Taoiseach, and the Taoiseach had not the guts to say “No”; all he could do was shake his head.
Here is this leaderless Government we heard so much about 2½ years ago. I was a member of the last Fianna Fáil Government put out of office by popular vote 2½ years ago. I have a clear recollection of Government meetings almost every Tuesday morning and the then Taoiseach of this very silent Government, which is what we were accused of being, coming down the steps of Government Buildings any time between one and two o'clock, and often three o'clock, from a Government meeting and a microphone would be shoved under his chin and he would be asked questions on current affairs and would be expected to answer those questions. Week after week he did just that. He answered questions from the Press, television and radio with regard to whatever the problem was at the moment.
Has the Taoiseach ever been interviewed on the steps of Government Buildings? It is a tribute to the Director of the Government Information Services that he has not. This Government have a way of presenting the news without a Minister ever being responsible for actually making a statement. Recently the Minister for Industry and Commerce was interviewed on television. The interviewer asked him was it not the case that such and such had been discussed that day, as indeed had already been announced by a Government spokesman, and the Minister for Industry and Commerce laughed, which was rather unusual, in a rather sarcastic way, which is rather usual for him, and said: "I read in the paper where the Government have been today discussing this, or today discussing that, or yesterday discussing something else, and it is far removed from the truth". This was a new development on the part of this open Government because up to this official Government sources, the Government Information Services, were coming out ex cathedra and making what purported to be actual starightforward statements. Over the last fortnight or three weeks this has changed. The mouthpiece for the Government has been contradicted by a Government spokesman. The Minister for Industry and Commerce let the Government Information Services, which has stood the Government in good stead, down very badly. Mark you, when the ship is sinking we all know what happens with the rats.
I was dealing with the statement made by the Minister for Finance in which he claimed that the Government were not reneging on the national wages agreement but were going to see to it that it was buried in some other way. He went on to say that really what it amounted to was that, if the Employer/Labour Conference failed to play ball with his formula, other steps would have to be taken. I can picture here one appearance of a Government Minister on the steps of Government Buildings. It will be the Minister for Finance, Deputy Richie Ryan, standing on the steps where the present Taoiseach should have stood and met the media, and, like Pilate, he will send for the water and the towel and and wash his hands publicly and say to the people: "Do not blame me. I am innocent."
Today is the first Tuesday following on last Thursday's budget and we have a rather remarkable situation. The Minister for Finance promised last Thursday that the price of milk would come down by 2 pence per pint. Yesterday, the 30th day of June, the Minister for Industry and Commerce made an Order maintaining the price of milk at its existing level for the month of July. That is one of the promises already gone up the spout. Headlined in today's papers is the fact that despite the promise made by the Minister for Finance last Thursday regarding fuel prices, there will be an increase of 3 pence per bail in turf briquettes, an increase of £12 per cwt. sanctioned by the Minister for Industry and Commerce. Instead of the removal of VAT bringing down the price of electricity we will in fact have an increase of 8 per cent in electricity charges. It has been categorically stated over the weekend that the Minister for Transport and Power has refused CIE permission to reduce rail charges.
What is going on in this Government? The Minister for Finance says one thing and the Minister for Industry and Commerce does the other. So does the Minister for Transport and Power. In to-day's paper there is an amazing recommendation by the Prices Commission, which is being adopted by the Minister for Industry and Commerce, legitimising a charge of an additional 4 pence on the pint of milk if the shopper does not bring an empty bottle. I do not condemn that but I do condemn the Minister for Industry and Comerce for sanctioning a charge of an additional 4p on the bottle of milk if the purchaser does not bring a bottle, unless he also makes an arrangement whereby a refund of 4p will be made to the purchaser who brings back the bottle. This is a thing that is being and has been exploited in this city. That has been the situation for some months but nobody tells the Minister for Industry and Commerce anything.
I recall hearing the Minister for Industry and Commerce say in the debate on the Estimate for his Department just before the Christmas recess that if he had any complaint to make it was that he did not get enough complaints. I was criticised as Minister for Industry and Commerce but I always heard the complaints and nobody was louder in his complaints than the present Minister for Industry and Commerce. Not alone did he complain, he promised remedies. I do not think we have experienced the operation of these remedies.
One observation made by the Minister for Finance in his financial statement which passed very much unnoticed was the threat to have a repetition of what happened in the last Coalition Government, in the 1956-1957 period, implied in the statement that when the money allocated for grant schemes was used no more money would be made available. I can confidently prophesy that a great many householders, particularly farmers, will face a rather bleak Christmas this year. I can see myself as a Deputy for my constituency having to make representations to the Department of Local Government regarding the payment of reconstruction grants or new house grants and to the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in connection with farm grants. It has been stated categorically by the Minister for Finance that money will not be made available once the initial provision for grants has been exhausted.
There is an arrangement, a Cheann Comhairle, as you know, whereby until the Estimate has been passed a Department can use only three-fourths of the amount provided in the previous year's Estimate. I had an urgent call from the Government Whip in the middle of June. He asked that all the Estimates be cleared before the end of June as every Department was running out of money on the basis of last year's Estimate and in order to maintain the flow of money it was urgently required that all the Estimates be cleared by the end of June. That indicated that three-fourths of last year's provision had been spent by all the Departments. I realise that in that case it was only a nine months period and that the provision would be much lower than for this year.
The statement by the Minister for Finance last week that so many more millions would be required in order to keep the ship of State afloat for this year is a clear indication that from September onwards there will be very little money in the kitty to pay the grants to which the public have become accustomed and to which they are entitled. I foresee a very bleak Christmas for our people.
The Minister said that consideration would also be given to making realistic charges for public services which are either provided free or are charged for at uneconomic rates. This is another statement which did not seem to get the notice it deserves. I am interested to see the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and the Minister for Industry and Commerce in the House. I see involved in that statement a severe curtailment of an already curtailed school transport service. I see a curtailment of free transport for old age pensioners, a curtailment of the provision of free electricity for the same necessitous group. The Minister went on to say:
Exchequer subsidies to various bodies which should more appropriately be supported from other sources will also be looked at critically.
That puts paid to the possibility of the restoration of amenity grants in the coming year, the need for which has been felt throughout the country. It puts paid to the local improvements scheme grants. It puts paid to any prospect of State help for the social welfare groups who have been expecting and some of whom have been receiving State help. It puts paid to any progressive youth policy programme, if such a thing could be expected from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education.
When will the Taoiseach correct the mistake made last week by the Minister for Finance when he suggested that the Minister for Labour would come into the House to explain the operation of the £12 employment premium scheme? The Minister for Labour came into the House but he did not explain. The faithful Government Information Services have again come out with documentation to try to explain but the matter is left very clouded in the Guide to the National Manpower Premium Employment Programme as to how the potential employer or expanding employer will get the proper type of assistance. As I said on Thursday last, I am in favour of this scheme but there is a great deal of vagueness about it.
I was intrigued to hear the Minister say that an approach had recently been made to the EEC Commission to make arrangements to regulate the flow of imports of footwear. Why only now? I notice that in the script which the Minister handed out the statement was: "an approach had been made". When the Minister was reading from the script, being the clever operator he is, he put in the word "further"—"a further approach had been made". He added the word "further" in order not to give the lie to the statement made by the Minister for Industry and Commerce before Christmas of last year when he conveyed that he was endeavouring to do something about the footwear industry and promise an early solution. The Minister has faithfully promised an early solution for the past two-and-a-half years. It has not been forthcoming.
This is extraordinary behaviour on the part of the Minister and the Government in view of the fact that the footwear industry is in such a dreadful position. The textile industry also is in a dreadful position. Why was the further approach, or the approach—whichever one likes to take—which was to be made to the EEC Commission with a view to the adoption of remedial arrangements which would enable the flow of imports of footwear to be regulated in the interests of employment in the industry, not made also in connection with textiles in respect of which the situation is as serious?
There is a beautiful vagueness in the Minister's statement dealing with the extra £27 million from the public capital programme. He mentioned £10.5 million for housing. Other speakers have dealt with that more adequately than I. The Minister for Local Government was saying that there was no problem with housing; there is no scarcity of money; and who are the Opposition trying to fool? He has now been contradicted by the Minister for Finance who found it necessary to make this extra provision and to do business with the banks to also make extra provision. This proves that the Minister for Local Government has been trying to blind the country to the situation while he smiles and whistles his way past the graveyard.
An extra £8 million is being provided for telephone development. I recall large black headlines in the press in February last year about the extra £75 million which that Minister had extracted from the Government for telephones and that everything in the garden would be rosy. Yet the telephone waiting figures like the unemployment figures, continue to increase. As long as we have the present Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, this situation will continue. He is obsessed with so many flak operations that, in my view, he never has time to do what he was appointed by the Taoiseach to do, and that is, do something about the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.
The Minister for Finance blew bugles because he was providing an extra £5.2 million for the development of industry and commerce, until he got to the stage that £4 million was being provided for the rescue service, Fóir Teoranta.
Nobody knows, least of all the farmers, how the £3.4 million will be channelled into agriculture and so far, nobody from the Government side has given any indication about it. I realise that I have not very much time but, as a former Minister for Industry and Commerce I must spend some time dealing with that Department and the complete, abject and utter failure of this Minister for Industry and Commerce.
Everybody knows there are three Departments of State which have the responsibility to generate the finance to keep this country going—Industry and Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Posts and Telegraphs. Every other Department is dependent on the work done by these three Ministers. When I was Minister for Industry and Commerce I remember fighting at the cabinet table for my slice of the cake. I had to continuously remind my colleagues of the importance of my Department. The Minister for Transport and Power has a very serious function to perform. He is responsible for tourism.
The big failure in the present Government is the Minister for Industry and Commerce, who, on the one hand, should be developing industry and, on the other trying to make a serious effort to control prices. He was left a Department with an ever-increasing number of new jobs being generated annually. The IDA and CTT were all-go, fully backed by IIRS and SFADCo. The Minister complained recently about being left with an empty cupboard because the former Minister left no ideas. Every Minister has come here with files and flung accusations at their predecessors. When the present Minister for Industry and Commerce could not find anything derogatory to say about his predecessor, all he could think of was to say that I had left an empty cupboard.
The Minister for Finance went on record as saying that the Minister for Industry and Commerce could not get into the Department when first appointed because the Department were inundated with applications for price increases. If there were, the present Minister cleared them very quickly. If anybody cares to look at his record from a legislative point of view he will see that the Minister has done nothing since he took office except, in my opinion make a mess of mining. His big complaint was that I had not commissioned experts to make reports telling him what to do with our mineral development.
I want to make a confession; I gave consideration to all that. I am not an expert on resource and development but one of the things that worried me was if I commissioned experts from the United States, Canada, Norway, Britain or anywhere else in Europe, would those experts be working solely for this country or in cahoots with an already established business?
What has he to show for the reports he had on his desk when he took office? What has he done about the Acton Report on textiles? He has allowed the industry to fall around his ears. We had negotiated a special deal for the motor assembly industry in Europe and it is now in chaos. Why? I seriously suggest it is because it suited the smallmindedness of the present Minister for Industry and Commerce to join in undermining the motor assembly industry by telling the workers that I had sold them out before he learned the hard way that I was providing suitable alternative jobs for them.
In late 1971 I travelled at the head of a small business delegation to Bulgaria. As a result, we sold £300,000 worth of goods to the Bulgarians in 1972 as against £100,000 imported from them, a three-to-one balance in our favour. This year, four years later, the present Minister, who could not get a visa to the United States until he became Minister for Industry and Commerce, led a power-packed delegation to Moscow and returned gloating and smiling, because he got an order for £150,000.
I created the National Prices Commission to help with price controls. While in office I accepted full responsibility for any price increases. The present Minister uses the Commission to cover his failure. The National Prices Commission saved this country a great deal of money. The Minister is using this body as a smoke screen for his own inactivity, incompetence and failure.
Nothing has been done about motor insurance—although Committee reports are on his desk—consumer protection, or the Bill on mergers and takeovers which was to improve the mining position. He failed to operate the restrictive practices, letting the big combines dictate to the small man. All this from our socialist Minister. The Minister's greatest capacity is to monitor. He spends all his time monitoring, studying up-swings and down-swings, up-turns and downturns. All we have had are up-turns in prices, up-turns in unemployment, and down-swings in the national wealth.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach said we have had too many debates. We have had quite a number. Last Thursday Deputy Colley pointed out that we have not been obstructive in Opposition. It was established beyond doubt on Thursday last that the Fianna Fáil Opposition have been most constructive. If our advice had been accepted it could have been effective. The advice we gave at the end of last year and the beginning of this year was the proper advice but, as the Leader of our party said, what the Government are doing is too little and too late.
The Parliamentary Secretary also said that the standard of living of our people has risen so much that people are now travelling to the Black Sea for their holidays. He said he was not jealous of this. Jealousy does not arise. Possibly I would love to be at the Black Sea on holidays at the moment. The reason our people are going abroad for their holidays is that, due to the inaction and inactivity and the misdeeds of the Government people can have cheaper holidays abroad than at home.
Some people on the Government side of the House think this is a good budget. We were threatened with a shocking budget and with disaster. We have achieved disaster. Some of the more eloquent orators on the Government side may be able to sell to the people the erroneous idea that we are so well off that we can hand out the goodies which were handed out last week without paying for them. I would ask the Taoiseach to call a general election immediately.