asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the amount spent by the IDA and Córas Tráchtála on the promotion of industry for Ireland in the USA in the year 1976 or the latest date for which figures are available.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Promotion of Industry.
31.
In 1976 the IDA incurred expenditure of £974,000 in the US on the promotion of Ireland as a location for industrial projects of US origin. Córas Tráchtála on the promote industry as such. The amount spent by Córas Tráchtála on the promotion of Irish exports to the USA in 1976 was £466,250. In both cases the figures cited are provisional ones and may be adjusted when the accounts of the two bodies are finalised.
Would the Minister agree that what I would describe as the reckless and irresponsible statements of his colleague, the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, on his last visit to the US in comparing the situation in this country to a Lebanese situation——
The Deputy is getting away from the subject matter of the question.
The question is to ask if the Minister considers——
If the Deputy has a question appertaining to another Minister, he should put down a question to that Minister.
——these remarks helpful in attracting industry from America to this country? Would he agree that if £974,000, virtually £1 million, is spent by the IDA in promoting industry in the US that this type of statement is not helpful? Would he comment on the statements uttered by his colleague, the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, Deputy Cruise-O'Brien?
The facts of the situation in Northern Ireland are very widely reported in the US and there is no doubt that those facts constitute a difficulty for those who want to promote investment in any part of Ireland, north or south, because people at that distance do not distinguish very well between them. It is the facts of the situation that constitute the difficulty. It is a real difficulty and sometimes the reporting of it is exaggerated and is not helpful to us. Anything which serves to promote the possibility of peace and harmony between the different parts and strands of Ireland is helpful to our long-term investment interest. I know of nothing that Deputy Cruise-O'Brien has said or done which is not motivated by the most profound desire to attain peace and harmony and the sort of cohesion that is essential if we are to have the long-term industrial future that we all desire.
Would the Minister not agree that that kind of statement is not helpful to the IDA because of the manner in which such statements are put across and the wide publicity——
This is a separate and distinct matter altogether.
This is a fair question.
The Deputy should put down a question along those lines. Question No. 32.
I will happily answer a question if I get warning of it. My answer that I know of nothing the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs has done which has been motivated by other than a desire for peace and harmony on this island and which is essential for the long term economic health of both parts of the island must stand.