asked the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism the assessment he has made of current trends in business confidence.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Business Confidence.
12.
The major improvements in manufacturing activity in 1984 would seem to indicate a strong recovery in business confidence. Manufacturing output is expected to grow by 9 per cent in 1984 as compared with 7 per cent in 1983; manufacturing exports are expected to increase by 17 per cent as compared with 14 per cent in 1983; site visits this year by foreign industrialists are 30 per cent higher than in 1983; and there are indications that for the first time in five years employment in manufacturing will increase in 1985.
The recently published Industrial Policy White Paper and Building on Reality provide a framework within which business can plan and implement with confidence their marketing and investment proposals.
Would the Minister agree that the indicators in a recent circular from the FUE would indicate that confidence is decreasing, the number of orders on the books are decreasing and that expected production figures are calculated also to decrease?
I do not think the FUE actually publish that kind of information.
It was in a circular.
I do not have any information of that kind produced by the FUE and I would need more information about it. However, the data I have quoted is definite and is based on information available and would tend to counteract the information contained in what the Deputy quoted. However, individual sectors in industry will find themselves in difficult trading circumstances even during the early stages of recovery.
Has the Minister any indications that entrepreneurial activity is on the increase and that this may produce increased employment in industry?
The information I have quoted would indicate precisely that. There is another indication which I did not give the Deputy which tends to confirm what I am saying, and that is, that the number of small industry projects approved by the IDA in the first eight months of 1984 are significantly up, by about 100, on the number of similar projects approved in the same period in 1983. In most cases they are native Irish entrepreneurs rather than foreign investors and many of them are serving the home as well as the export market.
Is the Minister aware that in the recent past some of our leading industrialists have made rather scathing attacks on the lack of incentives being provided by the Government towards increasing business confidence, in particular statements by Mr. O'Reilly, Mr. Smurfit and Mr. Doyle?
Which Mr. Doyle?
Mr. P.V. Doyle in the tourism sector. Is the Minister aware that these statements are being made by such people and does he intend to respond to them?
I am not aware of the statement by Mr. P.V. Doyle but I will take the Deputy's word for it and I will check it later. However, I am aware of the statement made by Mr. O'Reilly which called for reflation of the economy. I replied to that, but not directly. I issued a statement shortly afterwards which indicated the constraints that exist on this Government because of accumulated debt in the past. There might have been a case in the seventies for us to have had a more prudent budgetary policy so that we could have done something in the eighties when the predicted growth in the labour force occurred. We wasted the opportunity and the money in the seventies by not putting money aside and we cannot do it now. As I said, I have replied indirectly to Dr. O'Reilly's views with which we do not agree. He expressed other views, such as the need to promote marketing in more imaginative ways by Irish industry, which we support and we have incorporated some of his suggestions in our White Paper.
Mr. Smurfit issued a statement that his earlier statement was not a criticism of the present Government but of successive Government policies and he said he welcomed what the present Government were doing.
Would the Minister confirm that the only sectors of the economy that have progressed so far as exports are concerned are the high technological, pharmaceutical and electronic industries, and that every other sector has declined? Last year there was a reduction of 11,000 people in manufacturing industry. Will the Minister confirm that this is the case and that his attitude towards business confidence is erroneous?
The Deputy does not need to go by what I have said in this matter. The ESRI in their September publication, which is already on the record of this House, indicated that the industrial recovery in Ireland was broadening considerably and they cited good export performances by the textile, knitwear and clothing industries. They indicated quite clearly that the recovery in Ireland was not confined to the data processing industry, as the Deputy is trying to infer. That is not my opinion, it is the opinion of the Economic and Social Research Institute and I would refer the Deputy to their report.
What is the Minister's opinion?
The remaining questions will appear on next Tuesday's Order Paper.