The major political event of this session was, of course, the meeting at Chequers, between the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister. The disastrous, humiliating outcome of that meeting is now a matter of history. The reality which we must face, following that meeting, is that the situation in Northern Ireland has been frozen in its present tragic dimensions for an indefinite period. British policy is now firmly committed to maintaining the status quo. Any hopes which we might have cherished of progress towards a solution have, for the time being at any rate, been discounted. The British Daily Telegraph feels it appropriate to talk about “the Unionists in their hour of triumph” because the guarantee of their entrenched position, power and privilege has now been extended and copperfastened. The shutters are down; the outlook is grey and depressing.
I have already confirmed that we in Fianna Fáil do not accept this unilateral imposition of a barrier to progress; that we will fight it in every forum available to us; that we will highlight British intransigence around the world and will continue to advocate the only possible solution designed to bring peace and stability to this island and to finally establish permanent and satisfactory relations between this country and Britain. The historic recital of the events which have brought Northern Ireland to its present tragic state, the presentation of the realities of that situation and the agreed conclusion arrived at in the New Ireland Forum report are all valid. They have not been upset by argument or reason. What is required now is for all the parties in Ireland who seek to achieve the nationalist ideal of peace in unity to renew their efforts to this end. We should be clear and specific about our objectives and we should learn the bitter lesson that vagueness about objectives, and an apparent willingness to appease, can only lead to the sort of major setback that this nation suffered at Chequers.
Just as we were about to adjourn, the latest unemployment figures have been disclosed. They show that once again there was a further disheartening rise of 4,000 during November to bring the figure to a staggering 216,517. This figure would, of course, be considerably greater, perhaps by as much as 10,000, were it not for the fact that Irish people are once again being forced to emigrate in search of employment, particularly young people. From these Opposition benches it is our responsibility to keep reminding this Government that these levels of unemployment are the direct result of their monetarist policies, that they constitute a national scandal and that they contain within them the seeds of serious social disorder. What is inexcusable in this context is the failure of the Government to undertake any action to protect existing employment. The depressing list of closures continues unabated. It now sometimes seems that nothing is safe or secure any more. I submit that, in a number of recent cases, closure was not inevitable and could have been avoided given the political will. Rescue packages could have been prepared which had every prospect of succeeding. A malaise seems to have spread throughout the corridors of power under this Government affecting all Departments and agencies of the State. There is an atmosphere of defeatism and an almost automatic tendency to send for the receiver. Ministers of this Government seem increasingly prepared, as their political ship sinks, to bring the whole nation down with them. They are politically paralysed as the dreadful truth comes home to them that they got it all wrong and that their policies have started a downward spiral that is now feeding inexorably on itself.
The recent dramatic demise of such companies as Verolme Dockyard, Clover Meats and Irish Shipping can be attributed directly to Government policy. There is no longer any attempt to save jobs, as these three cases in particular demonstrate. This Government are prepared to stand back and let jobs go without any effort to save them. Do the members of this Government not realise, can they not understand, the tragedy that follows when a firm of long standing closes down; the saga of human misery and sadness that takes place when men and women who have given the best years of their lives to a firm suddenly find their livelihoods taken away from them and their dignity and self-respect as well? Fianna Fáil Governments acted time and time again to save jobs. But there is now no longer any policy of job protection on the part of this Government. Such efforts find no favour with the new Right which is now dominant in the corridors of power in this country.
Our approach to the problem of permanent mass unemployment is first of all to identify its solution as the priority objective of economic policy and secondly to adopt a coherent multi-sided policy approach to tackling it.
In Fianna Fáil we start by rejecting a policy of acquiescence in emigration to help solve the problem, because we want our young Irish people to be able to stay in Ireland and find here a satisfactory and fulfilling way of life in their own country.
We believe that the Government must play an active role in the economy by planning and implementing policies for the creation and maintenance of jobs. There must be a real attempt made to restore investment to its 1977-82 levels. This requires a positive commitment to provide whatever resources are required for job creation and the rejection of that part of this Government's Industrial White Paper which states that the state of Government finances does not allow for any real expansion of expenditure in job creation. It also requires a more positive climate for investment in terms of cost, taxation and public utility charges and positive support for a carefully selected programme by the IDA.
We shall have to select those sectors for growth which will provide added value to the economy and will bring with them technological spin-off benefits. We have comparatively one of the best educated young populations in all of Europe. We must exploit that situation and establish firmly once and for all our reputation as a nation of high skills and high productivity. We shall have to develop a competitiveness which is based on technological and technical skills, quality, high productivity, expert marketing and back-up service rather than a competitiveness — to which this Government are committed — which relies exclusively on depressed wages. Our aim must be to be a high wage, high technology economy.
We must immediately and comprehensively strengthen our scientific and research base. As I have already indicated on our return to Government, we will appoint a Minister of State for Science and Technology. High priority will be given to the modernisation of equipment, the restoration of staffing levels in key scientific institutions and a concentration of efforts and technological innovation in the areas of biotechnology, microelectronics, food-processing, mariculture and engineering. Public procurement policy must be used to stimulate the development of new technology based on products developed by Irish firms. Our entire education system must be more technologically oriented and the weight of investment in third level education placed in that area.
There must be a major expansion of our efforts at every level, particularly Government, in promoting export marketing and finding and establishing new markets. We do enjoy great goodwill in many parts of this world. We must build on this goodwill and use it as a base for a successful export trade. In spite of our fairly long period of membership by now of the European Community there is still a need to penetrate European markets much more deeply than we have done.
Taxation policy can be used as a very powerful instrument for promoting employment opportunities. I was not at all surprised to hear the chairman of Irish Distillers claim that the lowering of excise on spirits has more or less brought cross-Border smuggling to a halt. Members of this House know that I advocated this type of proposal frequently in this House before it was at last adopted. The appointment of a committee to look into the effects of VAT on cross-Border trade is a further step in that direction. The validity of my argument for self-financing tax cuts is now acknowledged. I hope that a much greater attempt will be undertaken in this direction in the forthcoming Budget.
The public capital programme is an important instrument for job creation both directly and indirectly. Since this Government took office investment in the productive sectors of the economy has fallen off disastrously. Investment in agriculture and fisheries in particular is now less than half the 1980 levels. Agriculture, of course, still is one of the most important sectors of our economy. It is particularly unfortunate — at the time we should be building up our cattle stocks and the quality of our beef production— that the Fianna Fáil four year plan for agriculture has been virtually ignored. We, in Government, will reverse that policy. It is equally disappointing that there is still no concerted effort to expand substantially our marine resources, mariculture and fish farming.
The bringing of natural gas to centres round the country must be immediately undertaken. There are jobs to be established there and a source of energy for our industry. We have been very slow in exploiting this major natural resource. There is evidence that the Government are bogged down in ideological difficulties while in the meantime nothing gets done to exploit this very important energy resource at our disposal.
Our State companies and indeed local authorities, have an important role also to play in economic recovery. They are major employers. They should not be starved of resources so that they cannot reach their potential, although obviously maximum efficiency must be demanded of them. Local authorities also have the powers — which they have not widely used — to act as development corporations in their own areas. At this time of economic and social crisis they should and must turn their attention to using those powers.
The management of the public finances over the past two years has been characterised by a series of bad decisions, poor judgment and policy reversals.
This bad management has been particularly emphasised and underlined by the recent rise in domestic interest rates when interest rates generally around the world were falling. This is, of course, directly attributable to the mistaken borrowing policy adopted by the present Minister for Finance. First of all, he made the inexplicable decision to switch our borrowing out of European currencies into dollars. Secondly — transfixed by his own partisan, political propaganda — he restricted foreign borrowing and placed unnecessary pressure on the domestic market.
The Government can offer no prospect of any relief in the present crushing levels of taxation. In fact, the reverse is true. Increased local charges and local authority rents are on the way as are levies on the ESB, Bord Telecom, Bord Gáis Éireann, and all of them certainly will be passed on to the hard pressed tax payers.
The Government's policies in the area of social welfare and health have been callous and insensitive and have hit the poorer and weaker sections of our community very hard indeed. Increases in social welfare rates have been derisory and insulting. The abolition of the food subsidies has brought an additional measure of deprivation to those who can least cope with it. I would have thought that it was by now universally accepted as a principle of a modern, enlightened Government that whatever the state of the national economy, whatever the extent and the depth of any particular economic recession, whatever the fiscal and budgetary disciplines that had to be imposed, the poorer and weaker sections of the national community would be protected and their standards of living, already low and inadequate in many cases, would not be allowed to deteriorate. It is to the shame of the Government that they have not adhered to any such principle and that, in fact, to a large extent, their attempts to achieve fiscal rectitude have been at the expense of the poorer and weaker sections of the community — the old, the unemployed, the disadvantaged, the disabled and the lower paid.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions have recently undertaken a programme of meetings with the political parties. We in Fianna Fáil welcomed this initiative. We were very glad to have an opportunity of an exchange of views with the trade union leadership on the current state of the economy and, in particular, about the social evil of mass unemployment. We were glad to avail of the opportunity to assure Congress that we were in agreement with and fully supported the broad economic strategy outlined in their valuable document, Confronting the Jobs Crisis. We found a basis for agreement between us in accepting the importance of increasing infrastructure expenditure and the use of the public capital programme as a means of stimulating economic recovery, the importance of developing our natural resources, and the vital and necessary role to be played in economic progress and development by the semi-State sector.
I would not attempt to suggest that there would not be differences of emphasis between Fianna Fáil and the trade union movement on a number of issues. As a matter of practical economic management, we would probably attach some greater significance to the private sector and to the relative contributions to be made to overall development between the private and public sectors. But there would be no difference between us about the urgent need for economic development and the corresponding need for every sector to make the maximum possible contribution to such development. We would also find common ground in identifying unemployment as the central problem in our society and on the need for policies based on the acceptance of that reality.
The construction industry has been one of the major victims of the present Government's policies. There are now over 40,000 building workers unemployed. Even in monetary terms, the provision in the public capital programme for 1985 for the construction industry is below the level in 1982. The Government's document, Building on Reality ignores the key importance and potential of the construction industry, and foresees employment in that sector as static at best over the next three years.
A major revival in the building and construction industry, with a major increase in public capital expenditure and incentives for private investment, will be a key element in our programme of economic revival.
To close down, sell off or devalue a State company seems to have been turned to by the economists and other spokesmen for the new Right as a demonstration of political virility. The demoralised and irrelevant Labour Party can no longer offer any resistance. If this process of dismantling the State sector is brought much further, the Government will get to the point of dismantling the State itself. Without a ship building or repair capacity in the State or a merchant shipping fleet to bring us essential supplies, we are now left vulnerable in the event of a serious international crisis. It is surely extremely foolish for us, as an island nation, to deprive ourselves of any significant maritime capacity to supply our vital needs in an emergency situation. The next Fianna Fáil Government will have to rectify this situation and restore a strategic minimum of shipping capacity in this vital area.
We must accept, however unpalatable it may be for most of us to do so, that our creditworthiness as a nation has been detrimentally affected by this Government's decision to repudiate specific financial obligations as it did in the case of Irish Shipping. At another level, it is clear that the Government have a responsibility for the closure of Clover Meats and for the action of the Agricultural Credit Corporation, which led to over 1,000 Irish farmers being left with cheques they could not cash. The cumulative damaging effect of instances of this kind is very great. It shatters confidence and greatly harms our commercial and financial standing at home and abroad.
These are critical days for the future of our oil and gas resources. The extent of these resources has not yet been ascertained, either on land or under the sea. It is clear, however, that we have hydrocarbon deposits, however large or limited they may be. There have also been some recent developments in regard to these resources which need to be carefully watched if the interests of the Irish people are to be fully protected. These natural resources belong to the Irish people, and they must be developed exclusively for their benefit. At this stage we look to them as a possible major source for generating future economic development. They represent a great potential, and it would be unforgiveable if the enormous possibilities they could offer are dissipated and lost to future generations because the wrong decisions are made at this stage.
Recent developments must be a cause of misgiving. There have been a number of speeches and statements which are clearly designed to create a climate favourable to particular commercial interests. It is being claimed that certain changes should be made and concessions granted allegedly in the interest of exploration. I want to make it clear that Fianna Fáil will watch these developments very closely indeed. We will not tolerate any lessening or diminution of the legitimate rights of the State or the interests of the Irish taxpayer. We will not stand for any cosy arrangements or special treatment for favourite groups. We know that the so-called early production system, while it might provide a quick return for the commercial interests involved, would be detrimental to the proper exploration and development of the oil field as a whole. It is absurd to suggest that the Irish Government should be in any way concerned about the troubles of large multinational concerns or have any obligation to come to their aid. The Irish Government's responsibility is to the Irish people and the Irish tax payers. I feel it necessary to place on record, for the benefit of anyone who may be contemplating entering into any particular arrangements, that when we resume office these arrangements will be fully and carefully scrutinised and unless they can be clearly demonstrated to be in accordance with the best interests of this State they will, if necessary, be radically reviewed. It is only fair to everybody concerned that I should make our position crystal clear and that nobody should be under any illusion as to where we stand on the vital question of the development of Irish natural resources for the benefit of the Irish people and not for the advantage and profit of particular favoured groups.
The same situation will apply to the arrangements for the initiation of satellite broadcasting. This too is an area of great potential and one from which substantial benefits can accrue to the Irish taxpayer. We will also scrutinise any arrangements made in this area and subject them to the same test of public interest and benefit to the State.
One of the favourite myths of Fine Gael and their media friends used to be that they were good at foreign affairs. The line handed out was that they knew their way around, spoke French and could deal with foreign politicians, diplomats and officials.
I do not think that we will hear much more about that particular piece of fraudulent misrepresentation. It is not just that their handling of Anglo Irish relations has been disastrous, but we have fared very badly in Europe also. There is evidence that our relations with the Federal Republic of Germany have not been good for some time. This mishandling of our relations with Germany is particularly disappointing in view of the fact that since we joined the Community, the Germans have been particularly friendly and have supported our case on many different difficult occasions.
Our handling of the Presidency of the Community has been inept and unsuccessful. The Greeks, who it will be recalled, made a comparatively generous offer on the super-levy at the Athens Summit last year, are now talking about having been betrayed by Ireland. Despite the massive selling job carried out by the Government's media machine after the Dublin Summit, it is now slowly but clearly, emerging that it was far from the success it was presented as being. The President of the European Commission, Gaston Thorn, has said that it was poorly prepared and that he is pessimistic about the timetable for enlargement being able to be kept. We all took the statement about extra aid for famine stricken Ethiopia at its face value and warmly welcomed it. It now appears to have been something of a confidence trick. In fact, it has been described in The Guardian of Sunday, 8 December 1984 by a Commission official as hypocrisy of the worst kind. The Taoiseach's very dubious statement last Sunday seemed only to confirm the truth of the accusations which were being made, namely, that next year's development aid for famine stricken countries would be reduced by a corresponding amount.
The Government have signally failed to defend Ireland's vital interests in the Community over the last twelve months. Ireland's EC diplomacy has, I regret to say, been a disastrous failure, and we have allowed long established positions to be swept away with only token resistance. The Government's efforts to win exemption from the super-levy ended in fiasco. If the Government were going to settle for the best deal available, they certainly missed the boat in Athens, when a 10 per cent exemption was put on the table by the Greek Presidency, something which was a great deal better than what was finally accepted. Then we discovered that the concession obtained was even less than first appeared, because of a disastrous miscalculation by the Minister for Agriculture, which should be the cause of the resignation of any honourable Minister. As a result Irish farmers will lose £10 million a year. The Commission in the meantime are docking payments to Ireland, and have rejected out of hand bravado posturings by this hapless Minister. So much for our foreign policy.
The Government have capitulated to British demands for general restrictions on the CAP, which are designed to hold farm spending below the growth in own resources. In other words, Irish farmers are condemned to a low income situation in the Community for the foreseeable future.
It is appearing increasingly doubtful if the survival of our fishing industry will be ensured in the negotiations over enlargement. The Spanish fishing fleet will be the largest in the Community and within a comparatively short number of years will have free access virtually up to our shores. If now seems likely that this vast Spanish fishing fleet will be operating within six miles of our shore in less, possibly much less, than ten years time. That is the Spanish demand. Unfortunately at this stage the Government seem to have virtually given away Ireland's position, and an effective policy of protecting our fishing grounds will become difficult, if not impossible, once a huge armada of Spanish fishing vessels descends upon our waters.
The depressing net result of the Government's EC diplomacy over the last 18 months has been to leave Ireland without protection for its vital interests, unpopular, without allies and with our overall interests in the Community seriously damaged.
I believe the Government must be well aware of the serious misgivings which have arisen about recent happenings in the legal and constitutional area. The Chief Justice has indicated his intention to resign from that office and to take up an appointment in the European Court for a period of ten months. The Attorney General has resigned and has been replaced by a relatively junior lawyer whose appointment is a major break from long established tradition. A piece of legislation has been published covering the remuneration of the judiciary which contains a number of extraordinary features. On the face of it, we are entitled to assume that these different events are all connected in some way. If so, this should be fully explained to this House and to the people.
The Bill which has been published has very serious constitutional implications. It gives a Minister of the Government specific power to confer substantial benefits retrospectively on a member of the judiciary and that power is not subject, apparently, to review by this House. This runs completely counter to the whole concept of a judiciary which is totally independent of the Government, and opens up alarming possibilities of individual members of the judiciary being rewarded substantially by the Government of the day. I believe this proposal will be unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of legal and constitutional opinion in this country whether academic or practising, whether on the bench or at the bar and that it must be withdrawn. If it is not we will fight it every step of the way through the Oireachtas and we shall exhort every Oireachtas Member who values the constitutional independence of the judiciary to support us.
The Bill which has been published also proposes to reduce the qualifying period of pensions for judges from 15 to five years. I have no hesitation in describing this as utterly outrageous at a time when all sections of the community are suffering hardships, reductions in their standard of living, cutbacks and pressures of every kind and the general public service generally is being abused by Ministers for being feather-bedded and having their rights to negotiations and arbitration in effect suspended. This Government propose in those circumstances concessions of this magnitude for a comparatively well remunerated section of our community, namely, the judiciary. It is difficult to understand or to comprehend the reason for the proposal. It certainly does not derive from any normal revision and there must be something involved which has not been disclosed to us, and which must be disclosed to us.
Our national political life had been debased by the lengthy, semi-public and unprecedented wrangle which has taken place between Fine Gael and Labour over the appointment of the new Attorney General. It must raise serious doubts about the discharge of his constitutional responsibilities by the Taoiseach. The appointment of the Attorney General is reserved exclusively by the Constitution to the Taoiseach. It is certainly contrary to the spirit of the Constitution for the Taoiseach to have allowed anyone, a member of the Government or anyone else, to dictate to him who should be chosen for this fundamentally important constitutional office.
The Attorney General's post is one of great and far-reaching responsibility. His duties are onerous and demanding and call for great personal qualities. On him, ultimately, rests responsibility for the proper and just functioning of the legal machinery of the State. Very often he will be, in practical terms, the ultimate protector of the rights and the freedom of the individual. Today he is often called upon to discharge important international duties affecting the basic sovereignty and security of the State. The new Attorney General has never conducted a case in the High Court, still less the Supreme Court.
I must confess that in considering this matter I find myself a little inhibited because we on this side of the House have no wish to attack any particular individual, but we have to attack the process by which this appointment was made. I am not at all reassured even by an account which has been given by the security correspondent of The Irish Times this morning about the matter, and in particular about the new appointee. Mr. Rogers, we are assured is very tall, has dark features and, when he is pleased, a big wide smile. It would be very strange indeed if he did not smile when he is pleased. The same penetrating correspondent goes on to say:
Spring needs Rogers. He doesn't trust the other three (Mr. Desmond, Mr. Kavanagh and Mr. Quinn) at the Cabinet table and wants to be able to counter their influence with Rogers. He trusts him but he is unsure about the others. People in the party who support Spring reckon that he needs Rogers for his support.
That is a strange way of doing business.
I want, on behalf of a wide section of the community who are deeply concerned about this matter, to put the direct question to the Taoiseach, whether he is satisfied that the person he is nominating to the President for appointment has the qualities, the experience and the qualifications traditionally demanded for this high constitutional post. Was it not simply a very basic matter—you approve Sutherland for the job of Commissioner in Europe and I will approve Rogers for the job of Attorney General in Ireland?
It has invariably been the practice up to now that the person appointed to the position of Attorney General should be an eminent practising member of the bar. There was a time when the Fine Gael Party would have prided themselves on upholding that time-honoured legal and constitutional tradition. It would once have been anathema to the leaders of that party that it should be seen to all that the main qualification of the appointee is that he is a friend and adviser of the leader of the Labour Party. Is there no limit to the lengths the present leader of Fine Gael will go to hold on to office? Is there much point in being Taoiseach if you cannot even appoint your own Attorney General?
This is unfortunately but one more, even though the most important so far, of a series of appointments which reflect no credit on the Government. For years we have had to put up with nauseating sanctimonious cant from this Taoiseach and from the Fine Gael Party about political patronage. Their November 1982 election document spoke of the need to ensure that the standards of political life are not only raised, but seen to be raised to a level compatible with our people's expectations concerning their political leaders. The actual appointments made by the Taoiseach and his Ministers make a hollow mockery of all that. Political jobbery is rampant under this Government and this Taoiseach.
This Government are now a masquerade. Everybody knows that they no longer have a mandate to govern. They cannot attempt to tackle the serious and urgent problems which confront the country today. It is undemocratic for any Government to remain governing and have lost the capacity to govern. The actual position is that the people are waiting anxiously to get rid of a Government that are unpopular and unwanted. The members of the Government themselves know that that is the position. It is demonstrated to them, often forcibly, every day by a very disillusioned and very resentful public.
Every day people in the street ask me "When are we going to get rid of them"? To these anxious questions I can only reply that if I thought there was any last vestige of principle left in a Labour Party which has seen practically everything it stands for trampled underfoot by a right-wing anti-social Government, we would immediately put down a no-confidence motion. But I can find no trace of such an honest reaction among the present representatives of the Labour Party in this House. I think that is sad. It is something that future Labour historians will certainly record with dismay and disbelief. At this stage all we can do is to ask how long more Labour Deputies are prepared to continue to play this, for them, totally unnatural and unworthy role in our national life.
Two years of this Fine Gael/Labour Coalition Government have brought our country politically, economically and socially into a state of deep crisis. Their administration of the nation's affairs is universally regarded as having been disastrous. Harsh monetarist policies have created widespread hardship, deprivation and alienation. Continuing mass unemployment threatens the very fabric of our society. There is a widespread feeling of hopelessness and disenchantment. The industrial and social foundations of our State have been badly shaken by a combination of commercial disasters and Government neglect. There is no enterprise or initiative in either the public or the private sectors. A deep and widespread depression emanates more than anything else from the obvious incapacity of this Government to accomplish anything. The Government can be clearly seen to have failed in almost every area and fumbled every project to which they have put their hand. People have lost all confidence in their Government, and this has undermined their confidence in themselves and their faith in the future.
I believe that at this stage any impartial observer cannot avoid the conclusion that only a change of Government, only a new direction and a new quality of leadership, can get our country out of this morass of mistaken policies, maladministration, poor decisions, political patronage, favouritism and plain bad government. There is a widespread, intense demand for change. There are people in this House who could ensure that the popular wish for change is acceded to. I believe it is their democratic duty to respond to this popular cry for relief. Everyone knows that this present situation can only get worse under the present incompetent management. There is no Minister in that Government over there who does not know that this administration has in fact collapsed in failure and that there is no hope or possibility of their redeeming the situation. The question is have they the political integrity to take the only honourable course of action open to them and to take it now.