asked the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism if he will undertake a survey to establish a list of the different items which have been imported into this country; and if subsequently he will enter into discussion with the Youth Employment Agency and AnCO in order to initiate an import substitution programme involving young entrepreneurs.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Import Substitution.
4.
The Central Statistics Office publishes details of items imported into the country. The IDA, in co-operation with the Central Statistics Office, have produced a set of import highlights covering different sectors of industry. These figures relate to products which are being imported into the country on a large scale. They do not, by themselves, prove that an opportunity exists for import substitution. Rather they identify items that are worthy of closer investigation by people with expertise in the relevant sectors.
The IDA have also produced a super-market study entitled "Consumer Foods — Ideas for Development" which identifies new consumer food products with potential for production in Ireland. This study, together with the latest available import highlights, may be inspected by interested parties in the IDA's regional offices around the country and in the IDA's walk-in information centre at Mount Street, Dublin 2.
Real import substitution will only take place, however, when Irish goods and services can realistically compete with imported products in terms of price, quality and reliability. The extensive services and expertise of State agencies are available to assist Irish industry in this regard. In relation to the Deputy's question concerning the introduction of an import substitution programme, the Deputy will be aware that, as a member of the European Communities, Ireland is generally precluded from restricting the import of materials produced in other member states or from engaging the services of State agencies to promote the sale of Irish made products over those produced in other member states.
A report recently indicated that thousands of jobs would be available if there was an import substitution programme. Could the Minister comment on this?
The annual raw material and component requirements of the electronics industry amount to £400 million, of which only 16 per cent is currently being supplied by firms in Ireland. For that reason, the IDA's linkage programme which is designed to help Irish companies to reach the standard necessary to supply the raw materials and components of other Irish located electronics companies, is giving first priority to electronics.
Could the Minister tell the House what became of the committee of Ministers of State which was set up some time ago to tackle the food import Bill? How many times have the committee met and when is their report expected?
That is a separate question.
Could the Minister indicate the present level of food imports and what percentage is Irish?
That is a detailed question whereas No. 4 is a general one.
As the committee was set up to deal with the question of import substitution——
Not solely.
The major question with regard to food is the level of imports.
The Minister mentioned that there was a list of items displayed at IDA Offices. It is not time that a list of imported items which could be substituted by Irish products was displayed in the offices of local authorities, VECs and others? I have appealed before for this to be done.
In view of what the Deputy has said, I will make those statistics available in the offices of every county council in the country.
The Minister referred to the fact that our membership of the EC prevents us from imposing any restriction on the imports of goods from those countries. I am sure the Minister is aware that we have entered into GATT agreements on a wider scale which also imposes restrictions on us. If we were not members of the Community, does the Minister believe that we could pursue a policy of discrimination against imports of goods from countries with whom we would have to trade in any case? The Minister is probably aware that we have an adverse trade balance with only one member of the EC and that that country had a free trade agreement with us before we joined the Community.
If we were not members of the EC and had no trade agreements with certain countries, we could possibly do things which we cannot do as a member of the EC. However, I do not accept that a policy of trade restriction serves the interest of anybody. It is to the overall detriment of all countries to pursue such a policy. What I have been describing in my replies to Deputy Crowley's question does not relate to restrictions on trade but to helping Irish industry to exploit the opportunities of trade to the maximum.