asked the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism if he will quantify in percentage terms the decline in the value and volume of investment in the manufacturing industry in Ireland since 1982.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Manufacturing Industry Investment.
1.
Information on investment is collected
I know that officials in the Minister's as part of the detailed annual census of industrial production carried out by the Central Statistics Office. The most recent year for which census results are available is 1981, for which overall results were published in March of this year.
In so far as manufacturing industry grant-aided by the Industrial Development Authority is concerned, I am informed that the decline in the value of investment between 1982 and 1984 in grant-aided assets was £9.9 million representing a decrease of 3.4 per cent.
Did I understand the Minister to say that the results referred to 1981?
In regard to the annual census of industrial production which covers all industry, the latest figures available relate to 1981. The IDA figures, which concern only grant-aided industry, relate to 1984.
Would the Minister agree that manufacturing output has fallen quite considerably in the recent past and that the latest figure is 8.6 per cent in January alone followed by .5 per cent in February and that the number of manufacturing jobs lost over the past two years would be somewhere in the region of 30,000? Would the Minister also agree that the impact of the question is that there is not enough investment available to manufacturing industry to restore the balance in so far as output is concerned?
The Deputy referred to output, and there has not been a decline in output. There has been a significant increase over the period. Deputy Reynold's question relates to investment, and investments made earlier are yielding very much bigger outputs than they were in the year or the year after they were made and there continues to be a rapid increase in industrial output.
The Minister referred to two sets of figures, to the IDA grant-aided figure for 1984 and to the industrial figure for 1981. Would the Minister indicate what in the 1981 figures relates to grant-aided industry in 1981?
The CSO figures are not broken down as between grant-aided and non grant-aided industry. It is quite unsatisfactory that the most recent figures we have for industry as a whole relate to 1981. There is a need to update the figures produced by the CSO. As a result of the White Paper my Department and the CSO have set up a group to see how we could bring the publication of figures generally in this area more up to date.
Would the Minister agree that, apart from the investment side, the latest figures released by the Confederation of Irish Industry specifically state that there has been a decrease in manufacturing output in the first two months of this year and that order books have fallen back considerably? It may be a seasonal factor, but it is a worrying one which could have a very big impact on the continued growth in exports for the rest of the year. The relevance of the question is that one of the reasons why manufacturing is taking such a hammering——
I thought we agreed that we would not have speeches at Question Time. That is the Chair's contribution to Dáil reform.
Would the Minister agree that manufacturing, particularly indigenous industries, is in decline and that there have been substantial job losses over the past two years and that one of the main reasons is the lack of investment available through bad tax policies by the Government?
I would not agree with any of that.
I though the Minister was against the tax policy as well.