The national response to the Taoiseach's address yesterday was properly interpreted by the media today. There was a unanimous vote of no confidence in the Government's ability to do anything about the country's problems which had been identified by all the consultants available to the Government. It is about time the consultants' reports were put to one side and that we had the action promised in Government documents, such as Building on Reality.
The Taoiseach's message yesterday was dull and uninspiring. It is regrettable that he had to give that kind of message to the nation in the festive season. This morning the media interpreted the Taoiseach's dose of bad news for the people for the foreseeable future. The national depression, which we all recognise, is bordering on despair this Christmas and what we needed yesterday from the Taoiseach was a word of encouragement and reassurance for the people that they have the ability to survive and that they would be given the necessary ingredients for survival. Regrettably, the Taoiseach did not find it in his heart to give them that message.
The Taoiseach's continuing play on the theme that the ills of the country are the responsibility of Fianna Fáil is like playing a cracked record with the same worn out tune that the Taoiseach has been at for a number of years, blaming Fianna Fáil for everything that happened. It has become a very tired, scratchy old record. I wish the Taoiseach would take the responsibility placed on him by the electorate and get on to governing the country properly.
The Government's failure on many counts has been particularly obvious in the past three months. They have not fulfilled the promises outlined in the Joint Programme for Government. They failed in their strategy for financial rectitude which they propounded when they look office in December 1982. In such a short time they have lost touch with their own policies and now they have lost faith in their Building on Reality.
In their annual report the EC Commission said that the targets outlined in Building on Reality were a bare necessary minimum. We find now that even that minimum has been cast aside by the Government as being unattainable. They stand condemned by their own documents and consequently the country is the sufferer. The Government's economic strategy is in ruins. We must put on record again some of the elements of that strategy by way of showing how it has failed. At 250,000, our unemployment figure represents 17 per cent of the work-force and 75 per cent of those unemployed are under 25. When we consider that emigration is at the rate of 15,000 per annum we realise that the real unemployment figure may be close to 300,000. The national debt, a matter that the Government made great play of on coming into office, has reached the £20 billion mark, the highest level since the foundation of the State. The budget deficit, a matter that brought the Government into office, is out of control. It is in advance of £1,300 million. That, too, is a record in that it represents the highest percentage of GNP since the foundation of the State. It is totally out of line with the parameters set in Building on Reality. Neither can we expect anything from the Government in that regard next year as was indicated by their taking themselves to Europe recently to seek to have the rules changed so that it would be possible for them to have a percentage of GNP that would be out of line with the guidelines set for them by the Commission.
The number of productive workers is falling. The stage will be reached soon when there will not be sufficient numbers in productive employment to enable benefits to be paid to the unemployed. There are fewer people in productive employment now than there are drawing the dole. Not one economic projection has been fulfilled. Instead, all sectors of the community have been the victims of a litany of broken promises. The quality of life is at its lowest since the hungry thirties. There is an increase in the level of crime, drug abuse, money lending, absenteeism from work and alcoholism. All our disposable incomes have been reduced seriously. That is why we have had decreased consumer spending and it is why the tax revenue has not been up to the mark this year.
The reason for all this is poor Government planning and economic policies. Regarding the farming sector, it appears that the Government are more intent on utilising the full resources of the State in bringing about the schedule of assets so far as the land tax criteria are concerned than about anything to help the farming community. There is no Government feeling for the plight of farmers. The grain for rain scheme is not working. It has not been effective in dealing with the problems of the farmers in the past three months. We cannot understand why the Government did not take up the generous offer of the IFA to make available to the Government £7 million from the resources of the farming community so that they could attract the available finance from European funds by way of improved headage grants payments. There is no economic reason for the Government failing to take up that very worthy suggestion. The farming industry has become stagnant. It is depending entirely on intervention. Every time we go into negotiations with the EC on matters relating to the farming industry we come out second best. Our priority rating is being eroded on each one of those occasions.
In manufacturing industry there has been an increased number of factory closures this year. Up to 1,000 factories and businesses have closed. Last year there were 800 such closures and the same number in the previous year. In other words, we have eroded out total industrial base. Most of the factories that have closed were indigenous industries. No care or attention has been paid to the matter of our natural resources.
The Minister for Fisheries and Forestry has accepted a reduction of 11 per cent in our quota of the mackerel catch. This means that our quota has been reduced to 85,000 tonnes compared with 126,000 in 1982. We fished the 85,000 tonnes in six months of the current year. The reduction makes a mockery of what the Taoiseach has been saying regarding what he achieved at the Conference in The Hague, in 1976. He talked then about doubling the quotas for the fishing industry but doubling nothing remains nothing. At that time we did not have the fishing capacity that would bring us into line with our competitors. The loss the fishermen will suffer because of the Minister's action is unprecedented. There will be an enormous loss, too, to the fish processing sector. Consequently, there will be further unemployment in that sector. The Minister should be ashamed to return to his native Mayo where so many of his county men are dependent on this industry. He fails to recognise that fishing is still a developing industry and that all we have to compete against those huge fleets from other EC and eastern countries are six boats. This is negligible when one considers the thousands of boats of more than 120 feet that continuously plunder our seas. I cannot understand why the Taoiseach and the Minister continue to give guarantees to such countries as Spain thereby allowing them to rape and plunder the treasures of our seas while accepting quotas that will allow our fishermen to practise their trade for only about three months of each year.
It is disgraceful that as an island country we are not to have a deep sea trading fleet, a merchant fleet or a fishing fleet of any consequence. We must ask the Minister and the Taoiseach to stop being the great Irish auctioneers of this century. to stop selling off all our national assets and not to be letting go of the projects and the facilities that were built up painstakingly by Fianna Fáil over 50 years.
The Government have not paid any attention either to our other natural resources such as forestry, tourism and food processing. The only growth industry now is in the area of liquidations and receiverships and they are being added to by the increasing numbers of insatiable tax collectors the Minister for Finance has told us about. These with the sheriffs and bailiffs will be wandering the roads of Ireland seeking whom they may devour. It is a cold and hungry debate that is taking place here at this festive season but there will be no good wishes for the Government from any group this Christmas.
The PAYE sector, the professional groups, the farming interests, the self-employed and the commercial sector are all disenchanted and disgruntled. They are very angry with what the Government have been doing on their behalf in the past three months. That is what the Adjournment debate should be about. It should not have been reduced to levelling personal invective at members of the Opposition. We had a poor performance from the Taoiseach yesterday. We can only hope that one of his Ministers will try to salvage the position today.
There is no disguising the fact that there has been a sharp fall in the level of exports and imports especially in the past six months. It is a criticial matter for the economy. Since March exports have been on the slide and the 1984 peak in exports is now history. The impetus created in 1984 has not carried forward to this year. An example is that in August this year our exports virtually collapsed. Manufacturing output has been down for the past six months and our production expectations have not been realised. We hear talk from the Government about improved interest rates and lower inflation levels. That is purely a response to the international world trends. The real test of economic performance is production levels and employment levels and both have failed.
We have had no real investment in the past six months and private investment has dropped by 20 per cent in real terms between 1980 and 1984. There will be no change in employment levels until funds are returned to the productive investment sector and away from gilt investments. We do not see any planned policy by way of an investment strategy by the Government in industry. There is no investment in the future of the people by way of a promise to taxation reform over the next 12 months. There is no worthwhile strategy for investment in infrastructure.
One of the most unacceptable aspects of the Estimates published yesterday is that there will be a net reduction in the amount of money being made available for the construction and reconstruction of roads in the next 12 months. Why have the Government not taken the opportunity to bring about a reduction in the basic cost that affect our competitiveness in exports? Why have they not utilised the over capacity in electricity generation to help out our ailing industries? What have they done to help the transport and communications networks?
They have done nothing about insurance. Employers' liability and public liability are now outside the reach of many businessmen. The much lauded Irish exports drive can give a false sense of security but long term exports stability would caution against over dependence on multinationals based on product developed by foreign research and development and marketed by organisations outside of our control. We have ended up as a country of assemblers and packers with no worthwhile research and development and little input in relation to the marketing of product developed, manufactured and sold here by the multinationals.
We had a growth rate of 18 per cent in exports in 1984 and that is seriously reduced this year. The rapid growth in the value of exports has been offset by the outflows of expatriated funds which amounted to £940 million in 1984. There has been little added employment or national income as a response from the funds and profits made by the multinationals. We all welcome the location of multinationals here but we must get a better return from them. They must be prepared to allow us to partake in their research and development processes and have a bigger input into their marketing strategies particularly on the international front.
Our policy on science and technology outlined in the last week goes some way to redress that and should be seriously considered by the Government and taken on board as a serious attempt to redress a situation in which we have virtually no input into research development and marketing on an international scale.
For the past 25 years there has been a major decline in our agriculture based exports and we seem to rely increasingly on manufacturing exports. Our exports of live animals has been declining in proportion to our total exports for some time and represent less than 6 per cent of the total exports to the UK last year. Our exports of food, drink and tobacco worth £2 billion last year are in decline. They accounted for 22.7 per cent of our total exports in 1984 but they accounted for 33 per cent of total exports in 1973. We have relied totally on the growth areas of manufacturing exports, namely, the pharmaceutical, health care and electronics activity, but our indigenous industries have been failing. That is why our food imports have reached stupendous heights and now account for about £800 million of imports. This sector alone could have an import substitution programme that would generate up to 40,000 new jobs. However, the response of the Government was to close down the last food processing industry in the past month. That is hardly a decent response to an industry that could create enough jobs to do away with a major proportion of our unemployment problem.
We cannot guarantee that there will not be serious imbalances in the US federal budget in the coming year. All the indications are that there will be difficulties in that area in the US. We are dependent for world growth on the US where at this time there is increased pressure to introduce protectionist measures for industry due to the high level of the dollar. When that permeates the world, we could have serious difficulties in maintaining our world market share in so far as high technological industries are concerned. Another major influence on our economy is EC policy in relation to internal markets and in relation to the CAP which plays a key role in determining the value and structure of our agricultural exports.
