Arising out of section 3 I should like if the Minister could enlighten us a little on the weight to be attached to the phrase "may assist" the development of this very essential type of export of professional services from this country. I would like to feel that "may assist" is not simply passive. If our people here find out something for themselves and need some assistance from Córas Tráchtála, Córas Tráchtála is empowered to give it. That is all right certainly but I would like to feel that it goes much beyond this, and that Córas Tráchtála would play a positive role by employing either a permanent member to take charge of this new activity or else for perhaps a limited period of a year appoint some consultant on a short term basis or recruit some personnel on a short term basis or on loan to look into the feasibility of this and make recommendations and then try to interest groups here in that regard, because there is a very wide market for the development of this export of professional services, and I would like to feel that it would be in a very active sense that we would entrust this to Córas Tráchtála rather than any passive development.
Export Promotion (Amendment) Bill, 1969: Committee and Final Stages.
I want to assure the Senator that this is not a question of just passively enabling Córas Tráchtála to do that. It is more than that. Indeed Córas Tráchtála actively pushes a service which is available to exporters all the time. It is not waiting for them to ask, it is pushing them, saying "this is what we have, please avail of it". These services, on the passing of this Bill, would be available to the design teams we were talking about. I do not think that Córas Tráchtála would in the short term at any rate appoint somebody to be solely responsible for this. It is unlikely to be worthwhile in the short term, but if it develops then this may be something that would happen too. At the moment Córas Tráchtála has people specially appointed to deal with the engineering industry and exports of capital goods in general, which in our case are largely engineering. The people concerned with what is involved here are people sufficiently competent technically, I think, to appreciate the problems that would arise for architects and engineers to whom it is envisaged that services would be given under this section Therefore I think that Senator Quinlan can rest assured that not alone will Córas Tráchtála actively pursue this but they will be equipped to do it with the personnel that they have available.
Granted that the personnel are available, they are personnel recruited towards the sales aspect, and I would feel that as a matter of urgency these should be assisted on a short term basis by getting professional advice and consultancy help for people more interested in the service angle which is very different from the design and planning angle Also with the aim of further exploiting this we might consider how best we could arrange internally to have competent pools of various services available. Yesterday I mentioned that a pool could be created in the electronics industry which fits right into this. I do not want to advert to it now, but in yesterday's debate I said that I thought that the telephone service and the specialised problems associated with it and with the development of an advanced electronics computer and computation centre could serve as the main electronic centre for the country. You could have there specialised services some of which could be added in with such a unit. We have to use imagination in this. We have the people if we can only group them. This is one way in which we can do it.
Also I would suggest that in the application of this service some might come from the semi-State bodies. I do not think that necessarily this should be confined to private enterprise groups, because within the ESB structure we have a very valuable planning unit and a civil construction unit and perhaps these units could be in a position to undertake similar development schemes in countries abroad. This may be only the start, but if we think big we will make this service as active as possible and build up interest in it. We must start by having some specialised advice available in the Córas Tráchtála unit. This is not just an addition, it is a major addition which will account for one-third of its activities, and the approach of Córas Tráchtála should be on a similar basis.
(Longford): It must be remembered that in this regard you have to sell an idea before you sell an article, and no matter what our efforts may be it occurs to me, particularly when I hear Senator Professor Quinlan speaking, that he has often advocated co-operation, and if we were to sell the idea abroad of any service one of the things we would need to do is to start some form of co-operative organisation, say, in a country like Canada which is a developing country and where in the engineering field there is wide scope indeed for development of services such as are being provided for under this Bill.
But you sell an idea before you can sell services, and someone would want to organise the vast goodwill potential that does exist in Canada for example. Some authority or organisation would want to get an organisation of the existing professional personnel already working in parts of Canada. I am speaking of the English speaking part because of course I realise that Canada is partly French speaking also. In the English speaking part there could be a very big development in the area outlined by Senator Professor Quinlan, but I quite agree that it would have to be tapped and organised by some sort of organisation of the existing professional personnel in that particular country or in any other market for that matter.
All I can say on this matter is that on the basis of Córas Tráchtála's record in the past in relation to services which it has been providing it is clear that it is not the kind of organisation that is passive in these things or allows the grass to grow under its feet. This is a new arrangement and we do not know quite how it will work out but you can take it that it will be operated actively by Córas Tráchtála. Undoubtedly there will be some people who will be availing of this service straight away.
After some time of operating this on an active basis, Córas Tráchtála will have to get the maximum value for the national economy out of this provision. The House may take it that those steps will be taken by Córas Tráchtála but at this stage I cannot guarantee to the House what the steps will be. I can only say that on their record in the past, we can be confident that they will approach this on an active basis and that they will be efficient in getting the best value out of this provision.