I would like to welcome the Minister, Deputy Treacy, here and to congratulate him. He is welcome back again in the post he held previously. I also congratulate the Minister for Finance on the excellent work he is doing. It is not an easy job in these days. Everybody is asking for more services and more money and, at the same time, saying we must pay less tax. It is difficult for him to satisfy all sectors.
As other Senators have said, one of our biggest problems at the present time is unemployment and the depopulation of rural Ireland. It seems always to have been a problem. Many years ago Thomas Davis wrote: "The silence of unlaboured fields lies like a judgement in the air. A human voice is never heard, the sighing grass is everywhere." He continued, "Where are the sun-dark faces now, the ones that held the quiet heart, the hands that held the speeding plough. Grasslands and lowing herds are good, but better human flesh and blood."
This problem was already serious when men of the calibre of Thomas Davis penned those lines. Having grown up in the thirties and forties when unemployment was even worse than it is now, and at a time when there was less social aid to meet those problems, I always believed there was no need for anyone to emigrate. I never emigrated. I stayed in the old country and I am pleased to say I was never out of work for a day. When I had to leave my job as a result of a foolish accident, which happened on a Sunday when I was out enjoying myself, I still refused to accept dole or handouts. I had two jobs at the same time for a while. One necessitated my being on the road at 5 a.m. delivering milk door to door and I would finish that job at 2 p.m. I worked in Tuam and in the Minister's area of Galway, selling milking machines. It was hard work but it had to be done.
We are demoralising society today. We are always telling people everything is there for the asking. We must have a pride in ourselves and in our ability. We have a good education system, the country has done so much for us and after that we must do something for ourselves.
I was delighted when Senator O'Reilly spoke about vocational education. I am a graduate, as I am always proud to say, of a local vocational school. We need two types of education. We need good institutions and convents for those who are academically minded and, we need good education for those who are good with their hands, who have trades and skills in mind. The great majority of our technicians and electricians are graduates of colleges such as Bolton Street, Dublin, and the humble technical schools around Ireland. I oppose the conversion of those schools into secondary schools. There were many brilliant men in the Department and some of them were responsible for denuding Ireland of its population, because they sent buses out around the country. Their catch-cry was that every child in the country was entitled to the best possible education and if they had to be brought into cities and towns, so be it. We created an atmosphere where people were encouraged to leave. In my village we held on to our tech, by fighting a tough battle to retain it.
When I went into public life 25 years ago I looked for an advance factory for my village and could not get one, so I built a small factory myself and rented it out and today in my village of 500 people, 200 people are permanently employed. One of those firms has recently been awarded a large export contract for which it competed with a firm in Milan. Grange won the contract and is now building another extension.
There are seven factories now in Grange, one of them owned by a Longford man. I was delighted to encourage him. Six of the entrepeneurs are graduates of the local tech in which we had a schoolmaster named Mr. Forde who believed in an education for life, and in fostering pride in oneself and one's locality.
I am sorry to see the media cause so much demoralistion in society. The radio comes on at 8 o'clock in the morning with nothing but hour after hour of hard luck stories. While travelling to Letterkenny recently I listened to a popular radio programme where seven members of a family from Leitrim scatered all over the world spoke on radio to their parents at home. I gave a girl a lift and told her I was sorry for not talking to her when she got in but that I was very interested in the radio programme.
She told me she was one of a family of ten; I come from a family of seven. I asked her where they were all working and she said they were all working at home. "I am the last one, she said "and I got a job in Sligo". All large families do not have to leave the country to find work. I thought I would write to the programme concerned to tell them about the coincidence and ask them to send some of their research team to my village to see what a small village with a population of 500 people could do for itself. My letter was not even acknowledged. If my letter dealt with heartbreak or the dole mentality or with the downgrading of society, they would have asked me hotfoot to come on the programme.
I am sorry we do not have more pride in ourselves and in our country. We have education now. John Fitzgerald Kennedy said that many Irish people left Ireland with a mixture of hope and agony. Thank God, they leave today with hope and a good education, capable of entering the mainstream of any city or country they go to.
I think we have gone over the top with education; one of the factories in my town was looking for six extra employees and had quite a job to get them. The last to be recruited came home from England on Wednesday and was working on Thursday morning. He said he could not have got a job quicker anywhere in the world. However, a clerical job in Sligo attracted 140 applicants. We have an abundance of educated people but in many cases not suitable for the work available. Our education system has been geared towards white collar work and pen pushing. I am glad to see that the Minister, Deputy Brennan, in today's paper made it clear he is going to take more interest in vocational training.
Our techs will no longer have metal work or woodwork; some years ago these subjects we described as metalwork and woodwork theory, now they will be termed metal and woodwork technology. What does that mean in simple language? A teacher of the subject told me, that a bicycle will be turned upside down and students will be shown how to take off a wheel and put it on again. If that is what we are going to teach children and then expect them to take pride in the country and get jobs, what road are we going down? That must be corrected. My teacher in the tech had a saying, small things make perfection but perfection is no small thing. We must follow that pertinent guideline. We must at all times ensure that we are educating people to play a full part in Irish life. We cannot all be doctors, consultants or teachers; we are part of a chain and must be able to complete a cross section of tasks.
I do not think the answer is to educate people for jobs we have not got. For too long many people in the political arena decried speculators who made large amounts of money and said they should not be allowed to do so. If speculators do not create jobs, we may not have jobs. I often think that if 20 per cent of the energy spent in protesting and objecting could be channelled into positive thinking which would create jobs, we would have a great country.
It is difficult to create jobs today and I sympathetise with anyone trying to do so. We are lucky in my village because nobody objects to anybody doing anything; we are delighted to see people coming in to build. One of our factories is a meat factory and it is amazing how many people ask why we let a smelly factory into the village. Occasionally there may be a smell but as I say to them, 40 people are employed in that factory; and 40 families live close to the village as a result. You have to suffer some unpleasantness if you want to attract industry. One cannot expect to have sitting room conditions and jobs at the same time. If we could there would be a huge market for rocking chairs and everyone would be in the sitting room rocking; they would not need to work.
We must realise we are living in a real world. I think the Minister for Social Welfare and the Minister for the Environment — given the amount of new EC money coming in to Ireland — should put all their moneys into one pool and say to every local authority to create jobs, and give everyone a proper wage. We waste much money on inspectors trying to check the black economy, although there is no doubt that it exists.
I am in a dilemma on this matter. I admire the person who works. One person may be entitled to £100 a week unemployment money; draws it and goes down to sit in the pub. Another person entitled to £100 a week, draws it and goes out and does some "nixers". The second person is an asset to society, is building up a home, is helping his family and is working hard. I am always in a dilemma with this problem. I do not think the answer is to penalise the second person.
I was annoyed when I heard of a man with a young family who was on the dole and lived by the sea. He went out on days when one would not put a dog out, picking and piling up sea rods and as soon as he sold his sea rods he got a bill from the Department of Social Welfare for repayment of his dole money. To me that was criminal behaviour by that Department; I know they acted within the law but I do not think we should have rules like that. That person could have been sitting around the fire, but instead went out and worked and was penalised for it.
If we gave everybody a card enabling them to work, we would reduce the unemployment figures given the high numbers drawing unemployment benefit today.
I admire the person who works. To create jobs for everyone we should put all the money into one pool, and pay for training — training seems to be a catch cry now. I know of people who avail of job training and back to work training and have no notion of going to work. We are wasting money on all these courses; they serve no useful purpose. The money should be put into job creation and given to local authorities and voluntary groups to try to get people working.
I was doing rate collecting in the fifties. Times were bad then. When I went into a house to collect rates in my part of the country they did not want to see me. Rates were only about £2 or £2.50 but people did not have the money. Bushes and weeds were growing up near the door, in many cases the hens were sitting on the windowsills waiting for food. Then things started to improve and people got work. As soon as they had a few weeks' work they were delighted to see me coming as they could pay the rates.
I could see an improvement in people's houses as they became more hopeful and lost that demoralised attitude. Those of us who went into business hoping that the chain would not break, getting money from one in order to pay another to keep the bank manager happy, know what it is like to try to keep the wheel turning and to keep everyone from the door. When someone comes to the door with a bill and one does not have the money to pay it, the caller is not welcome. It is good to be able to pay bills when they are due, but life was not always like that for me. For many years I ploughed a deep furrow but thankfully I was rewarded at the end of the day. A colleague of mine on the county council, a one-armed man also, of the opposite political persuasion, often sat down with me and we wondered whether we were wise or foolish. If we made use of our handicaps we could make more money than we made working, but we would not have been happy that way. We liked the challenge of getting out and working.
We should be encouraging this attitude and encouraging more people to get out and work. One of the biggest mistakes we made was to get rid of small schools. We went into the big school system and I do not think it has worked out as well as the bureaucrats thought it would. The more people we keep in every village, the more fires we keep lighting and the more the village lives; the more people we take away, the more the village dies.
It is encouraging for villages and gives them a sense of pride in themselves to be involved in the tidy towns competition. It gets them out to work together and creates a great community spirit. I believe in the value of pride and love for one's country. Unfortunately, the word "patriotism" has been badly misinterpreted; too many people equate patriotism with fighting and in many cases dying for one's country. That is not my interpretation. Patriotism is love, love of one's home first, then love of one's village, one's county and one's country. We should endeavour to instil that into our citizens.
How many schools in Ireland today hang the Tricolour or tell people what the Tricolour is about and how to hang it? None or very few. I am pleased that in my parish the Catholic flag is flown on one side and the Tricolour on the other side of the chapel. That shows pride in one's country and love and respect. This is Ireland and we are proud of it. That pride, love and encouragement should be instilled into our youth but sadly, is not.
Unemployment is certainly our biggest and most difficult problem today, but it could be solved. There are millions in the EC to buy our products. It is encouraging to read in today's newspapers that our exports are greatly outstripping our imports. We are making progress, but the news is contained in a small column only. Will those people who are exporting be interviewed on radio or television? There will not be a word about it, but if an export order was lost it would be covered by the media; everyone would want to know why it was lost and would like to blame someone.
We are slow to give praise. There is an old sean fhocal which says "Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí". Praise the youth. We need praise but we do not get it. We are being attacked and demoralised. We should get constructive criticism where it is justified but not negative criticism.
Senator O'Reilly spoke about tourism. Cavan-Monaghan are now joined with Sligo under a good tourist officer. He was in Sligo but is now taking in Cavan and Monaghan and giving a good service. His name is Dan O'Neill. A Fianna Fáil Government started restoration work on the Ballinamore-Ballyconnell Canal and Seán Quinn is providing many jobs in Cavan as a result. The Slieve Russell Hotel is one of the best hotels in the world. I have seen nothing like it in America, on the Continent or here. The proprietor is creating hundreds of jobs. Let us not always be critical because it is bad for growth. We ask why there is not more employment, why can we not attract people here. There is no fairy godmother to bring anything in but if one keeps criticising everything and saying there is nothing in this part of the country, who will want to go into a shop with nothing for sale?
We must create the impression that we have good facilities but that we want to make them better. They are reasonably good and from Cavan to Dublin is only four hours by truck. To get to Mullingar from Dublin takes two-and-a-half hours because one has to get through the Dublin traffic. I would like to see our main arterial routes being improved; the N4 contains numerous bottlenecks and I am amazed that it has not been improved before now. They are working on it now and an improved road would make access to the west much easier. Galway city is the third largest city in the country and I feel sad when I hear people saying there is nothing in the west of Ireland. They are not looking at the west in the proper way. It is not a dead end but a vibrant, healthy unit that is progressing well.
I am sad that many people setting out to save the west at present are projecting an incorrect image of it. It is not a wilderness. We have good roads, there is hardly a house in the west now without a water supply. All these developments took place over the last quarter of a century. Every house has electricity and most villages with an industry can get three-phased electricity. The west is not a dead end; we have reasonably good roads leading to the main arteries and if we keep telling people there is nothing in it, what will an industrialist say? That there is not much point going there; he has no business going there because he cannot use snipes: one would think the west of Ireland was snipe land the way some people talk about it.
That is an unfair and unjust representation and I would say that the people in the west are doing well but we want to do better. My first public work was with the Fr. McDyer team in the "save the west" campaign and the attitude the late Fr. McDyer always encouraged in the co-operative movement was "Help yourself, we have the facilities, we can improve the infrastructure, we can make life work in Glencolmcille." That was his attitude but many people working to save the west today declare "We have health cuts; we have no hospitals." That is a lie. I heard a bishop say that between the bridge at Bunduff and the bridge in Colloney there was only one football team. I have been told since that there are two, if not three, teams there but it may have been a statement of fact at the time. The impression he was trying to give was that there were no people in that area. There are more intermediate and junior GAA teams now in the north Sligo area than ever before. There are more soccer clubs in that area than ever before and five sports complexes in that area and possibly more that were not there years ago, and anyone who makes a statement giving the impression that there is nothing in that part of the county is giving false information. It is immoral to do so. The west of Ireland is not the dead area it is portrayed to be; let us be honest about that.
As Chairman of the North-Western Health Board, having been involved in health for the last 17 years I can say we have a healthy health board. We went into this year with balanced books and we have always lived within every budget. We have also the best health board and health services in the country for all to see. We had a terrible accident at Mullaghmore in Sligo. We condemned out of hand the killing of the late Lord Louis Mountbatten, but the incident led to an enormous loss of tourism. When the best medical experts in London arrived here they said they could not get better facilities in any private hospital in England and that we had looked after the injured well until they were fit to travel to England. We could not have done better. That is the kind of tribute one hears little about, but it was paid to Sligo General Hospital.
We have a vibrant society in the west of Ireland; it is not dead. We want to make it much better but we certainly will not improve it with this béal bocht attitude that we have nothing to offer. There is an old sean fhocal which says "Mura bhfuil ach gabhar agat, bí i lár an aonaigh"— if you have only a goat be in the middle of the fair. Let us realise that and instil it into our youth; it will be up to them to use their talents to create jobs.
When we started to provide free education — I am disappointed in this and I was a great advocate of it — we were told that an educated people would save us money in the long run; they would create the jobs. Now we have educated people saying why not give us jobs, why can you not create jobs for us? We cannot create jobs for them yet no Government worked harder than this Government to create an environment for creating jobs. The right environment is there, certain industries are exporting and if anyone wants to see a vibrant village, I will welcome them to Grange to see what local people can do for themselves. Their success could be repeated throughout Ireland.
There is a market for products and I am pleased to see greater emphasis placed now on training people in sales techniques. Lack of sales skills left Ireland at a disadvantage in the past: A producer had to produce the goods, package them, export them and sell them. It is great that our colleges and third level institutions are promoting marketing because if this country wants to create jobs, we need good people to sell what we can produce.
We have the people and we can produce the goods, but we need people to sell them and the more sales people we have to work in the marketplace the more demand there will be for our products. We will never create jobs unless we can produce goods and sell them. Doing that will also create a bigger population and the more people we have the more services will be needed. People live off each other and if any of us was left on an island in the morning we would not exist for long even if the Bank of Ireland were with us. If there is nothing to buy what good is money? We have to create an atmosphere to facilitate production and marketing.
Mr. Ray MacSharry is doing a good job on the agricultural scene although people may not agree. After the Maastricht Summit is sorted out it will be seen that Ray MacSharry is working hard to put an end to the big factory farms on the Continent, which are killing agriculture today. When we went into the EC, Germany was the biggest importer of agricultural products; today it is the biggest exporter.