On yesterday afternoon I listened to the debate on the Vote of £250,000 for these relief schemes. The criticisms and arguments used in the debate were used to emphasise distress in the first place, and, secondly, to have more money applied to relieve it. These were the two particular features that were approached by Deputies in considering this Vote. Now I feel that it is not so much the amount of money as the fact that there is distress, widespread and particularly acute in the congested areas, urgent at the moment. While other Deputies pointed out the widespread necessity of relief from the point of view of distress, there were very few suggestions made here with regard to the best way to relieve that distress. Deputy Hewat dealt with it from the point of view of money being given in the shape of a grant which would not be reproductive, and he asserted what I think was quite true, that if such a system is adopted, it will mean that this situation will become chronic and permanent, and that it is likely to be a permanent drag on the State. I think that argument is irrefutable. Deputy Good made one suggestion, the only one that I think was really of importance, and that was the question of applying moneys from this grant to the improvement of the harbours and landing-places all around the coast in the congested areas. I think that was a very valuable suggestion. It will give employment while these works are being done in the areas where employment is most urgently needed, and it will give us, as a result, a chance of being able to develop the fishing industry as it must be developed in this country. It will also give our people an opportunity of being able to engage in that industry and become self supporting. They will then be able to earn a livelihood themselves, without any aid from relief schemes or from the State. I would urge that the Ministry should consider that suggestion very carefully.
The question of the roads and their improvement is being undertaken. It is very useful work at the moment, but it only touches the fringe of the question. After all it will not be on the same status as to reproductive returns or results as money expended on the harbours. In the county that I know best, that is, my own county, the people there are ready and anxious and willing to work. They are capable of doing good work and are not likely to demand an unreasonable wage. The industries in that county that were able to provide for the people, pre-war, and keep them busily engaged are at the present time lying idle. We have the homespun industry, the carpet industry, our hosiery manufacture, our shirt-making industry, our granite industry and our kelp industry all lying dormant and idle. These only require some consideration and some assistance to be given, not so much in the shape of financial assistance as in the way of arranging markets for the disposal of their products. Assistance might also be given in the way of arranging for such transport facilities as will make these works profitable, and enable them to be conducted on a profitable basis, the shirt-making industry particularly. Derry city, which is in the Co. Donegal, has become famous as a shirt-making centre all over the world, but up to about 18 years ago, at the time it was earning this reputation, very few shirts were made in Derry. They were made in the Co. Donegal, and on the basis of the expert work done there Derry earned its reputation for shirt-making. Now what is the fact? All the shirts are made in the factory in Derry. The Trade Board we have has actually fixed a wage in the Co. Donegal at a 1/2d. per hour above the fixed wage fixed by the same Board in the City of Derry. I consider that policy is altogether absurd, and why that should be done to deprive these people of being able to earn a livelihood that they are capable of earning, unless they proceed to do work illegally or to evade the provision of the Trade Board Act, seems very strange. That is the position that they are placed in, if they engage in work which they are well capable of doing.
I think the Government should take full notice of those things. I do believe in the stress of work which has fallen upon our Executive, they have not been able to take into account the circumstances that apply in such areas outside. They have not had the time. I do urge them to find some means of applying themselves towards discovering what are the actual facts and the difficulties that are making it imperative that we should have to provide money for relief schemes, whereas in the particular areas involved it is quite possible to arrange that the people there can be made self-supporting without any need for grants at intervals, or even continuous grants. However trifling, I believe a sum of £250,000 would enable a start to be made. If the Government wish they could proceed in the right direction, and the Dáil will have no difficulty in supplementing that grant and giving the money required to do work so valuable to the nation, work that will save the nation in future from the situation we have to face to-day with regard to unprecedented distress.
