In speaking on this Estimate, I need hardly say that I have no intention of voting for the amendment of Deputy Lemass. I listened very carefully to the speech he delivered, and the only constructive suggestion that came from that rather lengthy but interesting speech was the nationalisation of the railways, which has almost come to be regarded in most countries as an exploded theory which no State, anxious for progress, would endeavour to meddle with. I would like to say that in listening to the remarks made by the Minister I quite agree that there was no need for him to deal in detail with the activities of his Department when he dealt with them so extensively when this Estimate was before the House last year. It is well known that the Trade Loans Facilities Act has broken down. The Minister has come to the important decision that that Act will not be renewed after a couple of months. I should like, in considering this Estimate, to say that a survey of the activities of this Department has not shown, in my opinion, that we have progressed as far on the road to industrial prosperity as we might have. The Minister referred to the tariff imposed in 1925 when we had a tariff imposed on something like £15,000,000 of our imports. As a result of those activities at that date it was then estimated that we had increased the number of employed in this State from something like 12,000 to 14,000. I would go a little further and say that a greater number than cause there are quite a number of juveniles employed in the new industries that do not appear in the returns. We have not yet had the advantage of the development of the Shannon scheme, which may mean great and unlimited possibilities for this country. That is a thing that we cannot hope to look forward to for some time. Now that the Trade Loans Facilities Act has broken down, I certainly felt sympathy with Deputy Lemass when he suggested if at all possible something else should be set up to take its place. I note that last year the Minister for Industry and Commerce informed the House that thirty-five Advisory Committees had been set up. I waited to hear what definite result, if any, there had been from the establishment of these committees.
I regret that the Minister had nothing tangible to offer the House as a result of this particular activity. Last year the Minister informed us that they had established foreign contacts. I would like the Minister to say what is the result of the establishment of these foreign contacts. I also understand that last year visits were to be made to principal towns outside to tap industrial and technical information. I would also like to hear from the Minister if as a result of these visits anything valuable has emerged to this State, if any particular benefits have accrued as a result of these activities and if no benefits have actually accrued is there any possibility that in the near future some will. I for one am not a pessimist as far as the future of this State is concerned. I believe that the economic resources of this State compare very favourably with the economic resources of many other small States in Europe which have been eminently successful. If one considers for a moment that the area of this Free State, with its highly fertile land, is equal to the combined areas of Belgium and Denmark one can see at a glance that we have powerful assets if we can only succeed in developing them. Consideration of the trade reports issued in 1927 shows the Saorstát exports to England and Northern Ireland are something like £43,000,000. Denmark at the same time exported to England which is reputed to be our best customer £49,977,000, almost £50,000,000. While the Free State bought something like £45,000,000 worth in return, Denmark only bought ten and a half million pounds worth. So far as we are concerned our best customer there appears to be somewhat of a misnomer. It resulted as far as the net operation is concerned to this State in two and a quarter millions profit to England, while in the case of Denmark it resulted on the face of the figures in a net gain of £39,000,000. These figures to a State like ours, similar in many respects to Denmark, and superior in many respects, call in my opinion for the earnest consideration of this House and especially for the earnest consideration of the Department of Industry and Commerce.
The Minister laid before the House figures as to the volume of employment that had accrued in the past year. I have already adverted to the fact that in 1925 the figures were almost similar. So that looking at the figures presented to-day we cannot congratulate ourselves upon having materially increased in the past twelve months the number of hands employed in the Irish Free State. When one considers that within a few short years Belgium to which I referred the other day, after being practically destroyed, has no unemployment problem and was able to take on 10,000 additional hands from outside to cope with her industrial activities one is forced to the conclusion that the amount of progress made in this country industrially is nothing like as favourable as the amount of progress that has been made by our smaller competitors elsewhere. It is up to us to ask why we are being out-distanced in the race for a share of the industry that is available.
The Minister for Industry and Commerce referred to the banking system of this country. He went so far as to say that in his experience he could not come to the conclusion that the banking system of this country was acting unfavourably as far as the development of industry in the Saorstát was concerned. I think the Minister might have gone a little further than that and said that as far as the banking system of this country is concerned it offered little or no inducement to the development of industrial enterprise. If one considers the banking system in Belgium and the other institutions that act in co-operation with that system one can readily visualise why industrial Belgium is leaving us behind in the race. If one looks at the iron of Belgium one sees that all the iron ore is imported from outside and that 80 per cent. of the manufactured products of that industry are sent abroad. If these things are possible in Belgium surely in some small measure or other they are equally possible here. It is my opinion that the banking system of this country, as it now exists, militates very adversely against the development of trade and industry here.
Reference was made by Deputy Lemass to capital invested outside this country. He suggested to the Minister that there should be some prohibition of that outside investment. I wonder did Deputy Lemass ever give any consideration to what is going on outside the shores of this little island of ours. Before the war Belgium had something like 700,000,000 francs invested abroad, and these 700,000,000 francs were invested in transport systems, which appear to us in this country to be absolutely bad stock. Belgium is interested in the transport systems of Turkey, Spain, Egypt, Italy, and even in South America, and every one of these systems is a customer of the great iron industry of Belgium.
In considering the position of industry in this country one must take into consideration the cost that had to be faced in this country of the civil war. But that period is past, and I suggest to the Department of Industry and Commerce that some forward step in the development of industry is necessary if this country is to make any progress at all.
I very often hear the statement made that Irish industries are inefficient. I have no doubt that Irish industries are inefficient, and in a country like ours, which has emerged from centuries of English misrule how can one expect anything else than that inefficiency will exist in Irish industries? At the same time, there is one thing upon which I would lay emphasis: Let our industries be inefficient or otherwise, it is out of these materials that the future industrial progress of this State has to be evolved; it is out of these inefficient industries that the industrial rehabilitation of this country has got to be brought about. I am of opinion that that is no impossible task if it be tackled in the proper way. But when I hear sometimes, as I frequently hear in this House, the phrase that we are bolstering up Irish inefficiency, I always feel as a business man that that is a phrase that should be dropped from any references made in this House. I remember many years ago reading, when I was a schoolboy, how the inefficient shipyards of Russia were started. I remember reading a few days ago how the great Japanese cotton-spinning industry was started. Within the lifetime of any man in this House, the cotton industry in Japan hardly existed. Agents came over from Japan and bought up the obsolete machinery belonging to the Lancashire manufacturers. They brought over Lancashire operatives to Japan to teach the Japanese the trade, and they were so inefficient that if they did not protect the home market they would have had no home trade at all. To-day the resources of the Japanese cotton-spinning industry in the ordinary companies stand at 60 per cent., and in the case of the combine at 100 per cent. of the paid-up capital. I merely refer to the Japanese cotton-spinning industry to show what has been done in a very short time in other countries, and what can be done in this country provided we set about it in the right way.
