If you want to mix this thing and to get rough, we can do it. I want to keep this on a normal level plane. Córas Iompair Éireann need never have abandoned Store Street. Nobody asked them to abandon Store Street. I never coveted Store Street on them. The Government never coveted Store Street. Córas Iompair Éireann said: "The game is up. This financial spree is too costly. We cannot pay for Store Street." They said that they had abandoned Store Street project if anybody would buy it from them. The Government decided to buy it only when the project was abandoned, when Córas Iompair Éireann realised that they could not complete the building, because they had not got a bob, much less the other £750,000 that was necessary to pay for the building, nor could they raise a bob because the prospect of raising money for Córas Iompair Éireann was touted here and touted even in London and they could not get money for Córas Iompair Éireann. It was under those circumstances that Córas Iompair Éireann abandoned Store Street. It was only when it was abandoned that the Government decided to buy it for the purpose of accommodating the Department of Social Welfare.
I say now to Córas Iompair Éireann, to the present board and the previous board, that if they had had the money, they could have completed Store Street. They decided to abandon it and it was only when it was abandoned that the Government decided to buy it.
What happens that monster I personally do not care in the slightest except, I think, I should say this: I do not see any necessity for this mania for a central bus depot in Dublin. I do not think it is necessary to have a central bus depot in Dublin. I think you can get the same effect by having a few bus depots in Dublin. To build a central bus depot in a portion of the city which already is cluttered with traffic, that has more traffic than any other portion of the city, where efforts are being made to relieve congestion by erecting more bridges across the Liffey, seems to me to be nothing short of a piece of transport daftness. If there are to be bus depots built in the city, there are alternatives to Store Street. There is a site lying up near the Kingsbridge, the football field in front of Collins Barracks, and for the last 30 years I have been looking at that site and, beyond seeing a circus there occasionally or a carnival occasionally, you will never find more than about 12 fellows playing football in the field. There is an ideal site. The State owns it. There is adequate space available. There would be no necessity for demolition of buildings or street widening. A bus depot on that site beside the Kingsbridge, beside the Conyngham Road garage, will enable Córas Iompair Éireann to trap every bus that comes in from the South of Ireland and every bus that comes in from the Midlands and every bus that comes in from the North, with the result that, if you take the Collins Barracks football site, which is not used for football at all, as anybody acquainted with the city knows, it will provide a first-class bus depot on the fringe of the city for Southern buses, Midland buses and Northern buses. It will avoid the necessity for these buses to go through town and over the busiest streets in town and avoid the necessity for travelling the narrow streets which approach the Store Street building. It will keep all the provincial buses out of the most tangled areas in the city, from a transport point of view. If anyone wants to discover whether there is accommodation for the South-Eastern buses, he can go out to Donnybrook, where he will see a most elaborate garage in course of completion which would easily provide accommodation for bus passengers going to or coming from the South-Eastern counties. In both cases, whether it is from Collins Barracks or from Donnybrook, the long-distance bus passengers could easily be shuttled in on a local service to the centre of the city.
If I had had responsibility some years ago, I imagine that these projects would have commended themselves to me, but Córas Iompair Éireann, of all places in this historic City of Dublin and of all places in the built-up areas of this city, selected the most tangled scheme of all in Store Street. There they reared up the monster we see there to-day, at a time when, as I told the House, they could not pay either rates or rent for their modest premises at the Kingsbridge. If they had contemplated just a bus depot with accommodation for operational staff and a waiting-place for passengers it would not be so bad, but instead they built this skyscraper, this architect's dream, at Store Street which overshadows the most magnificent building we have in Dublin, the Custom House. It was that built-up area, where transport is more difficult than in probably any other part of the city, they selected as the site for this Store Street premises. Now, apparently, they are satisfied that the ground floor, and one other floor, will be sufficient for their requirements. If they had been satisfied with that three, four or five years ago, the bus depot would have been up long ago, but the big minds of Córas Iompair Éireann did not want a two-storey building, they wanted a seven-storey building, an architect's dream. One would not mind so much about that if they had millions of money which they wanted to invest, or if there was an abundance of building material available, or if they were trying to employ labour. But the position was that material was scarce and labour was scarce, and that money with Córas Iompair Éireann was more scare than either labour or material.
However, they have now apparently modified their demands. I want to say again that it is a bad site for a bus depot. You are now going to get the worst of both worlds, a bus depot below with passengers waiting for buses, with friends coming to see their passengers off, with friends coming to welcome passengers in and with nearly 1,000 of a staff in the Department of Social Welfare located in the upper building. In addition, you will have all the visitors who call every day in the week to the various sections of the Department of Social Welfare making inquiries about the various services which that Department administers. They are all going to be catapulted into the Store Street region —bus passengers, friends seeing them off, friends coming to welcome passengers, Social Welfare staff, visitors and inquirers—into an area which, it is admitted by the Dublin Corporation, is already beset with a bad traffic problem. Probably, it is not the first mistake that Mother Ireland has made, but this, surely, is going to be a real headache for her in the course of time. That will be proved within one year of the building coming into use.
The Minister referred to the Industrial Development Authority. He indicated that he was proposing to limit the functions of that body. My conception of the authority, in the first instance, was that of a body charged with responsibility for developing new industries, and with responsibility for surveying what new industries the country required, as well as finding the technical competence and the "knowhow" in order to ensure that these industries would be started, that they would provide employment for our people and goods for the nation's requirements. It was contemplated, too, that the authority should supervise the application of tariffs and quotas with a view to ensuring that those industries which are at present being aided by tariffs would utilise that aid to enable them to supply the entire requirements of the home market in the minimum period of time.
I remember the attention of the authority being specially directed to a condition of affairs in which Irish industries, which were substantially protected, were supplying no more than from 30 to 40 per cent. of the home market. They had not, over a long period of tariff protection, been able to supply more. The authority was directed to get after these industries, to urge them to produce the entire requirements of the home market so as to make sure that they were not just sitting back, satisfied to do a certain amount of work under the protection of a tariff, but not prepared to go out whole-hog after the entire Irish market.
These were its two main functions. I think it was a mistake to allow the authority to engage in such matters as the issuing of licences or the allocation of quotas. That is a job for a body other than the Industrial Development Authority. The main function of the authority, as we conceived it, was one which (1) would drive, and drive hard and relentlessly, to secure new industries and get technical competence for their efficient administration, and (2) ensure that the Irish manufacturer was encouraged to take the fullest possible advantage of protective tariffs by satisfying as soon as possible the entire requirements of the home market. These two functions are sufficient for a body of that kind. If other functions are now being shed I do not personally regret it, so long as the two main functions are left, namely (1) the surveying of our industrial position to see what new industries can be established and the getting of technical competence to direct them and (2) to expand our existing industries in every possible way. If the Minister directs the authority to concentrate on these two main issues, I make no complaint whatever about any shedding of other fripperies, so long as they are sacrificed to the two main purposes of getting new industries as quickly as we can and of expanding production and employment as quickly as possible.
It is almost impossible to go too fast or too expeditiously in the matter of establishing new industries in this country. That is particularly true of vast north-western and south-western areas where there are large pockets of unemployed people who suffer from a condition of life which can be described as permanent underemployment. It is in those particular areas that the heaviest weight of our unemployment problem is, and, unless we are going to content ourselves with seeing these people drift to Britain, either permanently or as migrants, then we have got to face up to a situation in which no course of policy can be too radical to find employment for the people in these particular areas. Up to the present, private enterprise, for a variety of reasons into which we need not now enter, has not been prepared to develop industries in these employment black spots, if I may so describe them.
It is quite clear that, unless the State takes a hand in the development of industries in these areas, they will remain in their present backward condition for another generation. I, therefore, urge on the Minister to give the Industrial Development Authority sanction for a scheme whereby, on being satisfied that a new industry can be established and can be successfully maintained, the authority will have power to erect a factory and, if necessary, partially or wholly, to equip the factory, and then to lease or ultimately sell the finished factory to whatever group of enterprising people are willing to carry it on, but who may be handicapped because of initial financial difficulties.
It is quite clear that if a manufacturer or potential manufacturer has a chance of establishing an industry in Dublin, or in Mayo or Connemara, he will back the Dublin proposition every time, or that if he has a choice between Dublin and any other county, the tendency will be to back Dublin, where the pleasant social life and ease of access to commercial markets offer very obvious attractions. If we are to tempt a manufacturer into these areas where industries are most needed, it can only be done by providing facilities in the way of factory premises and partial or full equipment for the factory, ultimately leasing it to a local group. I believe that it is only in that way that we will be able to get these people to commence activities in these areas. That may be costly. It is quite unprecedented to pursue a policy of that kind here, but I think it is the only way in which we are going to get industries in these areas. The alternative is to allow things to drift in their present unsatisfactory way for another generation.
The Minister referred to the Electricity Supply Board and the establishment of certain coal and oil-burning stations. I share the Minister's view that we should, so far as possible, establish electricity generating stations on the bogs and that the best way in which we can use turf is, not by long haulage to city grates which are unsuitable for the burning of turf, but by burning it on the bog and getting from it white fuel over the transmission wires. Any proposal, therefore, to encourage the establishment of power stations on bogs would have my wholehearted approval.
I believe that it is the best way to utilise our turf deposits, and I believe that it can provide, as in the case of Clonsast and Allenwood, substantial employment in areas where there is no other local employment either available, or, because of the character of the land, ever likely to be available, in agriculture. I, therefore, welcome any proposition which concentrates the attention of the Electricity Supply Board on further development along the lines of the fullest utilisation of turf and the fullest resort to hydroelectric schemes of development. Through reliance on both methods of producing electricity, we render ourselves still more independent of imported fuel; we provide growing employment for our people in conditions which give it the highest labour content; and generally we help to enrich the whole national economy.
I should like to support, too, on this question of the Electricity Supply Board, the suggestion made by Deputy O'Higgins. It is true that the Electricity Supply Board has had to pay increased prices for coal which it purchased in the past 12 months and on which it has had to rely for some of its generating plants, but it is equally true that a good deal of the increased price of coal was due to the necessity for importing American coal at high prices and high freight charges. One hopes that that is only a passing phase and that after a relatively short time, we can settle down to a situation in which we can buy coal from nearer sources and at a cheaper rate than American coal. I do not think the Electricity Supply Board should have increased its charges with this almost indecent haste to deal with a situation which, to some extent, is passing, inasmuch as the Electricity Supply Board will not be required to continue to pay high prices for American coal for all time.
I suggest to the Minister that, in so far as these charges are transitory and likely to decrease when the normal fuel supply position is restored, the Electricity Supply Board should be required to fund these extra charges and not clamp down the whole increase on consumers at present, clamping it on, too, at a time when the consumer is denied the full electrical facilities which the Electricity Supply Board contracted to supply to him when he installed electricity and electrical fittings in his house. I see no reason why even by an easement of the interest charges which the State imposes on the Electricity Supply Board some combination could not be found whereby the weight of this charge on the consumer would be, if not completely obviated, at least substantially modified, and I ask the Minister especially to examine that question.
I do not want to travel over the whole field of prices and price control, but I want to say that I am sorry to think that the Minister apparently contemplates dispensing with the Prices Advisory Body at the end of this year. That, apparently, is based on a belief that we will get back to a normal pattern of prices by the end of the year, even though it may be an abnormal pattern in relation to what we have previously been used to.
