Well may the Deputy laugh because certainly it was not the will of the Irish people to change the Government last June and if the Deputies opposite doubt that let them dissolve the Dáil and try to find out. When the change of Government took place on the 13th June, one can well understand the dismay of the present Minister for Finance, the Minister for Industry and Commerce and the rest of them when they had to act now as a Government as they had spoken and prated while in opposition. Inevitably, they found themselves drowning in the river of their own words. To try to appear consistent they had to speak much as they had spoken two or three months before. Accordingly, the country was told that under this big, bad inter-Party Government our external assets had been frittered away, that our people were living beyond their means, that there was a serious crisis around the corner and that all of us would have to tighten our belts, take a deep breath and prepare for the very serious fate that faced each and every one of us.
That was the propaganda that was indulged in. What was the first effect of it? The first effect—and the brainy gentlemen behind on the opposite benches should listen carefully to this —undoubtedly was that those who controlled credit in this country began to say to themselves: "Well, Deputy MacEntee is Minister for Finance and his words will have to be listened to and, thank heavens, we have now a Minister for Finance who is not going to force us to give £5,000,000 to the people of Dublin for housing. He will not prevent us from restricting the amount of credit in circulation, thus preventing the Irish people maintaining a decent standard of living and preventing the people of this country from having money in circulation, having business go ahead and enjoying the things that they have been enjoying for the last three years."
Immediately after the first shot was fired in this vile campaign by the Minister for Finance last June credit was restricted. There was not a single person in this country since last June who was entitled to or found himself able to get from Irish banks the assistance his status and stake in the country entitled him to.
It is little use for the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to come in here, as he did last night, to try to convince us that there has been no restriction in bank credit. It is little use for that kind of denial to come from the Government Front Bench. There is not a Deputy who is prepared to keep an open mind and who keeps in touch with his constituents who does not appreciate the fact that in the last nine months business has been brought almost to a standstill as a result of the fact that no man can get an advance from a bank unless his financial position is such that he does not require it.
You have only to look at this city to-day to see that building has slumped. Men who 18 months ago accepted the call of an Irish Minister for Local Government to return from England to find employment here are now drawing the dole. There is no builder in this country to-day who can obtain from his bank the credit which his trade requires. The building trade is a trade in which there is a large expenditure of money in wages, purchasing material and all the rest of it. If a builder does not get from job to job the necessary accommodation at the bank there will be no building. Many builders in this country to-day are eating the first fruits of the campaign indulged in by the present Minister for Finance and deliberately initiated by the present Government.
In speaking like this, I am merely informing the House of what is common knowledge to all Deputies and the people outside. It is time that some stop should be put to that kind of campaign. It is time that some protest should be made against the spectacle of Irish Ministers here at home parading the alleged insolvency of their country to provide ammunition for Sir Basil Brooke in the North.
It is time that a halt were called to this campaign, particularly when those who indulge in it know very well that it is a false and a fraudulent one. I do not want to cover again the ground that has been covered so ably in recent months by the Leader of the Opposition. Were it not that Irish political life has to-day a man such as Deputy J.A. Costello much more harm would have been done to the credit and financial standing of this country than has, in fact, been done by the Fianna Fáil Party. It is a tribute to the Leader of the Opposition that four or five months ago, single-handed, he fought to a standstill the campaign indulged in by the present Government. He halted them. He forced them to examine the facts and he set the country thinking. Eventually the truth began to emerge. Despite all the talk and all the propaganda to the contrary, we are a sound, credit-worthy country, and not all the efforts of Fianna Fáil can prevent that fact from becoming known.
The Fianna Fáil Government talk about the frittering away of our sterling assets. Last night we saw the very disedifying spectacle of the little man behind a pile of documents—the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs— spewing out figures in a frantic effort to justify the discreditable campaign that is being waged by his Government in this country. He wept bitter tears because our sterling credits in London were reduced in the past three and a half years. According to him that was something which should not continue if Ireland was to progress. He ignored the fact that some of those sterling assets, which he says were frittered away, were converted into dwelling-houses for his own constituents in Longford-Westmeath. He counts that as nothing. He regards as wrong, if we are to take his lecture on economics as being a serious one, any kind of repatriation of sterling assets for purposes which do not come within the definition of "a capital commodity."
If the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs will scrutinise the reports published in respect of the years 1949 and 1950, and contained in the famous document No. 2—the White Paper issued by the Minister for Finance— he will find records of many imports which could not strictly be regarded as goods of a capital nature—goods such as building materials and medical supplies. These are goods which were required to provide houses and homes, hospital services, and so forth, for our people. These are the types of imports which the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs does not want for this country. He wants to see Ireland peopled by a nation who live in the trees. He wants to see our people requiring 100,000 houses for the next ten or 15 years. Any policy which puts our sterling assets to work to buy building materials, iron and steel, and goods of that nature for the erection of houses in this country is, according to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs in his smug complacency, a wrong and a disastrous policy. I am surprised that a speech of that kind should have been made by an Irish Minister in this Parliament in the year 1952. That he was able to leave the House, in which he uttered that speech, with a whole skin is a tribute to the respect which Deputies of this House have for the Rules of Order. If the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs sincerely believes in that kind of nonsense I trust that he will get his answer very quickly from the constituents who so very nearly removed him from the membership of this House nine months ago.
I remember well that in February, 1948, the present Minister for Industry and Commerce advised the former Government not to regard our sterling assets as sacrosanct. However, if they are to be regarded as something sacred and something to be held for all time, let us, at any rate, examine the figures. In 1938, before the outbreak of the second world war, our sterling assets stood at £250,000,000. During the war years we could not expend any of that money because we could not import the goods. Britain could give us only a limited amount of coal, a ration of tea and a ration of the various other essential commodities which this country required—but she could give us no iron and no steel. On the other hand, we were able to continue to send to Britain our cattle and agricultural produce.
Of course, the normal accounting between the two countries could not take place and our sterling assets, accordingly, increased. It was only proper and prudent and natural that once commerce was resumed between our two countries, in 1947, 1948 and 1949, we should take steps to obtain for our industries and for our people many of the commodities which could not be imported during the war years. No Government could fail to see the sense and the wisdom of doing that. During the past four years—under the Fianna Fáil Government as well as under the inter-Party Government—we began to import coal again from Britain. When coal began to be imported freely again, it was taken off the ration, not under the inter-Party Government but under the Fianna Fáil Government, in October of 1947. It was only right and proper that during the past four years we should import certain commodities which could not be imported prior to that.
Our sterling assets to-day are £150,000,000 greater than they were in 1938. They now stand at about £400,000,000. The Minister for Finance will, I am sure, bear out these facts when he comes to conclude this debate. Accordingly, the people of the country are entitled to know whether they have been led by a Government of madmen or a Government of knaves during the past nine months. What is the sense behind the Fianna Fáil campaign to impress on the people of this country that, during the past four years, we have been throwing our sterling credits into the Irish Sea when, in fact, we have more sterling credits now than we have ever had before? What is the sense behind it unless it be knavery or madness? I do not think there can be any other choice. I know the answer I would give to that particular question because I regard the Minister for Finance as being a sane man——