I went to some trouble here recently to find out what had the Government that held swayfrom 1932 done in the way of capital development. I take it that the speech last night means that capital development is again in danger, that our capital development schemes and projects are definitely in danger. There is apparent acceptance of the view that capital development is required, but that is joined up with this attitude that the banks are going to be forced to lend money. I want to know what is the money required for. I go back to find out what Fianna Fáil did from 1932 on and I take their "below the line" commitments in any of the years. I find that the permission they gave themselves for below the line spending was, in 1932-33, £1,124,000; in 1933-34, £980,000; in 1934-35, £1? millions; in 1935-36, £1,000,000; in 1936-37, £2,250,000; and in 1937-38, £2,200,000. It rose about 1939-40 to nearly £3,000,000 but lapsed again in 1940-41 to £2? millions. In 1941-42, it was down to £1,500,000 and it remained about £1,000,000 and under the £1,000,000 mark until 1945-46. In 1946-47, it reached the amazing total of £3,500,000.
These are the provisions made for spending below the line, but the actual expenditure was never up to the amount of money allowed. I think that over the years it is clear that there was not an average expenditure on this below the line type of service of £750,000 a year, except in one year, and that was the year in which a loan was floated, the Anglo-Éire Agreement Loan, in order to pay £10,000,000 to Britain. If that is regarded as development or a securing of a loan for capital purposes, have it; but the "under the line" servicing, the "under the line" arranging, never meant that there was more than £1,500,000 provided, and certainly there was not anything more than £750,000 spent.
There is another way of testing this. What moneys did Fianna Fáil borrow over the period they were in office? They floated a loan in 1933 for £6,000,000. The public took up less than £2,500,000 of it. There was a conversion loan some time later which I do not count because that was simply getting old money which had beenloaned—reloaned. There was no new service going to be financed by it. I leave out also the financial agreement loan because that £10,000,000 went in its entirety to Britain. In 1939, there was a loan floated for £7,000,000, to which the public subscribed £4,000,000 and, in 1941, there was another loan of £8,000,000, to which the public subscribed £7.3 millions. Altogether, in their period from 1932 to 1947, the Fianna Fáil Government borrowed £21,000,000. They got from the public £13,000,000 of that and the banks and departmental funds had to take up the rest. That is £21,000,000 over 15 years, and that is what is called capital development on the Fianna Fáil policy and basis. That is what has left the Minister who went to the bankers' dinner last night in a position to say that the country's resources were still in the condition in which they could be called neglected and, therefore, more money is now required from the banks in order to speed up what, of course, should have been done over the 15 years from 1932 to 1947.
After I had floated the first loan for which I was responsible, the £12,000,000 3 per cent. Exchequer Bonds, in 1948, I was told by my staff at the time that I was not to get light-headed about the amount of money I had to spend, because I had very little. I thought that meant that there was some debt of a couple of million pounds against the £12,000,000 I had borrowed and I asked if it was as bad as that. I was told it was and a good deal worse. I could not believe what was then represented to me and so little was I given to believe in the matter that I got the thing put in memorandum form to me. Here is the position I was left in in 1948, having succeeded in getting £12,000,000 from the public at 3 per cent., as shown by this memorandum. The memorandum ran in this form:
"DISPOSAL OF PROCEEDS OF LOAN.
Amount already received
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£11,500,000
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Final instalment due 9th June
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£500,000”
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That was the £12,000,000, and the memorandum continued:—
"The £11,500,000 received has been applied as follows:—
31st March—Exchequer Bills paid off
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£1,450,000
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April—Ways and Means Advances repaid
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£10,050,000”
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The whole tot was £11,500,000, but that was not the worst because this followed:—
"A further £804,500 of Ways and Means Advances has since been repaid, bringing the total repayment since the loan was issued to £10,854,500. The amount of Ways and Means Advances still outstanding is £900,000, due as to £700,000 to the Paymaster General and as to £200,000 to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs."
Then, there followed this:—
"PURPOSES FOR WHICH REPAID TEMPORARY BORROWINGS WERE INCURRED.
The proceeds (£8,000,000) of the National Security Loan issued in November, 1941,——"
That is the last one of the three I referred to, the loan to which the public subscribed £7.3 million——
"——were exhausted in the course of the year 1942-43. In fact on the 31st March, 1943, Ways and Means borrowings attributable to the 1942-43 Budget deficit had already been incurred to the extent of £1,400,000. Subsequent net borrowings up to the 31st March, 1948, and the purposes for which they were incurred are shown in the appended tables."
Then there is a supplementary sheet showing the sources and the causes of borrowing and there follows this summary:—
"The total proceeds of the Exchequer Bonds issue (£11,500,000 to date) have been applied to redeem temporary borrowings—£1,450,000 Exchequer Bills and £10,050,000 Ways and Means Advances. Although borrowings are not hypothecated to particular purposes, it may reasonably be said that of this £11,500,000, £11,012,000 is attributable to Budgetdeficits incurred since the 30th November, 1942, when the National Security Loan was exhausted. Capital issues in the period 1st December, 1942, to 31st March, 1948, which amounted to £9,396,800 may be regarded as having been met as to £3,560,000 by net receipts from Savings Certificates and as to the balance by borrowings from the P.O.S.B. and repayments of previous capital issues. The position is summarised below."
Then there is a note from the chief official of the Department stating that there had been an earlier note sent into me and this was the significance of the note:—
"In other words, every penny we received so far (referring to the total above) from the new Loan has been used in paying off old debts. We have still to get £1,000,000 from outstanding instalments, also likely to be used in repaying old debts."