When speaking on this Bill last night, I was dealing with a number of points—the cost of living, unemployment and emigration—and, on emigration, I had stated that we were alarmed by the large number of young persons who were leaving this country at the moment and who have left it over a short period back. Organisations throughout the country are becoming alarmed by the situation which exists at the moment, that is, the emigration amongst the age group of between 17 and 20 years. Those young boys are leaving and leaving at an alarming rate. The cause, of course, is not far to seek. They look around them and see an unemployment figure of 72,000 and that despite the promises which were made at the last general election, promises by Labour, Fine Gael and the others, that the unemployment figure would be drastically reduced and that every means at the disposal of the Government would be called into operation in order to remedy that situation.
Yet, we have a situation to-day in which, from September last, when we had an unemployment figure of 48,000 —and, of course, the Coalition are not going to take credit for the existence of such a reduced unemployment figure in September, after being two or three months in office; they would not have the "neck" to take credit for that— up to the present time, the figure has soared and mounted, with the result that to-day we are faced with 72,000 persons unemployed. Is it any wonder then that these boys and girls of that age group should look around them, and, seeing their brothers, sisters and fathers registering as unemployed, decide for themselves that, as there is no prospect of improvement, the best thing they can do is to emigrate? That is something which both clergy and laity are seeking to do something about.
We can appreciate the conditions and the mode of life to which these young people are going across the water. It is bad enough in the case of older persons, those who have been in the habit of crossing over to earn their living as casual labourers, as migratory labourers, on the other side. We have a tradition of that sort of thing, of workers from the West of Ireland and other parts going over for periods of the year and coming back again. It is something which has been going on for a long time, but this is something new—the under-twenties leaving the country. There is no prospect that they will come back. Many of them will get into ways and modes of life over there and, even if they did come back, they would not be an asset to this country.
Last night, I took several statements from last year's debate on this Bill and I took several quotations from what the Minister for Industry and Commerce said when he was a Deputy on this side last year and did not have the responsibility of putting into effect the subject-matter of his statements. We find that the statements he made then, the accusations he made against Fianna Fáil and the Fianna Fáil Government, apply to-day but in a more severe degree. One of his statements at this time last year was with regard to the cost of living and high prices and he coupled with that the then unemployment figure. He said that we had 60,000 people unemployed in this country and asked how those people who have no other income but what was paid to them at the labour exchange could afford to buy tea at 5/- per lb. and how could they afford to buy the other items he mentioned at the prices they were then at. Yet, 72,000 unemployed to-day have to buy these self-same items and have to pay a higher price for meat, for coffee, for cocoa and other things.
A great to-do has been made because this Government managed to pin down the tea price to last year's figure. It has been represented as a great achievement, but the piper has still to be paid and thereby hangs another tale or another tune. One of the speakers from the opposite benches said that everything in the garden must be lovely because the people were not crying out about high prices and because there was no agitation amongst the people. He drew the conclusion from that that everything was hunky-dory. I can assure him that there will be a day of reckoning. It is true that there are no unemployed marches and I do not know why the organisers of the unemployed marches are not busy at present, because when Deputy Norton was speaking then, at the time the unemployed marches were taking place through the streets of Dublin and the sit-downs were being carried out on O'Connell Bridge, we had 60,000 unemployed.
I mentioned last night the commodities the prices of which have increased since the present Government took over. The litany is rather long. I shall not repeat it now but, long as it is, we could see some ray of hope if the Minister showed any signs, no matter how remote, that he would do something about it. But week after week we have questions tabled in this House by all Parties regarding the prices of essential commodities and invariably we get the same reply: "Yes, I am aware that the price has increased but it is not my function to interfere." That is from the Minister who last year said—I am quoting from Volume 142, column 1710 of the Official Report—in regard to the suggestion he made that Fianna Fáil were running away from price control: "I do not think it will be easy for the Minister or the Government to ride away from what should be their obvious responsibility—that is, to give the public an efficient system of price regulation, price control and, above all, price supervision." What control, what regulation or what supervision has the present Minister for Industry and Commerce applied to the price of American coal which is being sold to the merchants in Dublin at a price of £5 11s. per ton and for which the Donegal consumer is paying £10 per ton? He says it has nothing to do with him and that it is not subject to any control. But surely the Minister who issued the following statement when he was a Deputy last year is acting in a worse way than that in which he suggested the Minister for Industry and Commerce was operating last year? Coal is being sold in Dublin at a certain figure and it is being sold in Donegal at double that figure. The Minister told several of us by way of answer to parliamentary question that he was going to do nothing about it.
Then, again, you have another Minister who allows the prices of animal feeding-stuffs to soar. Of course, when that happens you can expect dearer commodities, because if farming costs go up, naturally it is the consumer who must be asked to pay those higher costs. Certainly, this contribution by the present Minister to last year's debate in the light of what has happened since and in the light of what is happening in regard to prices —and there will be other prices which will increase in the future—makes very interesting reading. All we can do is ask ourselves if he is the same person as the person who, speaking from here last year, said these things and the same person who has the power in his hands, with the backing of all the Coalition Parties behind him, and the array of promises that were made during the election campaign in respect of each item spoken of here last year by him? We are wondering if the Minister has any say at all in the matter.
The best we can get from the other side at the moment in regard to the promises which many of the speakers on this side of the House quoted as coming from the different Parties and the different individuals forming the Government is that they did not make any promises and that they did not tell the people they would reduce prices but told them they would do their best. What did Deputy Dunne mean when he told his audience during the election campaign that if Dunne cannot do it it cannot be done? I wonder what does all that mean? Surely it did not mean that Dunne would do his best, and if Dunne's best could not be done then it could not be done.
Another interesting statement from the Minister when speaking here last year was: "Does everybody not know perfectly well that it is harder to live to-day for the ordinary man and woman than it has ever been in the past 30 years?" That was last year's statement. Could not the present Minister get up and truthfully say the same thing to-day? Although he is in power for the past six months he could get up and say: "Does everybody not know perfectly well that it is harder to live to-day for the ordinary man and woman than it has ever been in the past 30 years?" and he would be telling the truth because, ever since he took over, the prices of very many things—I am sorry I have not got the list—have gone up, and the only price which has come down is the price of butter. That is the only price reduction of any of the essential commodities used in the ordinary home which has taken place over the past six months. In all other cases, where any change took place, the increase was upwards and in some cases very steeply upwards at that, so that last year's statement by the Minister applies with increased truth and positiveness this year. While he accused the previous Government's Minister for Industry and Commerce of sitting back and doing nothing about these things, he himself seems to occupy that position to-day.
He then said that there was no good or valid reason for continuing the Supplies and Services Bill for a further year, and yet he tells us now that the Supplies and Services Bill will be continued for another 12 months and that in the meantime he will have a look at things. He said there are difficulties in the way; that it is very hard to get any effective system of price control and that even at the end of the year it might still be necessary to introduce the Supplies and Services Bill for a further year.
We know there are difficulties in the way. We know it is difficult to control, regulate and stabilise prices. Fianna Fáil never said that simply by going out to a public platform and waving a magic wand, prices would topple. It is the people opposite now who said that this could be done, that taxation could be reduced, that in a ten-minute speech in the Dáil taxation could be reduced by as many millions. It is not too much then for us, and especially the people of the country who were led to believe we would have less taxation, reduced prices, less unemployment, a reduced figure of emigration, to expect that a Minister such as Mr. Norton would, despite any difficulties, take effective steps. They may not be perfect steps but at least they should be taken, whether they are perfect or not, to remedy a situation which he said existed last year, and which exists to a degree which is 25 per cent. worse this year.
I will come to another statement made by Mr. Norton last year on the food and drink question. I would like to hear some of the Deputies opposite on the question of drink. I see beer, stout, whiskey and ale mentioned here as the poor man's pint, and the question asked what was the Fianna Fáil Party going to do about it, and so on. Actually this speech by the then Deputy Norton was the keynote. It set the headline to the other speakers. I will not tire the House by going over and looking at what the other Deputies said, but Deputies of all Parties when they were over here, kept in line with the opening statement or the statement early in the debate by Deputy Norton. We still have them with us to-day. Although the people are not marching the streets of Dublin there are very few letters being written to the Irish Independent. Nevertheless, we have a worse situation to-day than at the time Deputy Norton said this. We have a higher unemployment figure, higher prices, and emigration of a type which is worse than that which ever existed in this country. Surely before even their own supporters try to force the Coalition Government and the Parties forming it to act, they will try to do something at least to live up to some of the solid promises they made during the general election campaign.
