I wish to thank the Minister for his opening comments on what has been achieved in the industrial field by way of increased employment, further projects, our exports effort. It is all very heartening, certainly, and carries with it an air of optimism. Coming from a man like the Minister there must be a sound basis in substance for believing that at last, possibly, we see the light at the end of the tunnel and are achieving a breakthrough. We are coming to something like an 11,000 employment target figure, according to some of the periodical reports we get.
The Minister mentioned that the objective of the Bill is to update and integrate and clarify the various incentives given to attract industry here and, at the same time, it updates and clarifies and improves the structure of the Industrial Development Authority, which is rather important too, because we are moving into a somewhat different type of industrialisation from what we have had up to now. Jobs are very important, naturally. Every man can count progress in terms of employment. Every man employed at a bench, or with a slide rule means a family at the fireside so to speak. There is more to it than jobs.
Some of the industries that we are getting recently carry with them a high degree of technical and managerial skills. Increasingly, this will be the case. It is for that reason that it is important that AnCO at this time have got going with their training centres and that nine regional colleges have been formed. They will play a very important part, along with the older technological institutes like Bolton Street that we have, in equipping men for these new large-scale industries which demand a higher degree of skill and higher technical accomplishments.
Of course, the best prospect of meeting the changing demand and the higher skills is, no doubt, to have a better general education. I should like to quote for the benefit of the House from a book called The American Challenge. It is a book that got considerable publicity in Europe and that has been translated into several languages. It is by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber. He speaks about the importance of education. He says here:
In the United States, 95 per cent of all the 13- and 14-year-olds are in school. But what is more important is that at age 18 we still have more than 45 per cent pursuing their education. We have more than 4 million students in college, and this represents some 40 per cent of our college age population. In Western Europe this percentage ranges between 65 and 15 per cent.
He is comparing the technological gap between Western Europe and the United States but it is relevant here. He says:
Technological advance has two bedrock requisites: broad general knowledge and modern managerial competence. It cannot come into being without improving the foundation of it all, which is education of the young, as well as adults. If Europe really wants to close the technological gap it has to improve its education both general and special, and both quantitatively and qualitatively. There is just no other way to get to the fundamental root of the problem.
Science and technology, and modern management, do not sum up the entire work of education. Developing our human capabilities to the fullest is what ultimately matters most. Call it humanism or call it whatever you like, but that is clearly what education in the final analysis is all about.
That is very important in the light of the breakthrough in our educational system. Education is vitally essential because of the greater degree of higher skills required in modern industry and it is most important that we should make the fullest use of all the opportunities available to us.
The Minister spoke about the resources of the authority being augmented. I presume that, when he comes to reply, he will indicate in what way these resources will be augmented. I rather imagine that there will be more economists, more technologists and more scientists. I take it he will make full use of the Institute of Industrial Research and Standards. In the November issue of Technology Ireland the institute are fully alive to the changing character of industry. At page 18 they say:
A recent issue of Export referred to the newly-established CTT/IIRS Product Development Service. This is a new venture for both organisations, still very much in an experimental stage, and therefore liable to further evolution and change. Committees have been set up in certain industrial sector areas to identify and select projects based on knowledge of changing marketing conditions and opportunities, technological change and innovation.
We have these agencies to assist the Industrial Development Authority to ensure that the industries that will be selected will be the most appropriate industries to link up with existing industries, moving finally towards a properly integrated industrial structure. We have the agencies. We have the ability. We should be able to get on with the job.
We fall very far behind in research. Research may not be germane to this particular measure, but I should like to point out that we are very far behind in research. The strengthening of the authority and the liaison with the Institute of Industrial Research and Standards and CTT, plus the National Science Council, should make for better progress.
One very important factor in all this is the role of the universities. I believe our universities could play a much bigger part in all this. In the United States the universities are the great strength behind the government, industry and so on. They are the strength behind America's amazing technological achievements.
I commend the policy of regionalisation. The Minister talked about a committee; in the midland region there would be five counties, five development officers and five committees. One joint committee might embrace as many as 40 people. Perhaps, the Minister will elaborate on this further when he comes to reply. As I see the position, these committees should examine the whole infrastructure to make sure that the region is properly equipped from the point of view of sewerage facilities, water, roads and so forth to cater for the type of industry best suited to the region. On these committees there will be the county manager, the county chairman and the CEO and people like them. As the Minister said, these regional bodies will have common guidelines. The Minister also said that this is an exciting time. That is so, but it is also a critical time. I am not so much concerned about our early entry into the EEC because the later we go in the more time we shall have to grow stronger and to complete the links about which the Minister talked, making full use of our research, scientific and educational institutions before we face the cold wind of the EEC.
The Minister spoke about the third stage—this is very important—in which we will be selective with regard to large projects, projects possibly involving millions. It will be magnificent if we get two or three of these because they have an inbuilt capacity for growth and they provide the resources for further industries. That is the great strength of these projects. If two or three of these are properly integrated into our industrial structure we can face the cold wind of the EEC with a certain amount of confidence.
The Minister referred to a project policy. This policy will be vitally important. To quote again from The American Challenge:
The famous economist Schumpeter predicted this even before the war when he wrote: "The really crucial competition will be in new goods and new techniques. This competition will exact a decisive advantage in cost and quality, and strike not only at the profit margins and production figures of corporations, but at their foundations and their very existence.”
Several studies deal with this new kind of industrial warfare. The development of new products has hit a momentum undreamed of before the war, or even ten years ago. The US chemical industry, for example, now considers it normal that half its business is based on products that did not exist ten years ago.
This goes to show how important it is to keep up to date, to be alive in inventiveness, to be diligent in examining our products and having a proper policy. The Minister uses certain criteria under a section of the Bill in determining what our product policy should be. He further promised that the IDA will continue to watch, together with the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards, all new products and all changes in technology. The face of industry has changed over the years. The weaving of cloth has changed completely. Cloth is now made from fibres that were never heard of 20 years ago.
I welcome the Bill. I welcome the good tidings the Minister has brought us.