Before I moved the adjournment of the debate last night I had been referring to a speech made in this House by the Minister for Lands in October, 1970 and was pointing out that no provision was made in this Budget to implement the promises made at that time by the Minister for Lands. It will be recalled that on that occasion the Minister referred to a speech which I made on the 12th October in which I pleaded for a new approach to the whole problem of the small farmers in the west of Ireland. That problem has existed down through the years and has been aggravated by the fact that the cost of living has gone up considerably during all the years that Fianna Fáil have been in office. According to the figures supplied by the Taoiseach yesterday, in reply to a Parliamentary Question by Deputy L'Estrange to which I added a supplementary, we now find that over 60,000 persons have left Connacht in the past five or six years.
It will be recalled that the speech made by the Minister for Lands had the full approval of various organisations throughout the country. He was complimented on his speech by the local development association in Foxford and in Ballina, Bunnyconlon, Athlone and at various centres where there are organised groups who are trying to bring about industrial development and to create employment. At a subsequent Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis the matter got a great deal of publicity and many of the delegates showed their approval for what the Minister had said and what he promised to implement, namely, that schemes would have to be initiated to provide regular employment for at least one member of the family in forestry, in industrial employment, with county councils, the Office of Public Works, or in some way to provide a cash income to help those people to continue to live in their own country. Despite the fact that the Taoiseach complimented the Minister for his statement, that it got approval all over the country and that at the request of the local development committee in Foxford I attended a joint meeting there with the Minister, it got approval all round, but we find that far from provision being made in the Budget for an increase in the numbers employed in forestry, or for that matter in any other direction, there is a cut-back. In the last six or eight weeks the Minister for Lands was obliged to announce here that due to financial difficulties there would be a reduction in the numbers employed in forestry. This is a very serious matter particularly when it affects people in what we used to call the congested areas. In 1955 the number employed in forestry in Mayo was about 220 but now the figure is down to 154, which is a very serious decline in employment particularly when it is linked with the decline in employment in other spheres.
The Office of Public Works is another section which has suffered a cut-back. For about nine or ten years we had the River Moy drainage scheme in Mayo and Sligo, a scheme which brought beneficial effects to the west, particularly from the point of view of employment. When it was at its maximum the numbers employed were something like 550 or 600, some of them small farmers' sons, others were people from Ballina, Crossmolina, Foxford and elsewhere. The scheme has now been completed. According to a statement by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance the scheme was wound up on 1st April last, so that there too, we have a serious decline in employment, in an area in which employment is so necessary. Far from having an increase in the moneys provided we are again warned that there will be a cut-back there. There are many minor drainage schemes which could usefully be undertaken in Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon and parts of Galway, if the money were made available but that is not been done. It seems that we have no proper planning and that those at the top are not concerned about the amount of work still to be undertaken or about the number of extra people who would be unemployed as a result of this scheme being closed down.
Recently I put down a question to ascertain the number of unemployed registered at the various labour exchanges in Mayo over a five-year period. The figure for the county has increased to something like 5,200. In Ballina alone, which has some 5,000 people, there are 1,400 people unemployed. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education seems to have some doubt about this but if he checks he will find that those figures were supplied to me recently. I wonder what would be the position if we had not got this outlet to England, and to a lesser extent, to places like America and Australia. Not many people in my area go to Australia but I know a few who have gone there. Many people go to England or Scotland first and from there some of them travel to Europe or to other parts of the world with English building contractors of one kind or another. Sometimes after a year or two one hears that these people have gone on to America, Canada or Australia. I wonder what would be the position, particularly in the west, if the people had not got these outlets. Indeed, the position in England is not very encouraging at present, due to the increasing numbers of unemployed. It looks as if by the November-December period the figure will have reached the one million mark. So far we have been fortunate that we have this outlet which enables many of our people to get employment in England.
Last night I referred briefly to meetings held some years ago in Charlestown, Foxford and other centres which were attended by bishops and religious of different denominations, Catholics, Protestants, Presbyterians, Methodists, and so on, and together with lay people of good-will they formed a committee known as the "Defence of the West Committee". They stressed the seriousness of the problem in that region. Despite their efforts and pleadings far from having more people employed in the region today there are fewer employed.
Some industrial employment has been found. Mayo has not benefited to any great extent from the industrial development which took place. It seems that any proposal which originates in Ballina, Swinford, Crossmolina or Charlestown is likely to be cold-shouldered in Dublin. I cannot understand the reason for this. In Dublin one can observe that there has been much industrial expansion. The city is bursting at the seams. Judging from the newspaper publicity there has been much industrial development in Cork also. No doubt the fact that the Taoiseach comes from Cork has a big influence. Many people in my constituency would suggest that the Taoiseach seems to be more interested in providing employment in Cork than he is in looking after County Mayo or any of the other western counties. I do not know whether that is true or not, but the people have that suspicion. Quite frequently I am told that industries will be started in Cork because the Taoiseach comes from that region.
I am glad to see the industrial expansion at Shannon Airport and, to a lesser degree, at Galway. The west of Ireland seems to be neglected in so far as industrial development is concerned. Occasionally a little industry is started. Often it is one of our own people who starts it. Having gone to England or Australia, and realising the problem which exists, having accummulated certain assets and wishing to return to help his friends and neighbours, he starts up such a little industry. If such a person returns and puts forward proposals to the Industrial Development Authority in Dublin, even with the backing of the local development officer and those associated with him, it seems that every obstacle and difficulty is placed in the way of such proposals because it is proposed to establish the industry in the west.
I, as others have done, have advocated a policy of providing cheap transport for industrial and agricultural products for these regions in order to put them on something like an equal footing with other parts of the country. We have had no success so far with this proposal. I have been told in recent times that, instead of getting these facilities of cheaper transportation rates for our industry, there is a grave danger, due to the financial difficulties of CIE, that many of the important railway lines which serve western regions will be closing. We have suffered a lot in the past from the closure of railway lines. I hope that there is no truth in these rumours. The Bishops predicted in Foxford and Charlestown the downfall of the west unless something is done. The closure of the railway lines would cause a very serious situation.
There is nothing in the Budget to help with the difficulties in the west. They have been there for a long time. It is well known in this city that thousands of our people have passed through on their way to the Liverpool boat or to the Dún Laoghaire boat. Thousands of our people have had to emigrate in order to make a living. The people from north-west Donegal have suffered a similar fate. We talk about restoring the Irish language. How can we hope to restore the language if the people who should be our first concern and whose families have spoken the language for years have had to go to America or England, knowing scarcely a word of English? These people have remained loyal to their faith and to their country in spite of the great obstacles and difficulties which they have experienced. They have built churches and schools and reared families. They have even sent home money to help their families and friends and to assist with education. They have contributed generously in order to keep the local schools open and the churches renovated. These people earned their money the hard way. Some of them are still alive. Those people have achieved these wonderful targets, and have reared families to be professional men or distinguished churchmen at home and abroad.
What did they get from a native Government? They got nothing except promises that were not implemented. The provision made for improving their lot is so niggardly as to be almost worthless. No serious consideration was given to them in this Budget. As a matter of fact, the Government attempted to deal a death blow to these regions when it was announced that the supplementary allowance— call it the dole or whatever you like—was to be stopped on a certain date A dole contribution of £2 or £3 or £4 a week may not seem very much to some people, but it means a lot to the father of a family with a small holding of half an acre, an acre, or an acre and a half. He may have some of his own supplies in the way of potatoes, vegetables, milk and, perhaps, a few eggs, but he does not get those for nothing. He must work for them. He must be thrifty. He may have a few store cattle, or a few bullocks, or a few heifers. This makes it possible for him to rear his family not in lavish comfort but in a wonderful environment. They have done that down through the years.
The Fianna Fáil Government always shouted about how concerned they were for those people, but they served notice on them in a shameless way, and in a confused way, that the dole would be withdrawn from certain age groups on a certain date. That added to the confusion that has been felt about the Government over the past 12 months and more. The people are mesmerised. They do not know where they are. These people were always concerned with paying their way and they tried to bring up their families to be decent and respectable. The cost of living has made it impossible for them to do that now because the incomes from their small holdings are so small. That region is not well organised for the supply of milk to creameries. Even if it were well organised many of these people have not got more than two or three cows and some of them might not even have that number while better off people might have five or ten cows. How could they hope to live if the dole allowance were withdrawn?
I rarely agree with Deputy Joe Lenehan. He is on Mayo County Council with me. I will be charitable and just say that I do not agree with a lot of what he says and does but I admired him for the stand he took on that matter regardless of the cost. The Government can never live that down. Even if they restored the dole, it is well known that they would have withdrawn it for good were it not for the pressures that were brought to bear on them and the difficulties they find themselves in at the moment.
I said that generations of our people have gone across to England and earned money and sent it back to help their people. Year after year in our accounting system there is a heading "Emigrants' Remittances". I do not know whether the figure is accurate. I do not know how it is compiled. Some time ago I traded in quite a big way in this region. I do not do so any longer. Like many others I was put out of that line of business. I do not want to dwell on that point except to say that, apart from transactions such as the sale of turkeys or export of eggs, at the weekend I would have a lodgment to make of £2,000, 75 per cent of which would be made up of remittances from Britain. There were dozens of other people in that region who could say the same thing.
All the land in Mayo is not bad and some people could make a reasonably good living out of their holdings plus the help they got from their families. The point I am making is that when we consider the contribution made by generations of those people who sent home money, it is disgraceful that a Fianna Fáil Government which professed to be so concerned about the people in these regions should attempt to deal them that blow. Deputy O'Connor from South Kerry is in the House. I must compliment him too on taking a certain stand. Although it was not as courageous as that taken by Deputy Lenehan, he made his presence felt in the party. I was in his constituency during a by-election and I must say that there is a similar problem in that part of the country.
Tourism was mentioned by the Minister for Transport and Power. He sounded an optimistic note about the increase in the number of tourists we might expect. He mentioned South America. I sincerely hope that his predictions are right but I regret that I do not share his optimism. It should be borne in mind, too, that it is not the Americans, be they from the United States or from South America, or the Australians who have contributed to a great extent to our tourist industry: it is our kith and kin who went abroad and, having done well, return. They are the real tourists. I know this to be so because I spent part of my life in the Province of Connacht selling a certain brand of beer. That work made it necessary for me to visit many hotels so that one might say I had a grandstand view of what was happening. I was responsible for helping to supervise the fitting of lounge bar counters and other fittings in places where my firm was involved. At that time there was a colossal investment in the tourist industry and this was of great benefit to the west of Ireland as I am sure it was to many parts of Kerry where, on the tourist side alone, they could carry another county on their back because they have such places as Killarney, Killorglin, Glenbeigh and Glencar. Kerry had a real influx of visitors and millions of pounds must have been spent there.
Unfortunately, however, there were the cashers-in, those people whose aim it was to get rich quickly. In many parts of the country these Johnnies-come-lately received grants and loans for their hotels and guesthouses but ruined the industry by overcharging. They overcharged for meals, for bed accommodation and even for drink. That was disgraceful practice and people who are guilty of it should not be allowed to continue in business. However, some of them have paid the price for such practice because I understand that in many cases hotels and guesthouses are almost empty. If my information is correct, it is likely that there will not be many guests in some of them this year.
The result of a survey carried out recently by some responsible group— I cannot remember their name—in connection with the prospects for tourism in the coming year revealed a gloomy picture. Having talked to some hotel and guesthouse people as recently as the past week, I can understand this air of gloom. Certainly, these people are not optimistic for the coming year. I think it was Deputy Kavanagh, while speaking yesterday evening, said that there were some 20 hotels for sale in the Bray region alone. There will be many others for sale also because of the unrest here at present and, in particular, unrest in the North. In so far as this part of the country is concerned, people in other countries cannot be impressed when they hear of the sacking of Ministers of State and when they hear about such things as attempted gun-running. I doubt if any sensible man would take his wife and children on holiday to Ireland. The news media in England and elsewhere are only too willing to exaggerate everything out of all proportion with the result that exaggerated stories are appearing in the newspapers in Britain, in America and, I am sure, in many other countries also.
My little daughter has a Swedish pen pal with whom she first got in touch through some religious journal. It is interesting to read what this little Swedish girl of 17 or 18 years has to say about what she reads in their newspapers and what she sees on television about the Bernadette Devlins, the Paisleys and about the North in general. From time to time my daughter comes to me seeking answers to some of the queries raised by this girl in her letters. I merely mention this fact in order to illustrate the bad publicity we are being given abroad even in a country like Sweden from which we have never had many tourists anyway. Certainly, we are not likely to be in any favourable position to attract tourists in the foreseeable future. The rate of growth in additional hotel bedrooms in this country has been remarkable and if Bord Fáilte and others had pulled their weight, regions such as the one from which I come would have benefited from this great boom but due to various reasons, some of which reflect no great credit on the Government, the tourist industry is faced, I regret to say, with a gloomy future.
In spite of this, the Minister for Transport and Power now known as the no-problem man, came in here yesterday evening and tried to give the impression that everything was all right. Those engaged in the hotel or farm guesthouse business would not agree. Many people in the latter type of business have been investing from maybe £200 to £400 a year in efforts to add a few extra rooms to their houses so that they might supplement their small farm incomes but because of the present position of the industry, they will suffer. It will cause further and greater emigration. In the Budget Statement no hopes were held out for this industry.
Last night, I listened to one of the gloomiest speeches I ever heard here from Deputy de Valera. In a brief comment at the time I said if Deputy Dillon were here last night there would be many "hear hears" from this side of the House because one would think it was taken word for word from speeches made by Deputy Dillon on many occasions to the jeers and interruptions of the party opposite.
It is too bad that his predictions were proved correct and that Deputy de Valera should have to make the statements he made last night. I suggest that anybody who was not here, and particularly the Fianna Fáil Deputies opposite, should read that speech by Deputy de Valera in which he warned that we are in a crisis situation brought about by inflation and that there is a serious danger of utter collapse of certain parts of our capital programme, that we may have to cut out completely some worthwhile schemes and projects that are on hand in order to save money. That means more people will be unemployed. I took Deputy de Valera seriously when he made those statements and as I said last night the only thing wrong with his speech was that he did not make it years ago. In fact, this was said by somebody else years ago but it was taken back. I am not sure of the date but it was said by the former Minister for Finance, Deputy Haughey. I watched the programme in my home with my own family some years ago. I remember that the announcement was made on the radio several times during the day that the Minister for Finance would speak that night on a very serious matter. As a result, people took notice and wondered what the Minister had to say. Everybody was tense and waiting for the speech. The statement was delivered by the Minister with a very serious face. I observed him on television and when one is a Member of the House one knows the moods and expressions of those sitting opposite and the Minister's mood was tense and serious. He made the type of statement Deputy de Valera made last night warning the nation of a serious crisis the like of which we had never before experienced. He warned that there would have to be a tightening up so as to put an end to it.
When the programme ended I am sure the reaction of my wife and family, fairly mature teenagers and adults, accustomed to making their own judgments on matters like that, was fairly typical. They all agreed that there was a crisis and wondered what was coming next. I said that the Minister did not come on radio and television for fun.
At that time it was not intended to have a general election but later plans were made to have an election and because of that in a short space of time we had from the Taoiseach, and others, a complete about-turn from the crisis situation. Naturally, my wife and family asked "What is this about?" People all over the country reacted similarly, even in this House. They could not understand how there could be a crisis and within a fortnight, three weeks or a month, it was suddenly wiped out and everything was clear and straight again. I could not understand it and I had to tell my family that. It seemed strange to me but it did not seem to embarrass the Fianna Fáil Party. They have become so thick-skinned that nothing would embarrass them no matter how big.
I had great admiration and respect for many Deputies opposite, past and present. They contributed, through the years, to solving many problems and many of them, particularly of the older generation, risked their lives. How could these same people who had made great contributions in many ways—we must give them credit for having done many good things—be so short of principle that they could make an about-turn like that without being ashamed of it? One would think they had their own ten commandments which they could break whenever they liked. I do not know what future historians will say but they will have a rather embarrassing job if they record these instances of a Minister for Finance announcing a crisis and, a fortnight or three weeks afterwards, the Taoiseach or the Minister himself taking it all back.
The election was fought and won and we have staggered on and dragged our feet along ever since. From time to time we have heard rumblings of crises, particularly when the ordinary labouring people put out their hands for a little more or when the widow and the orphan or the man in receipt of unemployment benefit wants a little bit more bread. The Minister will go off to a dinner or make a speech somewhere, particularly on a Saturday night, so that we will have plenty of time on Sunday to read what he said in the pages of the Sunday Press. I notice Deputy Burke is smiling. It is no trouble to him to smile; he is a good genial Mayo man who has come to live in Dublin. I hope he will try to exert his influence on his colleagues and remind Ministers of State that they cannot hope to have the confidence or respect of the people while they conduct themselves as they conduct themselves at present and while words seem to mean nothing to them. They have brought parliament into disrepute in more ways than one. With lying propaganda at election times the truth seems to mean very little when they come in here. One can hear contradictions of one kind or another even during the course of one day's sitting. We know what happened during the year in the law courts. We know what is happening in relation to the special inquiry. I do not want to speak on that topic at any great length.
