This Bill is non-controversial and it has the support of all of us. We realise that "export or die" is a motto which has absolute relevance for this country because the expansion of employment and the saving of the home market depend on our increasing our export competitiveness. CTT could be described as the front line State agency in the matter of seeking new export markets. Their assistance to home based industries is essential if they are to find new export outlets.
Irish industry has not been very interested in export outlets in past years. Up to quite recently industry was pampered with an excess of protectionism which meant that you relied on the home market for an easy living and, if you raised your eyes at all to the outside world, you did not have to look beyond the Irish Sea to the British market. Nowadays the position in all markets is far different. Even on the home market industry is facing very stiff competition indeed. The home market can no longer be regarded as the secure and safe market it was, say, ten years ago. Industry must be competitive to survive and to survice it needs more export outlets and new export markets leading to an improvement in design and so on to enable us at another remove to hold on to the home market and enable us to expand our industrial base so as to give fresh employment.
Deputy Donegan referred to the necessity for some closer liaison, unspecified, between the various State agencies, the IDA, the Credit Company and CTT. Most ideally that closer liaison should be between the Department of Foreign Affairs and CTT. The Minister talked about opening up two offices, one in Brussels and one in Milan, in addition to the offices already opened in Paris and Dusseldorf. We have other embassies in Europe and I see nothing wrong with assigning a CTT official to each of those embassies. Wherever we have an embassy we should have a full-time CTT officer. We would not have to buy new premises. We could utilise the premises we have.
Our criticism of the Department of Foreign Affairs in past years was in regard to their aloofness from the mundane subject of seeking new trade export markets. This would seem to be an ideal way of bridging the gap which formerly existed in the Department of Foreign Affairs in the matter of looking for extra trade. Willy-nilly officials of the Department are involved in one way or another with the development of export possibilities in their areas. There is a CTT office in San Francisco but the official from the Department of Foreign Affairs in the consular office is also involved, even if only marginally, in trade matters. I would suggest that we should try to discover how we could get closer liaison between that Department and CTT, between the State agency looking for new markets and our embassies in these areas. This seems to be a co-ordination which is called for.
There is no reference to a CTT office being opened in Africa and yet we have an embassy in Lagos. Why not have a CTT office in that embassy? Nigeria is a vast African country with growing trade prospects. The Minister has visited what has been referred to as somewhere east of the Iron Curtain. I do not know if that phrase is applicable any longer, with the European Security Conference looming up. I should like some information from the Minister on the results of his missions, these Ian Fleming visits of his, to Prague and other places east of the Iron Curtain. What may we expect as a result of those visits? Extra trade? What was the point of those visits? Who did he meet and has he any encouraging news for the House?
It is no secret that the Department of Foreign Affairs are planning closer liaison with this area with the opening of an embassy or a consulate in Moscow or in Warsaw. It would seem to me that CTT should be working in close liaison with the Department if such a development is in sight. They should be considering moving into that area and opening up a full-time office. There is the old British imperial idea of trade following the flag but our trade should follow any country in which we have embassy status. It has been pointed out that the balance of trade situation between ourselves and the Communist countries is very adverse to our interests. We should do everything in our power to level up that adverse balance.
CTT work against a climate of lack of interest on the part of Irish industry, it must be said, in the prospect of expanding export markets. In addition to their many faults, which have been commented on many times over the years, Irish management have never been market-orientated. I suppose any management or business structure coming out of a protectionist era cannot be expected to acquire export consciousness for some period, but the trouble is that we cannot wait for the passage of time. Developments in the outside world are rushing ahead at a very rapid pace indeed. Irish management, still awaking from their protectionist slumbers, are not up to the job and are not aware of the urgency of the task before them in looking for new markets. Whether they are production orientated is another question but certainly they are not market orientated. While the first task of CTT is to look for markets abroad, they must also be aware of this problem which faces them on the home front.
It is useless for a CTT official to draw up a contract in a foreign city if he then finds that the home industry on which he is depending to fulfil the order is falling down on the schedule of orders. Unfortunately this happens very frequently. It must be said, unhappily, that in certain international quarters Irish business life has a very bad reputation as regards punctuality of schedule of delivery and so on. You do not hold a new market if the order is not filled on time and on the date specified. Unfortunately, this has been the experience and I am thinking especially of the United States.
I do not know whether CTT have already considered this problem or whether, in fact, it exists as a problem but I think CTT must be on the lookout continuously for men for their marketing force abroad who have proved their worth in industry. In other words, I do not think there should be any age barrier for recruitment to CTT; possibly there is not. I am sure of this. I would suggest that people who are specialists in seeking and acquiring new markets are rare and exceptional. The salary for such people should be in accordance with the results achieved. There should be no Civil Service ceiling on the salary scales paid to the man who proves his worth in this difficult task of gaining new markets for Irish industry. A new foreign market gained for an Irish industry spells many new jobs at home. I do not think that people who have this expertise can be overpaid. I think it is impossible to overpay them so important is their work.
Unfortunately there is still a lack of interest on the part of industry in the whole question of the gaining and conquest of new markets. Unfortunately the idea still exists that this is not quite as essential as politicians seem to think. We should inaugurate —at least I am not aware of its existence so far—some scheme of prizes or awards for exporters. Perhaps we have one at the moment. If so, it is not very well publicised, because I am not aware of any interest in Irish industry or of any publicity being given to this. We should attempt to demonstrate imaginatively the importance of gaining new markets for Irish industry. I do not think we are adequately pushing this message home in Irish industry at present. If it has not already been done, I would suggest the institution of an annual award to be made to different sectors of industry with particular emphasis on small or medium-size firms, because possibly it is there we have most work to do. CTT have done their utmost to get firms in a particular section of industry to group together in seeking new markets for their products. I know CTT have done this with a certain amount of success.
With the increasing free trade and competition to which we are subject the home market will not be so secure in the future as in the past. One of the factors which contribute to the difficulty in getting Irish management interested in export markets is the language barrier. I am thinking especially of the European market.
This is the ridiculous legacy of refusing to educate boys in our secondary schools up to quite recently in any of the European languages. The result is that there are many Irish managers who in their secondary or university education have no training in the major European languages.
CTT continue their efforts in the North American market. The Nixon levies will affect us adversely there, but it is an important market. On my one or two visits to the United States last year I had occasion to note the solid work done by CTT in New York and other regional offices in America in the matter of increasing our exports to that country. However, in areas where we have no inside knowledge of the market CTT should consider utilising existing marketing agencies. You cannot compete with local knowledge and if it is possible to link up with a local intelligence marketing concern or group that should be done in areas where we have no offices.
In talking about co-ordination I would hope that CTT would preserve close links with the IDA and the Credit Corporation. However, I would consider the greatest priority for CTT is close liaison and consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs, through the various Embassies. I know they have knowledge of one another's work but I would suggest that in every Irish embassy or consular office abroad there should be a CTT official.
The Minister visited Bulgaria this year. I should like to know if, as a result of that visit, our adverse balance with them will be redressed. I also recall that a Rumanian delegation led by their Commerce Minister earlier this year made a short tour of Irish industry. Are there any results from this? Furthermore, we are probably on the eve of setting up diplomatic relations with one or other of these countries, and I hope CTT are keeping a close eye on that development.
While CTT are obviously looking for new markets in many parts of the world where it has the facilities to do so, I would suggest that, in regard to the Shannon Free Airport Development Company and the dangers faced there at present, there should be coordination with CTT on the special problems of that region, which may worsen in the immediate future.
We already have two Foreign Affairs offices in Brussels, and I do not see the point in having another, separate CTT office. We already have an Ambassador to the Community and an Ambassador to Belgium. I hope we do not progress towards the fulfilment of Parkinson's law and have yet another CTT office. We have an Embassy in Paris in a very large central building, ideal for CTT offices and for our purposes. The essential requirement is that we have skilled men paid the right salaries in these areas. This is more important than palatial offices in a few places in the world. The skilled men should be spread as widely as possible in areas capable of development. We should have some trade presence in the Far East, for instance, Japan. This cannot be described as a luxury today for a small island economy with a small industrial base, its home market subject to pretty intense competition, as it will be in the near future. That small economy must put every penny it has into increasing possibilities of export markets abroad. Any money spent on an extensive CTT export operation throughout the world, wherever markets may be found, is well spent.