Before I reported progress last night I was giving a brief account of my view on the allocation of this money to the IDA. I emphasised what I thought was important in relation to the way this money would be spent and the importance of developing industries particularly in rural Ireland. I also said the Minister should consider seriously, giving more of this money to smaller Irish industries. I said that many foreign industries come in here. I am for them but they should be well screened so that they do not come in here and collect huge sums of the taxpayers' money. Those people have no commitments to the country and as soon as anything goes wrong they fold up and go. A lot of the taxpayers' money goes down the drain in this way. This matter needs very careful consideration.
We should make every endeavour, despite ensuring that foreign industrialists are carefully screened, to get good viable industry from outside the country. This is of vital importance now particularly when so many of our small farmers have to get off-farm employment to have at least an income that would give them a reasonable standard of living. It is very important to concentrate on small industries in small towns. At one time we concentrated industrial estates in the larger cities but petrol was cheap then and it was easy for people to travel 30 or 40 miles to work. In my own county we have people travelling such distances to Galway city to work. At present, the unfortunate worker who has to have a car to go to work finds travelling very expensive. Therefore, small industries should be located in villages and towns. If we do not succeed in expanding industry very much in future I foresee a bleak outlook for rural Ireland because the policy, as far as I can see, is to put the small farmer off the land because he will not be able to exist on it—even though we will fight this policy—and it will be essential for him to have off-farm employment. Industrial development is, therefore, vitally important. The IDA are playing a vital role in trying to get industries established by giving grants and so on but there should be special concentration on the undeveloped regions. Dublin, and even Galway, are expanding very rapidly and it is not good for the country to have people coming from the country in such large numbers into the cities.
As far as possible the Minister should concentrate on industries that are wedded to agriculture because our greatest problem is raw material. We do not get the very best raw material and we have to import it but there are a number of industries wedded to agriculture and they should be supported. There are some people who have private industries and I think these are entitled to support. They are employing six or seven people each and could perhaps, expand to employing nine or ten. I should like to see them getting more support. Everybody seems to concentrate on getting some big firm to come in—it looks great—and employ a large number but if anything goes wrong with any of these they have no commitments to this country and do not feel obliged to try to make the enterprise a success. If things go wrong they pull out. We should, therefore, give as much support as possible to small industries.
The IDA have done a very good job on which I compliment them but we are in a very serious position with 108,000 unemployed. I should like to know how the campaign to get more good, viable industries is going at present. What type of screening is done to ascertain if these industries will be viable? AnCO have done a very fine job in training people for industry.
Could the Minister make some sort of industrial survey to find out if it is absolutely necessary to replace human beings with machines? I have often said: "Oh, efficiency, what crimes have been committed in thy name". I have known some industries and cooperatives with which I am associated where a large number of young people were employed and doing excellent work but we went over to computers and had to cut down from, perhaps, ten girls to four in the name of efficiency. I discovered that the computer answers according to how it is fed and the human element still operates. If those feeding the computer are not efficient, the computer is no better than an inefficient clerk typist.
When I see young people leaving school today with excellent qualifications and who cannot get a job of any kind I wonder where we are going in replacing human beings by machines. This is a problem that should be studied in Europe. Is every educated young person to go on social welfare while machines do the work? I have no objection to social welfare but it is terrible to see no employment available for young people leaving school. Even if they emigrate I do not think there is much prospect of employment for them. This matter should be taken up in Europe: what is the world doing in the name of efficiency? I believe that great crimes are being committed.
The extra amount that the IDA are getting is just sufficient to keep up with inflation but I ask the Minister to give very serious consideration to how the money will be spent because sometimes we can be a little careless about who gets the money. Many factories are at present closing down, factories for which a lot of money was paid out and these industries are leaving the country, which is a very serious matter for us. My final advice is to concentrate as far as possible on industries wedded to agriculture where the raw material is available at home and also to consider as locations the smaller towns and villages because of the increased cost for people travelling to work in large industrial areas.