asked the Taoiseach (a) the level of industrial output and employment during the first quarter of 1972 and during the first quarter of 1977 and (b) the estimated total amount of new investment in Irish industry from all sources during this five-year period.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Industrial Output and Employment.
2.
The available information relates to transportable goods industries.
The volume index in transportable goods industries, to base 1953 = 100, was 239.1 in the first quarter of 1972 and 301.3 in the first quarter of 1977.
The number of persons engaged in these industries was 204,400 in the first quarter of 1972 and the figure for the first quarter of 1977 was the same.
The data for 1977 are provisional and are subject to revision.
The estimated figures for gross fixed capital formation in industry in the four years up to 1975 is £597 million. Corresponding information for 1976 is not yet available.
Should we take it, then, that all the activities of all the employment creating agencies, including the IDA, have given but a nil increase in jobs since 1972?
The figures show that the number of people engaged in transportable industries was exactly the same for the first quarter of 1977 as for the first quarter of 1972.