asked the Taoiseach the percentage increase in the seasonally adjusted output of the manufacturing industry between the second quarter of 1976 and the second quarter of 1977; and the percentage increase in the manufacturing industry as between the second quarter of 1977 and the fourth quarter of 1977, together with the annualised rate of increase of output deriving from the latter figure.
Ceisteanna—Questions . Oral Answers . - Manufacturing Industry .
1.
: Based on the results of the monthly industrial production inquiry, the estimated percentage increase in the volume of output of manufacturing industry, seasonally adjusted, between the second quarter of 1976 and the second quarter of 1977 was 8.7 per cent. The corresponding estimated increase in the seasonally adjusted index between the second quarter of 1977 and the fourth quarter of 1977 was 1.0 per cent. The latest available information relating to the change which has actually occurred over a 12 month period in the volume of production in manufacturing industry is the increase of 10.6 per cent in the index between the three months ending January 1977 and the three months ending January 1978.
: Perhaps my question was not well enough phrased but I do not think the Minister gave me an annualised figure based on the second of the figures, namely, the difference between the April-June 1977 quarter and the October-December 1977 quarter. Did the Minister give me an annualised figure based on the figure for the difference between the second and fourth quarter of 1977?
: I have brought the Deputy up to the three months ending January 1978 and surely that is the last quarter of 1977.
: It is not.
: Obviously the figures showed so much progress that they upset the Deputy. It is not the reply the Deputy expected.
: I got the reply I expected; it speaks for itself.
2.
asked the Taoiseach the increase in the seasonally adjusted numbers employed in the manufacturing industry between June 1976 and June 1977; and the increase in the same figure between June 1977 and December 1977, together with the annualised rate of increase derived from the latter figure.
: Based on the results of the quarterly industrial inquiry, the increase in the estimated number of persons engaged in manufacturing industry between mid-June 1976 and mid-June 1977 was 5,800 on a seasonally adjusted basis. The corresponding increase in the period mid-June 1977 to mid-December 1977 is estimated on a seasonally adjusted basis to be 700.
The latest available information relating to the change which has actually occurred over a 12-month period is the estimated increase of 3,000 persons engaged between mid-December 1976 and mid-December 1977.
: I realise that the Minister is only responsible for the figures and not the facts behind them but would he agree that on the face of it the answers to the two questions which he has just given to the House show that the improvement in the industrial picture over the last two years has most strongly fallen in the first of those two years, when the Government's predecessors were in office?
: I would not agree. We had, as was pointed out in my reply, 3,000 more people engaged in manufacturing industry in mid-December last compared with mid-December the previous year. That is indicative of the progress made since July last year.