asked the Taoiseach if he has satisfied himself with the work to date of the National Planning Board.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - National Planning Board.
7.
I am very happy with the work of the National Planning Board.
With their wide spectrum of economic and social expertise, the board are working on a draft medium-term plan for the economy which will provide the framework within which short-term economic and social planning will proceed. I understand it is intended that the draft plan will be ready by April next.
The board have already provided a range of interim economic and fiscal proposals which are being and will be taken into account in preparing estimate, budgetary and general economic and social policy for 1984.
It is some time since I have asked supplementary questions, so I trust that the Chair will bear with me if I get a little out of order. Could the Taoiseach tell us a little more about this National Planning Board, apart from his happiness with them? Have they been meeting frequently? Have they submitted any reports to the Government? If these reports have been submitted, have they been adopted? Could they be published? Could the Taoiseach flesh the thing out a little for us? This National Planning Board is a very mystical sort of body as far as we are concerned. We do not see any action resulting from their meetings. In fact, the truth of the matter is that the economy is collapsing around the Taoiseach's ears while this Board is still in existence.
Yes——
A Deputy
The Taoiseach agrees?
(Interruptions.)
I am not sure that I want to indulge in that kind of banter about ears. On the position of the National Planning Board, the primary function is to prepare a medium-term national economic plan. The board are working on that and have been working on it very intensively indeed. This is a body the members of which are doing the work themselves, and this involves their giving up a good deal of time to that work. The deadline which they have set themselves in agreement with the Government is the month of April for preparing a document to submit to the Government. In the meantime they have provided the Government with useful advice in relation to the more immediate issues which I have mentioned with regard to 1984 within the context of their broad approach to the medium-term situation. Obviously, the preparation of a medium-term plan requires a good deal of time. It is right that the board should have until next April for that purpose. It would be a mistake to attempt to rush something of this kind and get a document which would be inadequate when there is so much to be tackled over the next three or four years to get our economy right.
I cannot pretend to be reassured by what the Taoiseach says. I gather that there is a nice, leisurely economic investigation going on somewhere, and that in due course some time next year we will get the results of that. Would the Taoiseach bear in mind, in the meantime, as I said, that the economy is collapsing, investment has practically dried up, unemployment soars and all these other indicators are there which lead to a call from this side of the House for immediate action? Could I direct the Taoiseach's attention to the fact that in the Labour and Fine Gael Agreement for Government the National Planning Board were supposed to identify at once the areas of defective infrastructure so that £100 million extra could be spent immediately on providing productive employment? That was a very specific objective set to the National Planning Board in that document which Labour and Fine Gael all signed so that they could come together and form a Government.
The same as The Way Forward.
Does the fact——
This is still our document.
I am a little out of practice.
Order, please. The Deputy told the Chair that it was some time since he had asked questions and asked the Chair to endeavour to keep the Deputy on the rails. Towards that end, the Chair would remind the Deputy that speeches are not permissible at Question Time.
I am sorry. I inadvertently made a speech. I shall endeavour to confine myself to a question, a very specific question. In that agreement for Government by the parties now in Government the National Planning Board were set a specific objective of identifying the areas in the infrastructure where £100 million could immediately be spent on providing productive employment. Would the Taoiseach care to comment on that and also on the fact that because the Government immediately on coming into office cut £220 million off the capital programme, they thereby rendered totally inoperative that objective for the National Planning Board?
I would not agree to the latter part of this question. However, as far as the first part is concerned, I have explained that in addition to working on the medium-term programme, the board have furnished advice which is being taken into account in the preparation of the budgetary estimates situation where planning is involved.
I just want to ask——
A final supplementary question, please.
This is important. The two parties did identify a specific objective for this National Planning Board, namely the spending of £100 million immediately on infrastructural projects to provide productive employment. Has that particular objective been abandoned, or can the Taoiseach now give us the list of infrastructural projects on which that £100 million have been spent?
The Deputy will have to wait for the publication of the estimates for that information.
When was The Way Forward abandoned?