I move:
That Dáil Éireann calls on the Government to enter into immediate discussions with the relevant Northern Ireland authorities to agree on the preparation of a joint operational programme for the entire island of Ireland, for submission to the European Community to avail of the EC Structural Funds for the period 1993-1997, with a view to promoting much more intensive trade between both parts of the island.
I am proposing something that is completely new: instead of the administration in the South drawing up a scheme and presenting it to Brussels and the authorities in London drawing up a separate scheme for Northern Ireland and Britain and presenting it in Brussels, I believe we should look at the whole island of Ireland as one unit, economically speaking, and draw up a joint operational programme for both parts of the island.
This is a radical approach and has never been tried before, but people in Northern Ireland are receptive to the idea. I have had the opportunity during the past two weeks of visiting Northern Ireland and having discussions with representatives of the Confederation of British Industry in Northern Ireland, the Ulster Farmers' Union, the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and with community leaders. I met people from every religious persuasion and none, but they were all agreed that, as long as there is no hidden agenda and no political strings attached, co-operation on economic development projects will be extremely welcome in Northern Ireland.
I believe that rather than simply taking the time-worn path of public servants — the pursuit of the familiar, and following precedent, which is ingrained in all those who work in the public service all over the world — we should do something very different. However, I am greatly disappointed by the Government's response to my proposal. The Government amendment rejects the idea of a joint operational programme and asks us to approve continuing the policies that have been pursued in the past. Of course, it stresses the strong co-operative approach; indeed we know there is and always has been a strong co-operative approach once the priorities of the administration on this side of the Border have been satisfied. Following the past pattern of activity will not solve the problem. The fact is we are spending vast sums of money developing markets for our produce in Japan, Britain, France, and to penetrate these markets our people have to learn other languages and other legal systems in order to sell their goods, while ignoring the market on our doorstep in the North.
It has been calculated that cross-Border trade from North to South amounted to £500 million last year and exports from South to North amounted to £800 million. However, manufacturers in the Republic only sell one-quarter as much in Northern Ireland in proportion to the size of the economy as they sell in the Republic. Likewise, Northern manufacturers sell only one-third as much to the South proportionate to the size of the population as they sell in their own markets. In other words, we are not selling to each other what would be normal for economies on the same island and people who are essentially living in the same economic space. To penetrate distant markets we have to learn other languages, Japanese, Italian and French. Learning languages is something to be encouraged — indeed the only school teaching Russian at present is the Methodist College in Belfast but I hope to see more languages on offer in our schools in the future. The fact of the matter is that we are not taking advantage of the opportunities on our doorstep.
Dr. George Quigley, the chairman of the Ulster Bank, is very prominent in the Confederation of British Industry in Northern Ireland. He suggests that we should try to create an island economy and further that we develop a Belfast-Dublin economic corridor. In Massachusetts, for example, there has been particularly intensive economic development along a transport network, route 66, because a certain synergy developed in that particular zone. Likewise in the Po valley in northern Italy, competing firms, by co-operating with each other, enjoyed within a very short time massive economic growth after the last war.
Regardless of whether there is any agreement in the Stormont talks that are taking place at present, we have the opportunity now to create a Belfast-Dublin economic corridor around which we can develop tremendous job opportunities. Obviously if jobs are to be generated in the economic corridor it is a basic essential to have a proper road network between Belfast and Dublin. That is not the case at present. There is no by-pass at Balbriggan or Julianstown; recently Swords got a by-pass, but there is no by-pass in Drogheda and traffic has to travel very slowly from North to South. We could avail of moneys from the European Community to carry out this work but that requires a decision. Not so long ago the proposed by-pass for Dundalk was delayed because the authorities North and South could not agree where the by-pass should be built. The Southern authorities wanted the by-pass to be located on the side of town which involves the lowest cost to the Republic while the Northern authorities want it located where it would involve the lowest cost for them. Both fought about it, hoping that the other Government would have to pay more.
The type of mentality that would hold up a development that is so important in terms of building a one island economy, all for the sake of saving a few pounds, is what I would like to see eradicated by this debate. We should start looking at the economies on this island as one economy and recognise that if jobs can be created on the other side of the Border, that also creates wealth on this side of the Border. Once we have a Single European Market — which we will have if the Irish people vote "Yes" in the referendum on the Maastricht Treaty, then economic activity that is generated in Newry can have the sub supply, the components, produced in Dundalk or vice versa. In a Single European Market if industry is attracted to Derry, the people from Buncrana will be encouraged to go to work there. That is the idea of a Single European Market and a single island economy in Ireland. The Maastricht Treaty gives us the opportunity to create a single economy on this island and to do so without any hidden agenda.
It is not a question of this arising because, say, traditional Catholic nationalism has got the better of traditional Protestant unionism or, alternatively, that the Unionist view has got the better of the Nationalist view and we have decided to re-enter the Commonwealth or some economic zone with Britain. That issue is off the agenda. Questions as to whether it was one side's view of the world or the other side's view of the world which would reign supreme in an integrated area are no longer at issue because we have changed the concept of the problem; we are looking at it in the much wider scale of a European agreement which has been negotiated for an area much larger than the islands of either Ireland or Britain. We have an opportunity within that wider context of building a single island economy on this island.
It has been estimated by the Confederation of Irish Industry that up to 75,000 extra jobs could be created on this island as a whole if we were able to achieve the level of trade between North and South which would be normal as between two parts of an island so close together. If we could, so to speak, remove the economic border which still exists in our minds more than in reality we have the potential to create all those jobs. I want to give an example. A hospital which cannot identify a supplier within "the State" from whom it can get certain equipment should obviously look next at Northern Ireland to see if the equipment can be obtained on the island of Ireland.
I wish to refer to the very odd situation whereby the guidebook on the Giant's Causeway is printed in London. If there is no printer in Northern Ireland who can print this guidebook to the standard required then the obvious and most cost-effective place to get the printing done is on this side of the Border. This is a sensible approach regardless of politics — people save money by buying from suppliers close to them rather than buying from suppliers who are an airline journey away. If a person has difficulties with a product, he is able to ask a supplier to visit his plant to see how it is being used if he is just down the road. This is not the case if the goods are bought in Britain, France or further afield.
We need to change the way we look at the economic choices we have to make when purchasing goods. The northern part of this island is the first place we should look to make those purchases if we cannot get the goods nearer home. I suggest that there should be an agreement between the Government purchasing service in Northern Ireland and the Department of Finance in the Republic, in liaison with the Irish Trade Board, to establish an easy access purchasing and tenders register for the entire public sector on the island of Ireland whereby people in Northern Ireland would have easy access on computer to any tenders advertised for the purchase of goods or services on this side of the Border and vice versa. I believe there is a procedure in the Department of Finance for accrediting certain public sector suppliers of particular goods and services, approved suppliers of particular goods. Instead of the Government purchasing service in Northern Ireland retaining one list of approved suppliers in Northern Ireland for the products we buy and our Department of Finance maintaining an entirely separate list of suppliers on the other side of the Border we should have one list of approved suppliers for the entire island of Ireland. This would give wider choice, more competition and better quality. An electronic catalogue should be established for all the goods which are likely to be made available for purchase from the public sector on the island.
Obviously, we cannot create an economic corridor unless we have good transport links. We should demand that by 1997 there will be a dual carriageway all the way from Dublin to Belfast. This should be an agreed objective between North and South. We should also agree that the rail link between North and South should be upgraded so that trains can travel at a much greater speed than they travel at present. There should be a common united demand by the peace loving people on both sides of the Border to the Provisional IRA to stop their activities which are interfering with rail links between North and South.
It is ridiculous to think that a criminal gang who claim to be interested in a united Ireland — I emphasise the word "claim"— should spend their time blowing up a link between the two parts of the island. It shows the ultimate perversity and barrenness of their thinking that this is one of the publicity stunts they think of. I do not believe this organisation will listen to rational argument or that they are concerned with rational argument. This organisation are akin to the Mafia and they will not change their policies as a result of anything said in this House. We have to make sure that this organisation are stopped from doing what they are doing.
There should be a single ports policy for the island of Ireland. It probably makes sense for Dublin and Larne to be ports for the export of goods from this island to Britain. Rather than trying to go in the opposite direction we should encourage and support people to use the port at Larne. Equally, we should accept that the port at Waterford should be the port for the entire island of Ireland for direct linkage to Europe. There should be an investment policy supported by the Governments both North and South to develop Waterford port as the European sea bridge for the entire island. Dr. Tony Ryan recently suggested that there should be a subsidised air bridge between Ireland and Europe, perhaps located at Shannon, where there would be quick delivery of goods from the island of Ireland to the Continent. This is something in which the Northern Ireland authorities would also have an interest as a direct route from the island of Ireland via, say, Shannon, to the Continent would be quicker for Northern businesses than routing through London. We should seek to develop such a route as a common endeavour between the two parts of this island.
When I was in Northern Ireland I had the opportunity of having discussions with the Ulster Farmers' Union. I can assure the House that those discussions were very familiar to me from my discussions with the IFA — the accents were almost the same and the problems were certainly the same. I was extremely surprised to note that no common research into agricultural problems is being carried out between the authorities north and south of the Border. Of course, they send one another their learned papers when the results are finalised. These two administrations are trying to help farmers to survive in difficult circumstances in almost precisely the same climate on the same island with the same geographic distance from sources of supply and the same systems of agriculture. Yet no joint research is being carried out between the research station in, say, Hillsboro and the research station in Grange or the research station in Hillsboro and the research station in Moor Park. Complete partitionism rules in the Irish public service mind as far as agricultural research and almost every other activity is concerned.
We have an attitude of looking at our State and not looking at the possibility which exists of doing something together with the people on the other side of the Border. The same applies so far as FÁS are concerned. How many Northern Ireland trainees are there in FÁS centres? There are FÁS centres and regional colleges dotted along the Border. How many Northern Ireland students are there in the FÁS centres and regional technical colleges in Dundalk, Letterkenny and other centres along the Border? I venture to say that there are virtually none.