I deal in fact and not in fantasy. In relation to the business migration scheme, again I deal with the incontrovertible truth, not in McDowell "fairy tales". Are the Progressive Democrats and other Members suggesting that a Member who has a profession or business should be discriminated against and should not avail of any scheme legitimately available to him or her? If that is what they are saying, let them come out and say it. Others are saying that should not be the purpose of this House. Come out from behind the smokescreen and make allegations if there are any to make. They have no foundation any more than other allegations during the past year.
The Government's commitment to social partnership has been further underlined by the agreement on a third National Programme. The Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW), like its predecessors the Programme for National Recovery and the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, has enabled all the social partners to discuss and agree how our economic and social development needs can best be served. The establishment of the National Economic and Social Forum is a further important step, bringing to the table and the unemployed, womens' group, the disabled, and environmental interests.
In an economy of our size, all our interests are best served by co-operation and consensus. I took the opportunity at Corfu last week to inform my colleagues in the European Council of the Irish success in the area of social partnership. Considerable approval was expressed for an approach which shows that partnership is fully consistent with economic success and increased competitiveness, and for the fact that this was the third programme since 1987. I will be putting a paper on the Irish case to the European Council in Essen in December, focusing on complementary Community action.
As a result of social partnership, there has, on the whole, been a marked improvement in our industrial relations record. However, the necessity for adaptation and change in the face of commercial difficulties and strong competitive pressures must still be faced up to realistically. There are, of course, long term options to be examined, as well as past mistakes to be analysed but the basic requirements for physical survival must take precedence. It is a short term illusion, whether in Shannon, Dublin, Cork, or Waterford, to believe that, by exerting political pressure, commercial realities can be evaded. It is the Government's duty and determination to do what the situation requires, in the long term interests of continuing employment.
Ultimately, the decision about whether a company survives is in the hands of its management and workforce. The Government will be supportive in material terms, but, under European Union rules, help can only be provided on a viable basis of structural change that offers reasonable long term prospects.
The local development programme is widely regarded as the most innovative approach to social and economic development. We are arranging structures and programmes to harness the great potential at local level, to build enterprise, create jobs, and tackle social exclusion. The initiative will be local, but with formal back-up and support. There are three strands in the local development programme: county enterprise boards, to enable enterprise creation and development; area partnership companies, targeting designated disadvantaged areas and the urban renewal programme, bringing about real improvements to the physical environment.
Under Community Support Framework, funding of £208 million has been negotiated for the programme over the period to 1999.
My Department has direct responsibility for the disadvantaged areas element of the local development programme, which is EU aided. The aim in these areas is to improve the chances of the long term unemployed of getting jobs, where possible in their own areas; to ensure that those who might otherwise leave school early, get the maximum out of the educational system; to help local communities participate fully in local development; to develop effective community-based organisations; to bring about real physical improvement in the local environment. The partnerships' task is to draw up and implement an action plan based on the needs and resources of the area.
Community employment will be a key resource to the local development programme. Because of its importance, funding for community employment in the 33 designated areas is in my Department's Vote. The target is to have 40,000 participants on community employment at the end of this year, with 22,000 of these in the designated areas. We are well on the way to achieving this.
Within the next three years, places for 100,000 unemployed people will be available across the full range of training and education services. Under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work, active labour market policies should combat long term unemployment and consequent social exclusion.
Rural Ireland continues to prosper. Farm incomes have increased by some 31 per cent between 1991 and 1993. Premia payments negotiated in the CAP reform contributed significantly to this. We have provided additional resources to expedite the payment of headage and premia payments. So far, in respect of 1993 support arrangements, payments total £440 million.
We are studying the effects of decisions in different Departments taken in isolation from each other, on the question of rural renewal.
The Programme for Government promised to implement a development programme for the food industry. The An Bord Bia Bill was passed this week in the House.
Another rural initiative, the early retirement scheme is attracting considerable interest. The rural environment protection scheme aims to establish farm practices which take fuller account of conservation, landscape protection and environmental sensitivity. We are also preparing legislation on occupier liability.
Fostering the right conditions for job creation continues to be our number one priority; 1994 has already been a major success story. IDA Ireland has had an outstanding first half year. Major new projects that will yield thousands of new jobs have been secured. I and other Ministers have given maximum support both at home and abroad to the effort to win investment and encourage major expansions of existing firms. There is also encouraging growth of telemarketing, in which several projects have been announced. Some examples of our recent successes include Boston Scientific, Sensormatic and Xilinx, as well as expansions at Motorola, Analog Devices and NEC.
When the Government established Forbairt, we gave it a mandate to foster a genuine enterprise culture and to build up the capability of Irish industry. We are establishing a world-class manufacturing base, and developing the culture of self-confidence and self-reliance in Irish business. Over the past six months, Forbairt has assisted companies in expansion and investment programmes worth some £96 million. This new investment by more than 190 Irish companies will create 3,000 new jobs over the coming years. Forbairt has recently detected a substantial pickup in investment plans by companies. We are working to convert this growing confidence into new growth and jobs. Figures show that over the past six months, employment growth has outstripped numbers coming onto the job market.
We are focusing too, on the development of links between Irish and foreign owned industry. Last year alone, multinational companies sourced £1.4 billion worth of components from Irish companies. Through Forbairt, we continue to identify those sub-supply opportunities which can be met by Irish enterprise. Such partnerships help develop the competence and capability of local sub-supply companies, and act as a positive incentive for new overseas industry.
We have continued to focus on tourism as an area with tremendous growth potential. We have set a target of 245,000 additional overseas visitors this year. The Government, in co-operation with the tourism industry, launched a major additional £3 million marketing campaign in the United States. Ireland was featured on American television as an attractive holiday destination. Our objective was to achieve a 24 per cent increase in the number of vacation tourists from the United States. We are well on the way to achieving this target. Our current ambassadors in the United States — I am not referring to our diplomats — are supporting such campaigns by their good-natured and generous support of the Irish soccer team.
Tourism has been an important element of the small business expansion loan scheme. The £25 million allocated to the tourism sector will be used to provide loans at a fixed rate of 6.75 per cent for the fixed and working capital requirements of small tourism business. To date, 88 projects have been approved for loans totalling more than £16 million in 19 countries.
The GATT will be of immense benefit to our export-oriented economy. Measures proposed under the EU-funded Market Development Sub-Programme 1994-1999, are designed to increase indigenous exports by an average of 9 per cent per annum, from £3.9 billion in 1993 to £6.8 billion in 1999. Early indications are that the sector is broadly on target to achieve this growth for 1994.
Some 60 per cent of total employment nationally is now in the services area, compared with more than 70 per cent in other developed economies. The Government is focusing on measures to realise the potential here for growth and job creation.
Two key reports now form the basis of Government policy on services, the reports of the Task Force on Jobs in Services and the Task Force on Small Business. The services report recommended re-orientation of Government policy to balance the treatment, in terms of incentives, between services and other sectors.
The measures recommended in the valuable small business report will complement measures to foster services, since over 80 per cent of small businesses are in the service area. That report concentrates on actions to encourage the formation and growth of small enterprises. We made substantial progress in this year's Finance Act in promoting small businesses.
We are currently examining the extension of the International Services Programme, so that a greater range of internationally traded services can qualify for State assistance and, in some cases, the 10 per cent rate of corporation tax. It is intended to provide for these additional services in the 1995 Finance Bill. We also intend to examine other more long term questions about a lower corporation tax rate for services. We will of course continue our policy of the reduction of personal taxes with the concentration on widening the bands rather than reducing the rates.
On the Government's part, establishing county enterprise boards, introducing the small business expansion loan scheme, and the recently announced EIB subsidised loan scheme have alleviated some of the difficulties small enterprises face in accessing suitable finance. Because of the unique role played by the banks in the economy, the Government intends discussing with them and other financial institutions, additional ways in which they can improve the range and reduce the cost of services on offer to small business.
Financial services is an area in which Ireland is making its mark. I have taken a personal interest in the development of the International Financial Services Centre since its inception in 1987. It has been a successful Government initiative, making Dublin an internationally recognised financial services centre. We are fully committed to enhancing its stature, through the further development of the Custom House Docks site and new legislation, extending the range of products and legal structures available at the centre.
I have been keen for some time to explore the possibility of attracting new business activity to the centre. The FINEX Division of the New York Cotton Exchange, with whom I had many discussions over the past year, has established a branch of its futures and options exchange here. This signals a new and exciting dimension for the IFSC. The IDA is actively pursuing negotiations with other international exchanges.
Government policy, in this Year of the Family, has been to support and assist the family, the cornerstone of Irish society. This year, we are providing unprecedented funding to the Legal Aid Board, the Family Mediation Service, and the marriage counselling services. We dramatically increased the grant-in-aid to the Legal Aid Board, providing almost £5 million to expand its network of law centres to all counties by the end of the year.
People with disabilities in Irish society are finally receiving the attention they deserve. The Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities offers the opportunity to bring about a fundamental change in the way society treats disability.
The Family Law Bill, 1994, is currently being considered by the Oireachtas. The Bill seeks to develop and strengthen the law on financial support, and other consequences of marriage breakdown, and deals with the age of marriage.
We hope to publish Equal Status Legislation later this year. It will deal with discrimination in non-employment areas, including gender, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, and national or ethnic origin.
We remain poised to make further fundamental legal changes over the next few years, to help ensure a fairer society for all, a society that excludes no-one, a society which supports the family and excludes marginalisation.
We are continuing to improve and develop our health service. In this year's budget, we took radical steps to improve the balance sheets of the health boards and to ensure financial discipline in the future. This clears the decks for the implementation of our new National Health Strategy. As part of it, we have instigated a dental health action plan. Following an initiative begun in 1992, we are introducing charters for the elderly and for people with a handicap, and reviewing the charter for hospital patients. Mental handicap services have been provided with £12.5 million additional funding for the development of a broad range of services. We have also provided an additional £15 million for the development of new child care services. The Child Care Act will be brought fully into operation by the end of 1996.
This Government attaches great importance to education. We have drawn upon the widest range of opinion on the Green Paper, published in 1992, so that we can ensure a system relevant to the needs of all. We harnessed input from all interested parties in the National Education Convention, and all our consultations and planning will culminate with the publication of a White Paper on Education. The pupil teacher ratio — primary school — will be further reduced; from 24.2 to 23.1, in September. We are providing more remedial and guidance teachers. Investment in improved school accomodation has also been substantially increased. We will continue to improve the access of students from disadvantaged backgrounds to third level education.
In the National Development Plan, improving our roads has a high priority. We have committed more than £73 million to improve county and regional roads this year, up 16 per cent on last year. Investment in the maintenance of these roads has been increased by 170 per cent to £33.3 million. More than £1 billion will be spent on these roads between now and the end of the decade.
The National Development Plan endorses the main recommendations of the Dublin Transportation Initiative. We introduced in May a much needed arrow service to Clondalkin. Naas and Kildare. Planning for the introduction of light rail services for Dublin is continuing. We are urgently seeking a private sector company to build and manage a National Convention Centre for Dublin.
Water and sanitary services will benefit under the National Development Plan from investment of over £100 million per year. The result will benefit industry and tourism, and bolster the economic value of Ireland's "green image".
A new urban renewal scheme begins this August, taking in additional towns. It will concentrate on remedial and conservation works, residential development in our inner core areas, a better mix of social and private housing, and a greater use of vacant upper floors. A new accelerated capital allowance will be provided for industrial units, encouraging small enterprise units and manufacturing jobs.
The capital provision for local authority housing has been almost doubled to £129 million this year. Up to 3,500 local authority houses will be completed in 1994. The voluntary sector is expected to provide some 1,100 housing units. These programmes, together with other schemes in A Plan for Social Housing, and vacancies in local authority stock, will meet the needs of over 9,000 households in 1994.
Achieving a just and lasting peace in Northern Ireland has been the most pressing political challenge facing this Government. We have met this challenge with an unprecedented level of energy, commitment and determination. Peace remains at the very top of the political agenda of both the Irish and British Governments. The peace process is still very much alive. Considerable obstacles have been overcome since last July. The remaining problems can, and I hope will be, satisfactorily resolved.
The Downing Street Joint Declaration is one of truly historical significance, and constitutes the best opportunity ever for lasting peace and a disengagement from violence in favour of the democratic process.
The protracted process of clarification for both Republican and Loyalist organisations is now over. The substantial clarification provided by both Governments should serve to allay many of the suspicions or fears, which may have existed in the two communities regarding their political future, if we can create a peaceful environment free from coercion. The two Governments are committed to achieving a just balance between the two sets of rights and aspirations, safeguarding each, threatening neither, and seeking to assuage the historical fears of both.
The British Prime Minister, John Major, and I have been firm in our resolve that political progress should not be held up by waiting for the decisions of paramilitary organisations, and that no party or organisation should veto our efforts towards an agreed and equitable settlement. The two Governments continue to pursue urgently our work on the formulation of the joint framework document, which is intended to form the basis for resumed all-party talks.
There is some confusion about the difference between joint executive institutions and joint authority. The Belfast Telegraph, which editorially represents moderate Unionist opinion, wrote on Monday:
There are many forms of joint authority, some of which — relating, for example, to tourism or fisheries — are uncontroversial and others which would encroach on sovereignty. As the European Union takes hold, it will make sense to have North-South bodies to look after common interests.
This should help to create a real single market in the island of Ireland. Leaving aside their debatable use of the term joint authority in this context, the underlying sentiment reflects the spirit of the Joint Declaration.
There is, however, an important distinction to be drawn between joint authority and North-South institutions. Joint authority could be the joint exercise of power over Northern Ireland from above by the two Governments, without there necessarily being full democratic participation by the Northern parties. For that reason, I can readily see why Unionists should be opposed to it. Joint institutions, however, would represent freely entered into co-operation or pooled effort, in which people of both traditions would work together, on the basis of common interests between North and South.
Frequent reference is made by Mr. Ken Maginnis and other spokesmen of the Ulster Unionist Party to their document lodged on 9 November 1992 at the very end of the last round of the talks process, with the suggestion that they showed great generosity. They proposed an Inter-Irish Relations Committee, within what they called a British Isles structure, which would have had a purely consultative function, without any clear commitment to joint decision-making structures and institutions. Their more recent Blueprint for Stability is even more tentative in this regard. Clearly, these and other subjects are matters for negotiation, but it is wrong to suggest that a more forward position was advanced by Unionists at the eleventh hour on North-South institutions than in the openness to constitutional change which the Irish Government was also advancing at that time. There has to be a balanced constitutional accommodation within an overall settlement, which creates neither winners nor losers, and which guarantees the position of both communities.
Our two main objectives, peace and employment, are interconnected. If we can create lasting peace, the whole country will benefit from the peace dividend. Peace will do more for national confidence and morale, as well as for the employment that will come from increased trade, investment, tourism and cross-Border co-operation, than any other single measure. There is a potentially exciting period ahead, if we can maintain a steady purpose that will allow us to realise many of our hopes and our dreams.