Last night when we adjourned I was speaking on those aspects that are not in the Bill. I had just mentioned the fact that there was grave doubt about the future of the tax-free holiday for industrialists coming to this country. I should like to start this morning by pointing out the serious problem of unemployment. It is doubtful if there is a more important debate on any matter in this House than that relating to industrial development. It is not often that in one maiden speech one gets two bites of the cherry on two consecutive days. However, that is the way it turned out. Of all the scourges that has ever hit this little nation of ours we are certainly in the middle of the worst ever in so far as the unemployment situation is concerned. Whatever length of time might be given to a debate on the Industrial Development Authority is worth while.
There are three major areas that the Bill should have dealt with in so far as the IDA are concerned. As I said last night I compliment the IDA on their ability on the foreign markets to attract industrialists here. One could say that there was a time in the history of the IDA that the only thing that mattered as far as industrialisation was concerned was our ability to get a foreigner to set up here. The next step was to get as big a foreign industrialist as possible, perhaps a multi-national company. Generally speaking we arrived at a situation where the emphasis was entirely on big enterprise. There is still a great place for that type of involvement by multinationals provided it is handled properly. The only trouble is that in the recent past some of the multi-national companies have not turned out the way we would like. In this regard I note the proposal there that the IDA would be in a position to take equity shareholding. I should like to know from the Minister to what order or on what scale this would be. After all if we only had 5 per cent or 10 per cent shareholding we would have very little say in what those other companies might eventually do.
Secondly, it is very important that we have in the IDA the best selling executives that is humanly possible to find so that we may explore to the full the foreign markets. Córas Tráchtála and our industries abroad should be brought more into the picture because it is vitally important that we succeed in bringing here industrialists of the right type.
The next category and that at which the Bill is more geared is the small industries category. While one would say that we have been reasonably successful in this sphere, in areas outside Dublin there is greater scope for getting small industries both foreign and Irish, than we have been getting of late. However, the advent of the advance factory system has been helpful in this situation. A number of commentators at the time of the introduction of this system were of the opinion that these factories were not such a good idea. They asked what was the point in having a shell of a factory, but as time went on, and particularly from a parochial point of view, it was seen that it was better to have a shell of factory than to have no shell at all. In many cases the IDA filled these premises, although not always with the success we would have liked. This is a problem that I would just like to mention in passing. For an area that did not have an industry before— and this applies in particular to the smaller towns in rural Ireland—there is a great tragedy if the first attempt at industrialisation is a failure, because then it is certainly much more difficult to get a second industrialist to come in. Consequently I would make a special plea to the IDA to ensure that in so far as possible the first industrialist, however small he might be, in a small town is successful when he begins production.
I should like to say also that a lot of lip service has been paid by the IDA to the need to back the local man who has a good idea. I refer to a number of cases that I consider should have been backed. I will not mention them by name now because it is not relevant as such, but I will apply my statement to the pre-cast concrete business. I understand that in the provinces this is not to be grant-aided by the IDA on the basis that it is a product which might be over-produced and could be counterproductive, thereby creating competition for firms that were already given assistance from the IDA. The Bill should have included something on this particular item because if you take a case, particularly in the west, where a local individual with enterprise, enthusiasm and ability is in a position to give work to 35 or 40 people on a project like pre-cast concrete products, he is as entitled in that area to be helped as a farmer might be in some other area. I would make a very special plea to the Minister that the IDA would have a re-think on this aspect.
I should also like to mention another obvious area in which the IDA seem to have clamped down on all types of grants, that is, the joinery business. The same thing would apply here where we have a number of people who are providing very good employment in areas in which there is very little employment. It is a step in the wrong direction and I would certainly ask the Minister to review this. I am particularly sorry that it is not included in the Bill.
Down through the years and until quite recently the Industrial Development Authority more or less forgot about the processing of agricultural products. Thankfully in the last three or four years there has been a major reversal of that trend. Two or three out of every five of the total labour force are engaged either directly or indirectly in employment related to the agricultural industry. Therefore, it is very important that we ensure that there is grant-aid for this type of enterprise. The real wealth of this country is in land, forestry, bog and sea. The Industrial Development Authority can and should be involved to a far greater degree in developing those resources. A typical case in point recently concerned boglands in Ballyforan where it was decided that that area would not get a generating plant and that the plant would be sited in an area better favoured than the bog area. It is very important that the IDA should get involved where the raw materials are in order to ensure that under-developed areas get their fair slice of the employment cake.
I make a special plea for the Industrial Development Authority to get involved in research and development in the field of the diversification of dairy products, an area in which only recently the IDA saw fit to get involved at all. I have no doubt that in the years to come, because of our climatic conditions and the high quality of our grassland, many more jobs will be found in this sector. There is scope for much more research into the development of new products and this, too, is an area in which it would be worth while for the IDA to involve themselves.
There are also jobs available, provided we play our cards right, in the meat industry. There is much comment on the fact that cattle should not be exported on the hoof. Within the terms of the Bill that is not strictly correct. As we all know it is very important to provide jobs from the actual slaughtering of cattle and the sale of carcase meat as such. Here again the IDA should play a more active role. It would be a very bad day for farmers if the entire franchise for the livestock business was handed over to the meat factories. From a farmer's point of view nobody is likely to forget 1974 when most of the cattle had to be slaughtered through the factories and not alone were the cattle slaughtered but a lot of farmers were slaughtered as well, pricewise. We would not like a return to that situation. Competition is very healthy. Our aim should be the creation of as many jobs as possible in that sphere. There are other facets of the livestock business that will supply many more jobs and at the same time allow a certain number of our cattle to be exported on the hoof in order that the primary producer will be paid for his time and trouble.
The service industries which are important also are not mentioned in the Bill. One might say this is getting away from the philosophy of the IDA but while Dublin is having grave problems in relation to job creation it is true also that there are certain areas in rural Ireland that have employment problems all the time. The only reason for Dublin being in the news at the moment is that for the first time in many years it has had problems getting industry sufficient to meet the needs of its people. It is all a question of extremely bad planning.
What happened in the past few years was that it appeared that everything one would want had to be based on Dublin before it was right. We had a situation arising where almost every industrialist who came to this country decided to place his plant either in Dublin or not in Ireland at all. We arrived at a situation whereby, to a lot of people, Dublin was Ireland and there was no place else. As I have already mentioned, in the last couple of years there has been a welcome trend away from that. In relation to the total job creation the rest of the country, and particularly the less favoured areas round by our western coastline and the north-western area, in relation to what has been achieved over the years, has done relatively poorly. The last few years saw a reasonable increase but the baseline was extremely low.
With the advent of free trade it is quite likely that a number of firms from the Continent will want to open distribution centres here. There are a number of firms in Dublin who, because of lack of space and problems of that nature, would like to locate in areas where they sell a fair amount of their products. The IDA should give them every help to decentralise on that basis because a job is a job no matter where it is and a secure job is most important at this stage.
I should like also to take this opportunity of mentioning the great imbalance there has been down through the years in relation to jobs. The IDA have done their best in the past four or five years to redress that imbalance but if they are not successful in that regard and if the lack of planning in our industrial progress in the years ahead continues on present lines there will be a type of jungle created in Dublin whereby the burden of the infrastructural needs of a city of this size and of a growing nation will be too great on national resources. There are very many schools, churches and community halls to be built in Dublin while in several areas in the west we are closing them because of lack of use. This results from the population imbalance.
I wish to emphasise that the problem being experienced in Dublin in regard to jobs is a problem that we have been having in the less favoured areas for many years but which went unnoticed. The only reason there is a clamour about the Dublin situation is that there are so many people there. However, two wrongs never made a right and I would ask the Minister and the IDA to ensure that there is a very good distribution of jobs. If an industrialist decides for transport reasons, or for reasons of infrastructure, that it is a better proposition to be nearer the commercial life of the nation, suitable incentives should be organised in order to encourage him to consider other areas.
The small industries division locates industry in the smaller type towns —towns with fewer than 2,000 people. I do not see anything in the Bill that would indicate that there is any kind of pressure or enthusiasm for this sort of development. I do not have to point out that once a population base declines in an area, particularly a rural area, the essential services we have come to realise we want for our normal daily living, will probably disappear altogether. We are fast approaching that in certain areas in the west. Up to now we have generally a family doctor, a priest and a veterinary surgeon in the one parish but the day is likely to come, if we are not careful, when those people will have to cover three or four parishes. There are not enough heads to pay the taxation burden. The day may well come when the woman living in the west may have to travel 25 miles if she wishes to avail of the services of, say, a hairdresser. The important thing in any area is to have people there and they will only stay where jobs are available.
I particularly like the joint venture unit proposed in the Bill. This gives our Irish bodies like the IDA a foot inside the door. We are in a better position to know what is happening. We trust this will work out very well. We have a number of agencies that have worked well under very severe handicaps in the past. I refer in particular to Gaeltarra Éireann and SFADCo at Shannon. I have no doubt that part of the IDA's success lies in that part of their organisational structure whereby they have regional offices. It is very important that this part of their business is expanded because irrespective of what particular walk of life you come from there is a big advantage in having a thorough knowledge of the area you are hoping to industrialise. Gaeltarra Éireann and SFADCo are living proof that undeveloped areas can and will be industrialised if we have the right type of people with the right type of commitment.
In the very near future I hope the IDA will get around to some of the things I have mentioned. While we have to look to the IDA in terms of outside industrialists, it is very important that there is close co-operation with the county development teams, whom I also congratulate. They have done a fine job. There will be a bigger area of activity for those people in the future and I think the most important thing from now on from infrastructural and industrial points of view is that there should be great emphasis placed on planning. I was very much struck by a documentary on RTE last week relating to Holland. The Dutch plan in such a way that they avoid having cities that sprawl for miles and miles. Their planning ensures a balance between urban and rural populations.
Finally, I make the plea that great interest should be placed on the small industries division and that every effort be made in the next year or two to ensure that any Irishman, no matter where he is, in Dublin, Galway or Mayo, who has a reasonable idea and there is a chance of his plan working should be met more than half way by the IDA. I am led to believe that we have been prepared to take a reasonably risky chance with a foreigner up to now and that an Irishman had to be 100 per cent sound before he was trusted. I hope an Irishman, no matter where he is, will be given every chance in the future.