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Government outlines five-year

Longterm objective is to double national income

With publication of the (First) Programme for Economic Expansion in 1958, Ireland embraced economic planning and began to direct economic growth in a hitherto unprecedented way.

A project to increase the cattle population by 300,000, with the emphasis on beef rather than milk production, is a feature of the Government's five-year plan for economic expansion. The plan, now set out in a White Paper, envisages a capital expenditure of £222, 000,000.

Of this sum, £53,000,000 in the five-year period from 1959-60 to 1963-4 will be additional to the sum required to finance the public capital programme on the basis of present policies. It is estimated that the programme will double the recent rate of increase in real national income and this would double national income in real terms in 35 years.

The additional capital expenditure will be spread over agriculture, fisheries, industry and telephones. It is stated that a detailed plan at this stage would be inappropriate, and the figures should only be regarded as an indication of the . . . magnitude involved.

An introduction to the White Paper states that the years ahead will be critical, and it is essential to redefine the proper objectives of economic policy. The programme . . . is an outline of the Government's contribution to economic development in the next few years, and is subject to modification in the light of changing circumstances. While relying on the private sector as the principal source of the new productive projects, the programme is based on the principal that productive capital expenditure will receive greater priority in the public capital programme. It will be the concern of the Government to ensure that capital for productive development is available as cheaply as possible. Saving will be encouraged and the risk of external payments deficits arising from consumer spending will be guarded against.

Financial policy will favour the productive home use of all available resources, and fiscal policy will be guided primarily by the need to encourage production and saving. The Government will aim at creating conditions permitting, as soon as possible, a reduction in direct taxation. In general the Government will not hesitate to make changes if it appears that progress is being impeded by existing policy.

With agriculture, the White Paper states that the main objective of policy in the years to come is not only to maintain but intensify the welcome upward trend in agicultural output which has been evident in recent years, and to do so on a sound economic, and therefore lasting basis. The Government will make available a sum of £1,750,000 each year for the next five year's to reduce the price of phosphates.

From Wed, Nov 12, 1958