I move:
"That in the opinion of the Dáil it is the duty of the Government to make provision for compensating the potato-growers of North Louth for the loss of their crops, which have been rendered unsaleable by the scheduling of the district covered under the Black Scab in Potatoes (Special Area, Ireland) Order, 1923, issued by the Department of Agriculture, dated 14th February, 1923.
This matter was dealt with in April last, and a good case was put up by Deputy Hughes and other members who spoke. I was not present at the time. A good deal has been said, and everything that was said has been said well, but I think due consideration was not given to the position. I was brought out to this district, and brought over it, and saw an extraordinary and very unfortunate position. I think if the authorities have not an order that this could come under, it is our duty to make an Order whereby it will be treated. We have the Diseases of Animals Act, which brings in Foot and Mouth Disease, Tuberculosis, Swine Fever, and several other things have been brought in where cattle have been destroyed in the interests of the State. You have here an area with about eight thousand tons of potatoes, any single one of which would be able to bring Black Scab out of a district. A few months ago there was 12,000, pow it has come down, and while those potatoes are there it is a festering sore. Naturally, they will not keep them there; everyone knows there is a leakage. As a matter of fact. they have leaked into this district from Down, one of the Northern Counties. While they are there it is a source of danger not only to Louth but to all the other counties of Ireland. As men of the world we know that while men have a crop, and want the means of subsistence they will fight to get it, and will sell those potatoes, and they are selling them. I contend it ought to come under the same heading as the Diseases of Animals Act, or any other Act put in force for the safety of the whole community, and an immediate order ought to be issued to bring it under that head. Apart altogether from that I have been through this district, and have seen the people, and I know the difference between drones and workers. If I ever saw workers in my life they are those people. They are certainly a desirable element in the community. They have been working under difficulties, and the difficulty will be appreciated more when I say that that particular district is only fit for two crops — potatoes and barley It is fit for nothing else. It is not land which can be set to everything. It is not suited even for oat growing or wheat growing. These people are human. They have no other means of existence or subsistence, and they are trying to get a market for their stuff, and the disease is coming out. This contamination will spread, and the area affected this year will be larger next year. Assistance has been found for every other class of the community, and, I have no hesitation in saying, for people not half as deserving as those people. This is not a dole. They have too much pride to ask this as a dole.
An Ceann Comhairle resumed the chair at this stage.