I move:
"That it is the opinion of the Dáil that the Executive Council is deserving of censure for its failure to take effective steps to deal with the depression in Agriculture and the serious economic situation arising therefrom."
In moving this motion, a Cheann Chomhairle, one would imagine that it would not be necessary for me to prove that there is depression in the agricultural industry. But on account of statements that have been made by the President in Cork, and in an interview with a representative of the "Daily Mail," I am afraid it is really necessary to prove that there is depression in the agricultural industry in this country. I think the President spoke, when addressing his constituents in Cork some time ago, about our having turned the corner, and he told the "Daily Mail" representative a few days ago that we had definitely turned the corner. I would be very glad, personally, to know if such were the case, but I am somewhat sceptical about it. After reading that report of the President's speech in Cork I happened to be down in my own constituency in Wexford, and I thought that I would try and find out definitely if there was really any improvement in the agricultural industry. I asked some farmers what they thought of the President's statement, and they told me that there was not a word of truth in it. I got the same reply from a number of farmers, but as the farmers generally have the reputation of putting the worst complexion upon the story, I thought I would go further. I asked some traders who were in the habit of doing business with farmers what their opinion was. I got an unanimous reply from them that this year was worse than last year—the worst year they knew for the farmers in the country, and therefore the worst within living memory. If we examine the figures of what the farmer is getting for his produce and what the farmer is paying for what he has to buy, I think it will be fairly evident to anyone not engaged in agriculture that the agricultural industry is in a very bad way. When we find from the figures published in the "Irish Trade Journal," and elsewhere, that the farmer's average income from his produce is only 30 per cent. over what it was in 1913, I think anybody will admit that the farmer is practically up against an impossibility. His income is 30 per cent. more, and the cost of living figure, as we all know, averaged for the last six months about 73 per cent. more.
The cost of living figure, if we examine it more closely, reveals that the items which make up food are not so high as the other items. As a matter of fact, they are somewhat about 64 per cent. increased. That shows us two things. First of all, it makes the case worse for the farmer than the figure at first appears to indicate, because the farmer is the producer of a good lot of his own food, and, therefore, his cost of living is gone up by more than 73 per cent., as he has to buy a big proportion of other things apart from food. It shows also that there is a very obvious profiteering going on amongst the traders who come in between the farmer and the consumer. If the people who buy the farmers' produce, and the wholesalers and retailers who pass on that produce to the consumer were all satisfied with a 30 per cent. increase over pre-war prices, then the price of food to the consumer should be only 30 per cent. over pre-war prices. But it is more than 30 per cent., and, therefore, we must conclude straightaway that the traders, the middlemen who come between the farmer and the consumer, are getting bigger profits than they are entitled to.
I maintain we are not giving the farmer the benefit of the argument. The farmer's cost of living has gone up by 73 per cent., whereas his receipts have only gone up by 30 per cent. We can quite well bring our minds back to 1911 and 1913, and we know the position farmers were in at that time. He would be a very brave Deputy who would go to his constituency and say to any farmer there that he was too well off in 1913, and that he could well afford to sacrifice 25 per cent. of his income at that time, because that is, in fact, what he is asked to do now. If he wants to keep up his stock, keep his work going, and keep out of debt, he must live on 25 per cent. less income than in 1913.
Let us examine different classes of the community and find out how they compare with the farmer at the present time. Every single class in the community has been compensated in some way for the increased cost of living. Traders, middlemen, wholesalers and retailers, all those who handle farm produce and through whom it passes to the consumer, are getting more than they are entitled to get out of their dealings with that produce. We see also that traders, wholesalers and retailers who handle other commodities are making, if it is distributed equally between them, anything up to 73 per cent. over pre-war profits. We come to other classes and we find, for instance, that civil servants—all Government servants—are protected by a bonus to cover the cost of living. If we examine the professions, we find that solicitors are entitled to charge bigger fees than pre-war, and other professional men, not bound by any legal fee, have also increased their charges. Even labourers, where they are lucky enough to have work, are paid a higher wage than in pre-war times. The farmer alone, of all classes of the community, has to live far and away below the cost-of-living figure. He has only £130 with which to buy £173 worth of goods.
How are the farmers carrying on in the circumstances? They can only do it by encroaching on their capital. Those of them who saved money during the war have been drawing on their savings and they have been able to keep their land stocked. Those who had not money were obliged to draw on their capital in other ways. Many farmers have not got money, but if they have their land well stocked they consider they have capital. The tillage farmer, if he has implements and horses and so on, thinks he has capital. The dairy farmer, if he has cows, considers them his capital. It is only by drawing on that capital that the farmers are able to exist at all. If we examine the statistics which were issued in June last we shall find that the dairy farmer— and we have been assured that the dairy industry is the biggest and the most important in the country—is reducing the number of his cows, and dairy farmers as a whole are, therefore, doing away with their capital. The number of cows has gone down by over 3,000. That amounts to only 3 per cent., but still the fact that they have been reduced at all is important. On the other hand, the number of in-calf heifers which would be necessary to replenish our stock of cows has been reduced by over 13,000, or 14 per cent. I think this is a very significant figure.
We have been assured by the Minister for Agriculture and by speakers from the Government side that dairying is going to be one of the principal industries of this country in the future. How are we to build up our dairying industry if the farmer is to be compelled, through whatever means, to get rid of his cows, or is compelled to keep less heifers for the purpose of replacing those cows? The reason why farmers have got rid of their cows is, I suppose, to keep the sheriff away, to enable them to pay rents or rates or other debts that could not otherwise be paid.
We have been told by the President on a few occasions lately that we have turned the corner, and we have heard the same sort of sentiment expressed by others from Cumann na nGaedheal platforms. They evidently believe that by keeping on telling the people they are better off eventually the people will begin to believe that they are better off, and then the next step will be that they are better off. Since the present Government came into power six or seven years ago things have not improved. We have drawn attention here again and again to figures telling us of the state of the country. We have pointed out again and again that the population has been decreased by over 100,000. That would not be so bad if there was an improvement now, but there is no improvement. If we look at the emigration figures for the first eight months of this year we do not find any improvement. We find that in 1924, 19,000 emigrated; in 1925, 30,000; in 1926, 30,000, and in 1927, 27,000. We thought there was going to be an improvement, but we find that for the first eight months of 1928 19,095 emigrated. Let us compare those figures with the first eight months of last year and we find that 16,912 emigrated then. During the first eight months of this year there has been the worst emigration since this Government came into power.
If we examine the figures in regard to livestock for the same period we find the number of cattle has been reduced by 327,000. If we go into figures for tillage, the number of acres under tillage has been decreased by 225,000. As I have already mentioned, the farmers can only live by drawing on their savings and we find on looking at bank deposits that these deposits have been decreased by £30,000,000. We can only conclude that the people have been living on their savings and they must come to the end of those savings some time.
We have been assured by the Minister for Agriculture, and I suppose he speaks for the Executive Council in this matter, that the policy is to develop the lines that are suitable to this country, not to pay any attention to what we are importing and to export more in order to pay for the imports. I think the Minister for Agriculture said something to this effect: Why should we try to stop the £7,000,000 worth of wheat we are importing? Would it not be better to produce £7,000,000 worth of butter, eggs and other things and pay for the wheat in that way? The policy of this Government is an export policy, but, if we examine the export figures, what do we find? We would expect to find that since this Government came into power the exports have at least improved, but such is not the case. The first year that has been quoted for the Free State is 1924. Compare 1924 with 1927. We find that in 1924 we exported £17,000,000 worth, odd, of cattle and in 1927 we exported £11,868,000 worth. In 1924 we exported, in sheep, £1,698,000 worth and in 1927, £1,325,000 worth. As regards pigs and bacon, in 1924 we exported £4,316,000 worth and in 1927 £4,582,000 worth, a slight improvement.