This is a motion: "That it is expedient that a tribunal be established for the purpose of enquiring into a definite matter of urgent public importance, that is to say:—(1) the present position of pig production in Saorstát Eireann and of the industries and trades dealing with live pigs, pig meat, whether fresh or cured, and other pig products," and so on for seven sections dealing with aspects of pig production. It is strange that when the Minister was asking for permission to set up a tribunal to deal with the pig industry he left the part of Hamlet out of the scope of the inquiry. I could understand, and I think the country could understand, and would have appreciated his proposal if he asked for an inquiry as to how the economic war had affected the pig industry and farming economy generally. If he had put up a proposition like that, this discussion would probably be productive of good results, and if he were satisfied with a Commission of Inquiry it would have brought out in very bold relief how the pig industry and the whole farming economy generally were affected by the economic war. Of course, the Ministry, true to their traditions, will talk of everything under the sun except the kernel of the matter at hand. This whole proposal would be better described as a hogwash proposal. If it were so termed by the Minister, we could deal with the serious and lighter sides without being afraid of forcing the Ceann Comhairle to rise in his seat. Pigs are commonly called hogs, so I do not think I will be out of order if I proceed to deal with this hogwash tribunal.
First of all, this is called a tribunal. I understood the Minister to say yesterday that the tribunal would have power not only to call witnesses, but to force witnesses to attend and, of course, having forced them to attend, to force them to give evidence. I wonder what part of the Russian system of Government this is. There seems to be about all the measures that the present Government are introducing a continuity of compulsion, of prying into private business, so that if they continue much further in that direction there will be no such thing as private business in this country, because every private business man will have a Government inspector at the front door and the back door and in his office. Then we shall have reached the El Dorado of communism like the imperceptible change to the Republic. When we have eliminated all the obnoxious symbols in the Constitution, to quote the President, then the formal change to the Republic will be imperceptible. So it will be with the economic and social life of this country, with the so-called reforms the Government are attempting to put over. When these are all in working order the change from the present social state to the communist social state will be imperceptible, because we will have practical communism before we have the courage to come out publicly and acknowledge that we are communistic.
If the Minister had given any examination to his conscience before proposing this motion he would have known that the inevitable has happened. It should happen when people who were in a large way of production last year found a sudden change and their markets swept away. The Minister for Defence stated: "Now we will have cheap food," when he wanted to appeal to the lower instincts of the mob. But the Minister had not the experience of laying out his working capital on the production of food. He was not looking forward to the harvest when he would have to pay the many bills coming in to him. Normally these would be paid by the ordinary economic return of money expended, whether for raw materials for agriculture or in the shape of wages. He was not concerned with that because he did nothing at it. Neither did the Minister for Agriculture. These two Ministers go before mobs and appeal to their passion for cheap food and say: "We will not feed John Bull; we will keep our good food at home." Those Ministers who attended conferences claimed that the policy of the present Government is to have a two-armed nation while they boasted that their policy was to produce cheap food—not themselves, of course, but their policy. Why did they not carry it further and say that we must produce cheap clothes and furniture and everything else as well as agricultural produce? They knew that that would be too much for the people to swallow. That dope that was handed out to the people by these Ministers is not sticking in the neck of the general public when they see the aftermath, but it has stuck in the throat of the Government and hence the Minister for Agriculture comes here to set up a tribunal to shift the responsibility, probably, off the guilty shoulders of himself and his colleagues on to somebody else.
The only way to deal with the pig industry is to leave it alone in every sense of the word. It cannot just now be left alone, but no ameliorative benefits can be given in the way proposed. The right way is for the Government to undo the harm they have done the industry in the last 12 months. It is the duty of the Government so to formulate, regulate, and administer economic policy that productive industry will follow by being induced, not compelled along certain lines. The Government's function in agriculture, as well as in every economy, is to clear the obstacles out of the way and give good raw materials to the people to work. The Minister knows that throughout the Saorstát the system of premium boars has been in vogue for some time and every county committee of agriculture has risen to its responsibility and provided these boars. The Minister knows that the scientific breeding of pigs was carried on in the Albert College, Glasnevin, long before the Minister had any interest in pigs or agriculture. He knows that the system is not run as a commercial proposition, but for the improvement of strains is not run as a different aspects of the bacon industry. He knows also that bacon curers have interested themselves intelligently in this matter and have demonstrated that they were seriously interested not only from their own point of view, but from the point of view of the nation. He should know that our bacon curers have reached a position of pre-eminence with their products in the world markets. The bacon curing industry is peculiar to a few families. Those families take not only an industrial, but a national interest in their products. It is a matter of family pride with them and the sons endeavour to maintain in the world markets the position won by their ancestors.
This matter was brought up suddenly here; otherwise I could have supplemented my general remarks with details supplied me by one bacon-curer, one of the largest in the country. I could quote figures from him, had I an opportunity of bringing them here. In the short space of time at my disposal since this matter was placed on the Order Paper, I had not time to get them. The gentleman to whom I have referred went through all the factories and piggeries in Denmark in order to see how the industry was worked. He was surprised when he went through the big abattoirs there to see lines of pig carcases hung up and not even an expert could see a difference in any of them, so symmetrical were they in every way. He is still of the opinion that when our bacon reaches a standard of favour in a foreign market it does so because of many points in the quality of our product. It must have a certain amount of fat, with lean intermixed; it must be a certain weight, and so on. From his general study of the subject he is convinced that a pig can be bred and, under normal feeding and proper curing, that pig will produce a certain type of bacon. If we are to breed pigs indiscriminately without any regard to pedigree and points of strain, we cannot guarantee the exact product which is essential in order that we may hold our place in the export market.
The bacon-curers came back to the centres from which they bought most of their pigs. They realised that the feeding had a lot to do with the flavour of the bacon. No matter how it was cured, they realised the feeding was an essential factor in the quality of the bacon. They were aware that it was because of the system of feeding certain areas attained their pre-eminent position. Assuming that the system of feeding would continue, the next step was to get uniformity in the pig strain. Not only did they offer premiums to people to keep boars of their selection, but they actually gave boars to farmers for service in their areas in order to produce the type of pig necessary. Yesterday, 20 years after bacon-curers adopted that policy, we heard from the Minister that they want a tribunal to ascertain how to improve the pig industry. A department that for 30 years has been costing this country half a million a year cannot tell us how to improve the industry. I suggest that in the circumstances the Minister should withdraw his estimate of approximately half a million for the coming year.
The Minister tells us that it is not the duty of the Government to suggest how the pig industry should be improved. According to the Minister, the Government is not capable of improving it. Yet that same Government is going to pry into the private business of curers who hold gold medals obtained at international exhibitions for the best bacon in the world. This Government, which has acknowledged it does not know its own business, wants to instruct private firms, gold medallists, in pig rearing. I am afraid there is a terrible lot of camouflage about this. It is a classical instance of sending the fool farther, a classical instance of diverting the people's attention from the real cause of the present plight, a classical example of a Government move to get the people to look everywhere for the cause of their present deplorable condition except to the doors of the people who alone are responsible for the present plight of the country—that is the Government Front Bench.
There will be plenty of opportunity in the course of this debate for any Deputy who has anything to contribute to the debate to speak on it. It is every Deputy's duty when he comes to this House to represent roughly 20,000 people, to speak on behalf of those people, but no Deputy has been sent to this House to represent or misrepresent 20,000 people, to sit on the back benches and in whispers and sneers try to misrepresent the Deputy who is trying to do his duty by the people who sent him here. It is very easy for a Deputy to do his job in this House if he satisfies himself to sit for a few minutes on the back benches, then go out and strut the corridor, go down to the bar or down to the refreshment room and see ladies and gentlemen up to the gallery. That is an easy job to perform if it is the beginning and ending of a Deputy's duty to his constituents. Every Deputy who has any conception of his duty will think otherwise. I have my conception of my duty to my constituents and I am endeavouring to perform that duty to them. I use the words "my constituents" advisedly. I see the traces of a whisper on the face of a Deputy opposite——
