asked the Minister for Agriculture whether he has in contemplation any scheme to find alternative employment for the farm labourers in mixed farming counties like Wexford, who will become disemployed through the slaughtering of the calves which he advocates, and if he is aware that the system of farming in which crops are grown for live-stock feeding affords the greatest volume of and the most regular all-the-year-round employment to labour on the land.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Employment for Wexford Farm Labourers.
I do not anticipate that the present rate of slaughter of calves will result in the disemployment of farm labourers in County Wexford or other counties.
We can still continue to produce all the crops at present grown for feeding live stock, and there is a large volume of animal feeding stuffs which we still import and which could be produced at home. In the production of these food stuffs and the better feeding of farm stock there is opportunity for employing more labour than is employed at present.
How does the Minister know that? What effect will the slaughter of 200,000 calves have on the constituency that he and I represent? Does not the Minister know that Wexford is a stock-raising county and that the people of that county grow a lot of feeding stuffs for cattle and that this slaughter will have a very big effect on labour in Wexford?
Dr. Ryan
I have already answered the question.