Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 12 Jul 1935

Vol. 58 No. 4

Vote 52—Agriculture.

Minister for Finance

I move:—

Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £665,995 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1936, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an Aire Talmhaíochta agus seirbhísí áirithe atá fé riaradh na hOifige sin, maraon le hIldeontaisí-i-gCabhair.

That a sum not exceeding £665.995 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Agriculture, and of certain services administered by that Office, including sundry Grants-in-Aid.

Mr. Belton

I suggest that the question be now put. It is an insult to agriculture to allow only five minutes to this discussion.

Mr. Bennett

Four and a half minutes.

Mr. Belton

I think it would be more dignified for the House to divide now and let those who have anything to do with agriculture go home and make their hay.

Mr. Hogan (Galway):

Does the Minister think that four and a half minutes is enough for discussion of the Vote for the Minister for Agriculture?

Mr. MacEntee

No, but the Opposition had ample time to discuss this matter on another occasion and they wasted that time. The Government took less than two hours on the closure motion while the Opposition took five.

An Ceann-Comhairle

The House, if it desires a straight division on this Vote, can take it.

Mr. MacEntee

I was in possession. The Government afterwards made an offer to give special time for the discussion of agriculture. It was pointed out, when the closure motion first came before the House, that if a little time was occupied in its discussion, then a great deal of time would be available for the Vote for Law Charges and also for the Vote for Agriculture.

Professor O'Sullivan

All that is completely irrelevant to the question we are now on.

Mr. O'Leary

We are not going to accept dictation from the Minister.

Mr. MacEntee

I am replying to the speech of Deputy Hogan.

Professor O'Sullivan

He did not make a speech.

Mr. MacEntee

He asked was four and a half minutes enough!

General Mulcahy

The Minister was silent so long he must make a speech now.

Professor O'Sullivan

I think it is appropriate that a Government that acted in the way it has done for the past week, as regards the Estimates, should now be treating this great industry of agriculture in the way it is doing. The only thing I pointed out is that the Government wanted to blot out discussion. We wanted a full debate with the explanation of the Minister for Agriculture before us, so that we could criticise it. We are given four and a half minutes, and two minutes is taken out of that by the irrelevant observations of the Minister for Finance. No time was wasted by us on the closure motion. Everyone will admit that it was a most fruitful discussion, and ranged over the various items which the Minister tried to closure. I do not think the Government have any reason to be satisfied with the course of that discussion. Having brought the principal industry in the country to a state of bankruptcy. I think it is fully in keeping with everything the Government have done, and fully in keeping with their whole policy of agriculture that they should try to burk full discussion of that subject in this House. What is the situation? We have the Minister for Industry and Commerce speaking of his tuppenny-ha'penny industries, and we have reference to the number of people employed in agriculture. Although the Minister is very careful, in other directions, to criticise figures, what he has never done is to state the number of people in agriculture—farmers' sons—who have been always working on the farm, and who, now, owing to the various acts of the Government have got themselves registered. There is no additional employment given. No one has been more insistent than the Minister that these figures are most misleading. But he himself can quote them when it suits him and the Minister for Agriculture can follow his lead and can quote them when he wants to be still more misleading. Therefore, the alleged increase in employment which is supposed to have taken place within the last 12 months indicates no real increase in employment. We saw the tendency, when there was a possibility of checking these figures, of a gradual decrease in the number of people employed in agriculture since the present Government took over. Now there is the mere question of an increase in the number of people registered for other purposes altogether. It is now 12 o'clock, and I am waiting to be called. I have no intention of disregarding the House or the Chair like the Minister.

Question put:

"That a sum not exceeding £6,398,310 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charges which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, for expenditure in respect of the following Services, namely:—

(2) Oireachtas, £75,731; (5) Office of the Minister for Finance, £42,019; (6) Office of the Revenue Commissioners, £483,703; (7) Old Age Pensions, £2,306,700; (13) Civil Service Commission, £12,640; (14) Property Losses Compensation, £72,750; (15) Personal Injuries Compensation, £1,057; (16) Superannuation and Retired Allowances, £300,690; (18) Secret Service, £13,300; (19) Tariff Commission, £3,524; (25) Supplementary Agricultural Grants, £450,489; (28) Universities and Colleges, £80,900; (29) Electrical Battery Development, £12,000; (31) Remuneration for Management of Government Stocks, £245; (52) Agriculture, £665,995; (53) Fisheries, £32,867; (70) Export Bounties and Subsidies, £1,805,000; (71) Repayment of Dáil Eireann External Loans, £3,500; (72) Compensation Bounties, £35,200."

The Committee divided: Tá, 51; Níl, 30.

Tá

• Beegan, Patrick.
• Blaney, Neal.
• Boland, Gerald.
• Bourke, Daniel.
• Brady, Brian.
• Breen, Daniel.
• Briscoe, Robert.
• Browne, William Frazer.
• Concannon, Helena.
• Corkery, Daniel.
• Crowley, Timothy.
• Derrig, Thomas.
• Doherty, Hugh.
• Dowdall, Thomas P.
• Flynn, John.
• Fogarty, Andrew.
• Maguire, Conor Alexander.
• Moore, Séamus.
• Norton, William.
• O Briain, Donnchadh.
• O'Doherty, Joseph.
• O'Dowd, Patrick.
• O'Grady, Seán.
• O Ceallaigh, Seán T.
• O'Reilly, Matthew.
• Pattison, James P.
• Gibbons, Seán.
• Goulding, John.
• Hales, Thomas.
• Harris, Thomas.
• Hayes, Seán.
• Hogan, Patrick (Clare).
• Jordan, Stephen.
• Kehoe, Patrick.
• Kelly, James Patrick.
• Kilroy, Michael.
• Kissane, Eamonn.
• Lemass, Seán F.
• Little, Patrick John.
• Lynch, James B.
• MacEntee, Seán.
• Maguire, Ben.
• Pearse, Margaret Mary.
• Ruttledge, Patrick Joseph.
• Ryan, James.
• Ryan, Martin.
• Ryan, Robert.
• Sheridan, Michael.
• Smith, Patrick.
• Victory, James.
• Ward, Francis C.

Níl

• Alton, Ernest Henry.
• Anthony, Richard.
• Beckett, James Walter.
• Belton, Patrick.
• Bennett, George Cecil.
• Coburn, James.
• Costello, John Aloysius.
• Curran, Richard.
• Desmond, William.
• Dockrell, Henry Morgan.
• Doyle, Peadar S.
• Esmonde, Osmond Grattan.
• Fitzgerald, Desmond.
• Fitzgerald-Kenney, James.
• Hogan, Patrick (Galway).
• Holohan, Richard.
• Keating, John.
• MacEoin, Seán.
• McFadden, Michael Og.
• McGovern, Patrick.
• McMenamin, Daniel.
• Mulcahy, Richard.
• Nally, Martin.
• O'Leary, Daniel.
• O'Neill, Eamonn.
• O'Sullivan, John Marcus.
• Redmond, Bridget Mary.
• Reidy, James.
• Rogers, Patrick James.
• Wall, Nicholas.

Tellers:—Ta: Deputies Little and Smith; Nil: Deputies Doyle and Bennett.

Question declared carried.

Estimates reported and agreed to.