I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. For the past four years the Government has been actively investigating the possibility of substituting a supply of home-produced fuel for imported coal. That investigation has ranged over all possibilities, and, as Deputies are aware, an active expert examination of our own coal deposits is at present proceeding. It appeared to us, however, from the beginning that the most likely possibilities of early development rested in increasing the use for turf as a fuel for household purposes. To that end we took steps designed to secure a substantial increase in the production of turf and in its use in various parts of the country. Measures designed to secure an increase in the production of turf were successful to some degree in the year 1933, when organised production first took place through the medium of co-operative societies formed for the purpose, and the turf produced was disposed of without great difficulty. In the year 1934, however, during which there was a substantial increase in the production of turf by the co-operative societies, a difficulty arose in the matter of marketing. The response of the coal merchants to the requests of the Department to make turf available for sale to their customers, and to assist our efforts to get people to use it, was disappointing. Out of some 2,250 coal merchants in the country, only 470 have applied and been appointed as approved turf distributors.
It became evident in 1934 that the Turf Development Board, which came into existence in that year and took over the activities formerly carried on by the Department, would require a very considerable increase in the sales of turf to enable it to dispose of the quantity produced by the co-operative turf societies and on their hands for the 1935 season. That failure to dispose of all the turf produced in 1934 had a very direct reaction upon the quantity of turf produced in 1935. For other reasons also the production of turf in 1935 declined. Because, however, of the increase in the price of coal which took place towards the end of last year, all the turf on the hands of the societies, whether produced in 1935 or carried over from 1934, has been disposed of during the course of the present season. If, however, the circumstances to which I have referred were not there, and if there had not been that decline in production in 1935, consequent on the failure to dispose of the 1934 crop, it is not improbable that a large surplus of turf would still remain to be disposed of.
During the period in which the co-operative turf-producing societies were being brought into existence, and the Turf Development Board constituted, a very considerable amount of work was done on the development of bogs in order to facilitate and encourage the production of turf. Large sums of money have been made available from the Exchequer for that purpose. The value of turf to the producers has been fully demonstrated, and all those societies are now in a position to reap in full the advantage of that development work to which I have referred.
We have encouraged those turf societies to increase their production for the 1936-7 season, and various additional measures designed to facilitate the operation of the whole turf scheme have also been applied. The Turf Development Board has been authorised by the Department to provide the co-operative societies with compounds for the ricking of turf and also with sheds which will render the societies largely independent of weather conditions during the marketing season. It is anticipated, therefore, that in the present year production in the areas in which those societies operate will show a considerable increase over production during 1935. The Turf Development Board will dispose, at the recognised price of 11/6 per ton, of good quality turf produced by the societies, provided that the turf is ricked in approved compounds in conformity with the instructions of the board; that it is placed in sacks and delivered on rail or canal or elsewhere as directed by the board; that the turf is delivered in such a condition as will satisfy the officers of the board as to the quality of the turf; and further, that the societies conform to such rules and regulations as the board lays down for the welfare of the turf industry and for the producers and consumers of turf. The demand for turf up to the present, however, would not enable the board to dispose of the production which is anticipated during the present year, and if steps were not taken to secure and guarantee a market to the producers, all the efforts of the board to stimulate production would be of little avail.
It is in order to guarantee a market to the producers that it has been decided to introduce this Turf (Use and Development) Bill. The purpose of the Bill is to make provision for promoting the more extensive production of turf for domestic and household purposes. One of its principal provisions, which requires in approved areas the compulsory inclusion of a proportion of turf with each ton of coal sold for domestic purposes, will ensure that turf producers will not be discouraged in future by any fear that their turf, when properly harvested, will be left on their hands. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that this Bill is introduced now after a campaign in certain newspapers for some time, which grossly misrepresented its provisions and the purposes behind it. We have had a number of fantastic statements published as to the intentions of the Government in respect of turf, and the manner in which it proposes to use the powers to be conferred by this Bill. I should explain that it has been found necessary to resort to compulsion in the use of turf for several reasons, but the primary reason is to ensure that the utilisation of fuel in the country will be done on a more economic basis than heretofore. It is intended that the compulsory powers will be used so as to avoid causing hardship, particularly upon those who are least able to bear it, that is, the poorer sections of the community.
The first principle upon which the powers proposed to be conferred by the Bill will be applied is that compulsion will be resorted to only where the cost of turf, value for value, compares favourably with the cost of coal, and in areas in which compulsion is to be put into operation, that condition can be satisfied without any difficulty whatsoever. Compulsion will be applied in the areas which are well served by suitable bogs, and in districts where the cost of the turf, having regard to its value as a fuel, will prove to be more economical for domestic purposes than coal. The degree of compulsion which it will be necessary to resort to will be very small. A very small quota of turf in relation to coal will dispose of the complete production of turf societies for some years to come. The Irish Independent has been harrowing its readers with tales of the alleged intentions of the Government to require the use of two tons of turf for every cwt. of coal purchased by a householder. I have no hope that we will get to that stage for a long number of years to come, but it might be interesting to reflect upon the fact that if we succeeded in doing that, we would also have succeeded in abolishing unemployment in this country entirely. It would take the labour of all the unemployed persons in the country to produce the quantity of turf necessary, if we were to make an order requiring the use of two tons of turf with every cwt. of coal. I think there are very few people in this country who would not be prepared to contemplate that possibility if it were to lead to the abolition of unemployment.