asked the Minister for Supplies if he is now in a position to state if the price of wool has been fixed and if it can be exported without restrictions.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Price of Wool.
No prices for wool have been officially fixed and the price of our wool is governed by conditions in the available markets. The exportation of wool is subject to licence under the provisions of the Emergency Powers (Control of Export) Order, 1940, but licences are at present freely available apart from certain limited grades of wool which are required for use in this country.
Is it true that the wool merchants of this country were prevented from exporting Irish wool to foreign markets at a time when they could have got 2/6 a lb. for it, that these markets are no longer available and that the wool is now not saleable at all anywhere with consequent loss to the sheep producers of this country?
The House, I think, is aware that for a period negotiations were in progress with the British Government concerning the sale of our total exportable surplus of wool to the British Ministry of Supply. During the period that these negotiations were taking place the export of wool was prohibited. The negotiations broke down on the question of price and the issue of licences for the export of wool was resumed.
Having refused the licences to export when foreign markets were available, is the Minister now prepared to issue licences when there are no foreign markets available and none of the wool can be sold, with the result that the wool is unsaleable in rural Ireland at the present time?
The position is not quite as simple as the Deputy states. We are dependent upon Great Britain for the supply of wool yarns, wool tops and the types of wool that must be imported by our manufacturers. The British Government stated that they would supply us with these raw materials only on condition that we agreed to sell to them our exportable surplus of raw wool. It was in consequence of that attitude that the negotiations took place but, because we were unable to agree to a price and because of the protracted nature of the negotiations, the licences for the export of wool were issued as from some date in the middle of June. The position is not one that we made and so far as we are concerned, we would much prefer to be free to sell our wool wherever we can get the best price for it. That is now the position, but in so far as we departed from that position for a time it was because we were compelled to do so by the circumstances that then existed.
I think the Minister— and I regret to have to say it—should show more interest in wool producers and small farmers who were sacrificed in the interests of the industrialists in the city——
No.
——who insisted on the Government refusing to allow the export of wool, in order to secure it for the manufacturers and importers of yarn, with the result that the small wool producers cannot now sell their wool anywhere.
At any price.
At any price, while the manufacturers are getting their wool tops from Great Britain. If that is so, will the manufacturers contribute to a fund to compensate wool producers here who have been required to make vast sacrifices in the interests of the manufacturers?
The facts are not as stated by the Deputy. Before the export of wool was prohibited, the market for the class of wool we have to export had ceased to exist. In fact, prices had fallen very considerably and the British were, I understand, exporting that type of wool. In so far as the protection of the interests of wool producers is concerned, it was precisely on that ground that the negotiations failed, because we considered the prices available inadequate to remunerate them.
Is it not true that the wool exporters could have got 2/6 per lb. for that wool in Holland and Spain when they were prohibited from shipping it?
No.
Now they cannot get any price anywhere.
The fact that the Deputy so asserts does not make it true. It is true that after the commencement of the war we were able to get in the United States and Holland a price in excess of that available in Great Britain, but Holland was not then occupied by the German army.
And Spain?
There was no wool exported to Spain in any quantity. The position had changed considerably early in the year, and it appeared, at the time, to be good business for us to get a guaranteed market for the exportable surplus. We have not been able to do so.
And there is no market for it anywhere now?
Exactly.