asked the Minister for Supplies whether supplies of tractor vaporising oil are available in sufficient quantity to meet normal requirements and, if not, whether he will take steps at once to reserve such supplies as are available for those types of agricultural tractor which can only be operated on this type of fuel.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Oil and Petrol for Tractors.
asked the Minister for Supplies if, in view of the limited supply of vaporising oil available, he will take steps to ensure that vaporising oils are reserved for use in agricultural tractors by restricting distribution of those oils by the oil companies to owners of agricultural tractors only.
I will take Questions Nos. 15 and 17 together. The supply of tractor vaporising oil like other petroleum products is not sufficient to meet normal requirements. Steps have been taken to restrict the distribution of kerosene for non-essential purposes with the object of ensuring, so far as possible, that supplies are available to meet the requirements of the owners of agricultural tractors.
Is it true that substantial stocks of tractor vaporising oil were in the country prior to Christmas, 1940, and that a large part of these stocks was put into the petrol supply, in order to stretch it, without due advertence to the difficulties that would arise as a result of the disappearance of this vaporising oil?
No.
Am I to understand from the Minister that no vaporising oil was put into petrol with his approval?
That is correct.
Is it not true that there is no T.V.O. at all available?
It is not true.
Then someone is lying somewhere, either the Minister or the oil companies.
The Deputy may not even suggest that the Minister is lying.
I withdraw that. May I say that I went to one of the leading oil companies and was assured that there is no T.V.O. in stock. I hope the Minister is right and the oil company wrong.
Is the Minister aware that vaporising oil is being used for work other than agricultural work?
That is correct.
Is the Minister also aware that what Deputy Dillon has suggested is being done down through the country, that vaporising oil is being mixed with petrol and is being used for lorries?
That may have been done.
What effort has the Minister made to stop that?
I have informed the Deputy that because existing supplies were not equal to normal requirements we have restricted its use for nonagricultural purposes to ensure that there is a sufficient supply for agricultural purposes.
Can the Minister suggest what the individual farmer, the man who requires a large quantity of vaporising oil for agricultural purposes, should do if he finds that he cannot get a supply of it?
He should write to my Department, because there is no reason why he should not get it.
Then the Minister's advice to the man using a tractor, if he finds that he cannot get locally a supply of vaporising oil, is that he should write to the Department, and the Department will see that he will get a supply of it.
That advice was given through the newspapers some time ago.
Will the Minister give an assurance that no man, except the man who is using a tractor for agricultural operations, will get a supply of vaporising oil?
I will give no such assurance. There is no reason why other users should be deprived of it so long as a sufficient supply is being made available for the users of it for agricultural purposes. I may say that a sufficient supply of vaporising oil for tractors is available for every user of it for agricultural purposes.
I want the Minister to take cognisance of this—I am speaking from my own experience and that of many others—that vaporising oil cannot be got on order.
The Deputy can take up an individual case, but there is no reason why he should not get it.
While it is true to say that vaporising oil may have been sent out to retailers on a ration basis, as compared with last year, it is equally true to say that large numbers of tractor users did not deal with retailers, but bought barrels of oil direct from the oil companies.
Arrangements were made to cover that type of case, and details were published in the newspapers.
I take it that if such persons have not received their barrel of oil this year, and if they now get into communication with the Minister's Department, they will be sent a barrel of oil.
Arrangements will be made for them to get it.
I have three tractors. I require 150 gallons of vaporising oil per week, and for the last three weeks I have not got a drop. I was told by one of the leading, if not the leading, supply oil companies in Dublin that it had not got it. Can I now go to that company and say, on the word of Mr. Seán Lemass, Minister for Supplies: "You have vaporising oil in stock and I demand that you give me my quota of it." Can I do that?
I am not going to give a decision in the Deputy's case. He will have to come to the Department like everybody else.
asked the Minister for Supplies if he will state (a) the quantity of vaporising oils imported during the cereal year ending September, 1940; (b) the quantity of vaporising oil distributed by the oil distributing companies from 1st October, 1940, to the 31st December, 1940; (c) the quantity of vaporising oil which the oil distributing companies had on hands on the 1st January, 1941, and on the 1st February, 1941.
It would not be in the public interest to give information of the kind asked for by the Deputy in respect of any commodity.
asked the Minister for Supplies if, in view of the fact that the quantity of petrol at present allowed to tractor owners for starting is entirely inadequate to their needs, he will arrange for the allocation to them of a minimum quantity of three gallons per week, to ensure that the maximum service is obtained from tractors for the present emergency.
I am quite prepared to give all the petrol required for the purpose of starting tractors used for agricultural purposes. I am aware, however, that the allowance at present given, namely, eight gallons per month, is adequate for the purpose and, in fact, very few tractor owners have ever applied for more than this quantity. In these circumstances, having regard to the position in regard to our petrol supplies, I see no reason why a minimum quantity of three gallons per week should be granted.
Can the Minister assure the House that coupons to the value of eight gallons a month are being issued for the present month?
Yes.
I can assure the Minister that I know of no case where a tractor owner has got coupons to the value of eight gallons a month. For the coming month, I have got coupons for two gallons.
I think the Deputy is misinformed. If the Deputy wants to he can come to the Department about his own case, but so far as the arrangements are concerned there is an allowance of eight gallons per month for every user of a tractor for agricultural purposes.
I can assure the Minister that, within the last week, at least a dozen men have told me that they had not got anything like eight gallons a month.
They will get it.
When?
During the month.
Does the Minister know we have a tillage push on at the moment, and that he himself sent out a circular in connection with it? If the Minister does not make the petrol available to enable farmers to start the tractors that will mean the end of the tillage push.
If the Deputy approaches this matter in a reasonable frame of mind he will get more consideration. He seems to think that there is an injustice being done to somebody, but I want again to tell him that eight gallons of petrol per month are being sent to every user of an agricultural tractor.