asked the Minister for Finance if the present rate of winning turf is sufficient to provide the country with fuel for the forthcoming winter; if, also, a monthly quota has been set for each county to produce.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Turf Production.
The rate of winning turf is at present progressive, but the total to be produced is dependent on weather and other indeterminate factors. The answer to the second part of the question is "No."
I asked if the present rate of winning turf is sufficient to provide the country with fuel for the forthcoming winter, and I submit, Sir, the Parliamentary Secretary has not answered that question?
I submit, Sir, that Solomon could, not answer that question. It is a most indeterminate question, and I have done the very best I could to meet the Deputy in the matter.
I should like to suggest to the Parliamentary Secretary that, while I am not posing as Solomon——
It is I who am supposed to be Solomon.
We know you are not.
But Deputy Dockrell does not know it.
I am not posing as Solomon either, but I should like to suggest to the Parliamentary Secretary that the needs of the country are known so far as coal is concerned, and that a rough and ready way of comparing coal with turf is, I take it, two to one. There are only so many months during which the turf can be got out of the bogs. Is it being got out at anything approaching the quantity that would enable the needs of the country to be supplied? That is the answer I am looking for.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary now say when he proposes to make the promised statement in regard to the production and distribution of turf? He promised to make a statement this day three weeks.
That question does not arise on this, but I shall try to deal with it later on.