asked the Minister for Finance if he will furnish detailed particulars of turf produced up to and including August 31st, 1941, by the county surveyors in each of the turf-cutting counties together with particulars of the total amount of wages paid to workers employed in each of the counties concerned, and also particulars of the turf available for sale outside the counties concerned.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Turf Supply.
On the question of the production of turf and the quantity available for sale outside the turf counties, I would refer the Deputy to the reply given to-day to an analogous question by Deputy Norton.
Final figures showing the segregation of the expenditure on turf production by the county surveyors as between wages, tools and equipment, transport and other headings, are not yet available, and consequently the information required by the Deputy cannot be supplied at this stage.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say if he is in a position to supply the information asked for in the first part of the question?
No, I am not at the moment; the whole thing is indefinite.
If the Parliamentary Secretary does not know what surplus turf is available in the turf-cutting counties, why has he given instructions to the county surveyors to send large quantities of turf into the non turf-cutting counties and particularly the City of Dublin?
I am investigating the position with the object of distributing the turf in the best possible manner.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will state the quantities of turf for the removal of which licences have been issued to date.
The quantity of turf for the removal of which licences have been issued to date is approximately 170,000 tons. This merely covers specific permissions and is in no sense a limitation of amount.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say whether any applications are in hands for the removal of additional quantities of turf, and, if so, what quantities of turf are covered in the applications not yet dealt with by his Department?
I could not answer that without notice. I know there are numbers of applications, but I could not say exactly how many more.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will state the quantities of turf which have been brought into Dublin up to the end of August by (a) Fuel Importers, Ltd., and (b) by other bodies and institutions to which licences for the removal of turf have been issued.
The information asked for is not available in this form. It is hoped to give the substance of it at an early date.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will state the present position in regard to the winning and saving of turf, indicating the quantities cut and saved in each county, the quantity in each county available for sale outside the confines of the county, the quantity already sold and delivered, the steps taken to secure the delivery in towns of the quota of turf earmarked for each, the methods adopted for the storing of turf in towns, and the provision made to secure that turf will be available for poor people who are unable to lay in stocks.
It is not possible, at this stage, to make a comprehensive statement of the kind the Deputy asks for. Since the commencement of the turf-cutting season efforts have been concentrated on winning and saving in the turf areas the maximum amount of turf possible, both by encouraging private producers and by the active agency of the county councils.
The total amount produced by county councils, other local bodies and parish councils is estimated at 1,500,000 tons, on the basis of ten cubic yards of raw turf to one ton of dried fuel. Whether in fact that estimate will turn out to be correct it is not at the moment possible to say but I am giving the House the basis on which all the figures have previously been given. In addition, it is known that private producers have cut substantial quantities of extra turf. A census of this privately-produced turf is now being taken. Large supplies of turf surplus to the requirements of the scheduled areas have been prepared for the non-turf areas, and all available transport is now being used to bring these supplies to Dublin and other places in the non-turf areas. The reserves which have been accumulated are being held for the present against a time of greater need, and the question of their distribution at the proper time under a scheme of rationing in conjunction with coal is now under active consideration.
A great deal of the detailed information asked for by the Deputy has been and is being collected and the necessary segregation as between counties will be undertaken as early as possible.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that there is grave public perturbation at the insufficient stocks of turf in the non-turf areas, and the scarcity of coal in these areas as well, and will he indicate when he hopes to be able to make, for the information of the public, a comprehensive statement indicating the precise fuel position, because many people are gravely concerned about it?
I also am gravely concerned about it, and the question is, when we shall be able to give that specific and definite information. The Deputy himself has indicated one of the difficulties already to-day in a supplementary question when he protested against the attempt to get certain fuel out of the turf areas into the non-turf areas. Questions of that kind, and the difficulty of deciding how far one would go in that respect, are at the root of these difficulties. At the moment, there is a great deal of information which we still do not know. There are, roughly speaking, 1,000,000 tons of national turf and there are probably another 500,000 tons of turf saved by auxiliary bodies. Only a proportion of that turf is yet sufficiently saved to be put on the roads. The thoroughly bad August we had hampered operations, and altered very considerably our estimate of the time schedule of availability of that turf for transport, and even, in some cases, of the possibility of its transport. The improved weather conditions in September have now improved the position again. I am putting to the House the difficulties there are in giving any definite figures. I do not know the figure at the moment, but as soon as I can when I have that information in the greatest possible detail, and with the greatest possible accuracy, I shall take the House into my confidence.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary considering the advisability of controlling the price of turf at the bog? I have here evidence that turf was sold in Cork in the month of July at a price of 29/- delivered to the merchant, while the same man is now being charged up to £7 a load from an area which is nearer to Cork City. I suggest that it would be advisable to control the price of turf at the bog.
Prices are not referred to in any of the three questions.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary give the House the figure of the approximate amount of turf required for the Cities of Dublin and Cork? I have not heard any statement from the Parliamentary Secretary or from his Department as to the approximate amount required for, say, domestic and other uses, apart altogether from industrial uses. That is a very important question to which we have not had any reply.
No such question has been tabled.
It has been put to the Parliamentary Secretary. There is no good in his telling us that he has so much turf cut and ready, if we do not know the amount required. Has he got that information?
One of the difficulties of the position is that Deputies put one question down on the Order Paper and then apparently think that information will be available on every other possible question which has any relation to it. It is not easy to answer the Deputy's question, but the question has been answered on the specific basis of rationing in relation to one particular city, the City of Dublin and Borough of Dun Laoghaire. It would be possible to make an estimate on a similar basis in relation to any particular town, but it certainly is not an estimate which anyone could give without notice.