I move:—
Go ndeontar suim breise ná raghaidh thar £10 chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i ríth na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1942, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an Aire Talmhaidheachta agus Seirbhísí áirithe atá fé riaradh na hOifige sin, maraon le hIldeontaisí-i-gCabhair.
That a supplementary sum, not exceeding £10, be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1942, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Agriculture, and of certain Services administered by that Office, including sundry Grants-in-Aid.
A sum of £48,000 is required under sub-head M (7) which provides for allowances in respect of the storage of butter for winter requirements and the production and acquisition of butter and other dairy products. It is estimated that the production of creamery butter for the year ending 31st March next will be 662,000 cwts. or about 4,000 more cwts. than the previous year. The guaranteed return from milk used in the manufacture of dairy products was 6d. per gallon which is the equivalent of 158/- net per cwt. for butter. The retail prices for the year remained unchanged at the equivalent of 152/- net per cwt. and payment of a production allowance of 6/- per cwt. is accordingly being made to bring butter to the guaranteed value of 158/- per cwt. The production allowance on 662,000 cwts. of butter amounts to £199,000.
Then there is a corresponding allowance made on cheese costing about £9,000 while the cost of cold-storing butter for winter requirements amounts to £82,000. There are certain arrears from the previous year which amount to £15,000, making a total of £305,000. There is a saving in respect of claims not maturing for payment this year amounting to £7,000 so that the net total for this year in respect of the cost of production of creamery butter, as far as the State is concerned, and the cost of storing it, is £298,000. A sum of £250,000 was already provided in the original Estimate and the supplementary sum required now is £48,000. On the other hand there will be a saving on another Estimate, that is in respect of export bounties, of about an equivalent amount, so that the total expenditure on butter, for export or home production, will remain at about the same figure estimated in the beginning of the financial year. The reduction in the export subsidy is due to the reduction in the export of butter. Since margarine went off the market, there has been an increase of about 25 per cent. in the consumption of creamery butter.
The second item with which we have to deal is £6,000 in respect of the expenses of veterinary surgeons. This arises under the Fresh Meat Acts. As Deputies know, during the foot-and-mouth disease there was a very big export of fresh meat, of both dressed meats and cooked meats, and a number of factories came into existence. There were 27 new premises in all requiring veterinary supervision. The cost of this extra supervision is estimated at about £6,000, so that under these two sub-heads the amount required is £54,000. There are, however, savings on other sub-heads amounting to £53,990, so that the net sum required is £10.
