asked the Minister for Agriculture whether he is aware that the fixed prices for oats and barley are unjustly low and calculated to discourage increased production in the coming year, and whether he will remove restrictions on prices payable for oats and barley forthwith in order to abolish the black market in these commodities, make available supplies for oatmeal millers and encourage increased production in the coming cereal year.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Oats and Barley Prices.
I do not consider that the prices fixed for oats and barley of the 1941 harvest are calculated to discourage increased production in the coming year, and in view of the necessity for exercising control on the prices of these cereals I do not propose to revoke the provisions of the Emergency Powers (Cereals) Orders applicable to oats and barley.
Is the Minister aware that in every market in Ireland at present oats are being sold at prices 30 to 40 per cent. in excess of the prices fixed by him and that there is virtually no legitimate trade passing in oats at the fixed price at present? Does he not realise that, unless oats are allowed a free market in the coming season, people will not sow oats, because this year they have found that in practice it is virtually impossible to dispose of them in a legal or regular way?
I do not agree with the Deputy's conclusions.
Surely the Minister appreciates that the flour shortage in rural Ireland is gravely aggravated at present by the shortage of oatmeal, and that unless we get sufficient oats to provide abundant oatmeal next year, our position will be extremely precarious? Surely the realises that the prices fixed by him for oats are acting as a deterrent to the production of oats and will he take any steps to remove that deterrent?
I do not agree with the Deputy.
Does the Minister think that the present price for oats is an inducement to farmers to grow oats?
Our experience this year was that well over 90 per cent. of the oats was kept by the farmers themselves.
Does he realise that there is not a bag of oatmeal to be got in the country?
There is no oats being sold.
And why is no oats being sold? Because no oats can be sold at the price fixed by the Minister. There is plenty of oats being sold in the local markets at 20/- to 23/- a cwt., but there is no oats going into the oatmeal millers, because no persons who own oats will take the Minister's fixed price, with the result that oatmeal urgently needed by country people to compensate them for the shortage of flour is being fed to hens and live stock, and these people cannot get oatmeal. Are we all daft to let that kind of situation continue?