asked the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures if he can state (1) why the Irish farmers' paper was prohibited from publishing in full a recent letter from the Bishop of Ossory on food production; (2) why words in the same letter, emphasising the point that the best inducement that the farmer can get is a fair and generous price, were not allowed to be published in heavy type; and (3) why the Irish farmers' paper was prohibited from publishing a report of a debate in this House on the price of wheat.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Censorship and Food Production.
The reply to the first part of the Deputy's question is that it was felt necessary to delete one passage which, if published in the paper in question, in the middle of the sowing season, might have been used as an excuse for the non-sowing of wheat by a certain type of farmer. To the second, that the paper proposed to take out of its context and over-emphasise the words in question for the purpose of creating an effect not intended by the writer, and detrimental to the wheat-growing campaign. To part three, that full publicity was allowed to the report of the Dáil debate at the time it took place, and that the matter, which was stopped in the paper in question was not a report of the debate, but consisted of speeches by two Deputies—one of whom is the proprietor of this paper —which, if published in full, without being balanced by other speeches, would have given a completely one-sided account of the Dáil proceedings, which resulted in the motion under debate being defeated by a vote of 53 to 20.
Is it not true that the statement of the Bishop of Ossory was made in response to an appeal by the Government to his Lordship to advocate a tillage policy? Does the Minister consider that it is right to delete from that carefully considered statement by the Bishop a relevant portion directly affecting tillage and, therefore, an important portion of the statement? What right had the Minister to delete from the statement a reference to the price being paid by the Government for imported wheat and a comparison of that price with the price paid to the Irish farmer, with a request that the Irish farmer should be given a remunerative price?
The Deputy's relevant supplementaries are fully dealt with in my answer.
I have asked the Minister whether or not this statement was made in response to an appeal by the Government for such a statement.