When speaking on this Vote on the last day the House was in session, I adverted to the necessity of producing from home sources any artificial manure that it is possible for us to produce, in view of the fact that we are not in a position to import our requirements. I commented on the slowness and inactivity of the Mineral Development Company in not exploiting the Clare deposit to its utmost capacity and also to the fact that, as far as I knew, no effort was made to examine the possibility of producing nitrogenous manure at home. I pointed out that we have all the raw material necessary for the production of that essential commodity and that, while I was aware that plant for the production of sulphate of ammonia on a large scale was very expensive and possibly not procurable at the present time, I had information to the effect that Dr. Drumm was of opinion that sulphate of ammonia could be produced here, even under present conditions, by a number of small plants. I asked the Minister for information on that matter and I hope he will be in a position to give us full and frank information when he is replying because it is a most important and vital matter in the production of food in this country at the present time.
Dealing with the coal mining industry, I said that I felt there should be far greater exploitation of our coal deposits and, for that purpose, far greater activity on the part of the new company. We are asked to vote for this company a sum of £3,000 for prospecting purposes. The Minister told us that the new company had experienced some unforeseen difficulties. On being questioned by me on that matter he told us that, unfortunately, the shaft was driven down in the wrong place. The exact position selected for the tapping of the coal was based, he said, on a report of a very well-known British mining company. The Minister rightly commented that one never knows what is underneath the earth until one goes down and sees for himself. I pointed out that we had in fact openings in other parts of the Leinster coalfield which proved beyond doubt that at those particular places, notably in the Carlow district, the coal was a commercial proposition but that it was operated by a person who was hampered by lack of equipment and lack of capital. The new Slievardagh company chose to work the other end of the coalfield first with the result that they went down in the wrong place. The output is, I think, very disappointing when one considers the length of time they are operating there. I said that I felt greater attention should have been paid to those areas where production proved to be effective and where, as the Minister said, one could go down and see for himself that there was a seam of coal of sufficient thickness to justify a capital expenditure.
I am also aware that there are old workings in various parts of the country, even in County Cork, that are disused at the present time, not because of lack of coal deposits, but because in the past, when they were worked, they were unable to compete with the price of imported coal. I always felt, rightly or wrongly, that the present emergency provided a great opportunity for this country to concentrate on its coal deposits. We are aware of the fact that in recent years anthracite to a very great extent has come into its own. Its calorific value and its slow-burning character under thermostatic control make it an ideal fuel for the new type of modern domestic cooker, and it has proved an enormous success. Even when this emergency is over, the development of domestic cooking with anthracite as fuel will be further expanded. For that reason it is a great asset that in this country we have such substantial quantities of anthracite. It seemed extraordinary, having regard to the opportunity which we are now afforded, that the Government did not concentrate to a far greater extent on the development and exploitation of our coal deposits.
I think it is a great mistake that so much expenditure and labour have been devoted to the production of turf because to a very great extent in many districts turf production has been an unprofitable undertaking. I think the extra activity devoted to turf production can last merely for the emergency period. I do not think we can hope that turf production will survive in many districts beyond the emergency period, but I am satisfied that is not so with anthracite coal. As I have said, it has been proved beyond any doubt that it is an ideal fuel for domestic purposes with modern cookers and an ideal fuel for slow burning for stoves for heating purposes. In fact, anthracite has proved a great success for industrial purposes. I am aware of the fact that in Carlow beet sugar factory there is one very large furnace capable of working very efficiently on anthracite. I admit that it is a somewhat difficult fuel to use in ordinary furnaces for industrial purposes, but a furnace properly equipped for the purpose of burning anthracite has been functioning very efficiently in the Carlow sugar factory for many years. I think, if we take a long view of the whole problem, we must assume that this country is likely to be faced with very extraordinary economic difficulties after the war and, if we have to contend with an adverse trade balance in the post-war period, here is an opportunity of developing something which we can substitute for imported coal. I press that point very strongly. I think sufficient attention has not been given to this matter of the production of a native fuel of which we have substantial quantities in the country and that could be very profitably exploited at the present moment. I think, unfortunately, the opportunity was not availed of to the full extent it should have been. However, it is not yet too late and I call the Minister's attention to that fact.
We are asked to vote a sum of £30,000 to the Mineral Exploration Development Company and £3,000 to that company for further prospecting. The Minister gave us very little information on those headings, as to what prospecting this new Mineral Exploration Development Company has been carrying out, what have been its activities up to the present, and what new activities it proposes to undertake. It is a subject in which everyone would be most interested and on which we should like further information. I understand that there is a very valuable deposit of dolomite rock down at Bennettsbridge which has a very high magnesium content. Magnesium is a very valuable mineral at the present time. I should like to know what efforts have been made to exploit that valuable mineral, or has any examination been made of the possibilities of that deposit?
The Minister assured the House that he had great hopes of getting the Haulbowline steel mill working again in the near future on scrap steel and that he was satisfied that there were sufficient supplies of scrap steel in the country to keep the mill going for a very long time. That is very good news. I should like to ask on that point what is being done with regard to supplies of iron, particularly horseshoeing iron, and steel and iron necessary for the production of agricultural machinery by the Wexford foundries. The Minister will appreciate that, if these industries are not kept going, and if this emergency lasts very long, as is likely, we may be faced with a very serious problem owing to lack of equipment for the production of food.
I listened with interest to what Deputy Davin had to say with regard to the nationalisation of public transport. While he appeared to make a very good case for nationalisation, from my experience I have no hesitation in saying that for services in rural Ireland you cannot beat private transport. The man who has a lorry of his own is anxious to please those who engage him, and is anxions to operate his lorry to the best advantage. He is prepared to go up difficult lanes, to operate in most difficult country, and the result of that has been that the agricultural community has got an excellent transport service at a reasonable price from such lorry owners. I think that we should be very slow to cut out that very excellent service which our major industry has got in recent years. I am afraid that if we attempted to nationalise transport we would lose that efficiency. When you compare the service given by private lorry owners with that given by the railway companies, you find that unfortunately the railway employee operating a lorry was not prepared to go to the same extent to accommodate farmers or to give the same service as the private lorry owner gave. He was not prepared to take his vehicle down a difficult lane. He was not prepared to give service at certain times. Taking it altogether, he never gave the same facilities to the agricultural community in remote rural districts that they got from the privately-operated lorry.
The Minister, in his reference to our unemployed and the difficulties that industry is experiencing at the present time, said that retrogression is proceeding because of the difficulty in securing raw material. He told us that 188 firms are on short time, involving 9,780 workers, and that 121 firms suspended work, affecting 4,200 operatives. When one considers the enormous numbers that have gone to England, and the substantial number of young men who have gone into the Army, one is appalled at the magnitude of the problem that will have to be faced in this country when those people are demobilised from the Army and large numbers of others are thrown back on us in the post-war period.
The Minister stated that a public works programme would be proceeded with if it were possible to proceed with it. Obviously, the Government have difficulty in finding a public works programme. I should like to draw the Minister's attention to the fact that the Drainage Commission Report has been in the hands of the Government for a couple of years now, and nothing has been done about it. In that report would be found the basis of a large-scale public works scheme. One reads about the enormous amount of reclamation work that is being done in England at the present time. Notwithstanding the fact that they have to provide a huge number of men for war production and for the Army, in order to secure increased food production vast tracts of land have been reclaimed. Scrub, bracken, furze, and all that sort of wild growth has been cleared off land that was worthless a few years ago. That land has now been brought into cultivation and is producing essential food for the country. One cannot understand the reason why some effort at reclamation has not been made here. A large scale plan of reclamation of such land, coupled with a proper drainage scheme, would give scope for the employment of thousands of our workers, instead of exporting them to England.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance commented on the fact that, although those people were earning substantial wages, a higher rate of wages than was offered here, the fact was that that country was unable to honour that wage in food, and that something like £75,000 a week was coming in here and had to be honoured in food from our resources. That means, of course, that we are simply taking a credit for those substantial sums of money, which may or may not be honoured in the future. It appears to me that it would be in the national interest if the Government would make every possible effort to provide large scale schemes of public works, so that those young men could be employed here on work of a reproductive character instead of leaving the country.
I think no one can question the fact that work is to be found on the land. Anyone who knows rural Ireland well is aware of the fact that it would he possible to bring thousands of acres of land into useful production if the necessary programme of reclamation were undertaken. As I said, that is covered to some extent in the report of the Drainage Commission. We have 150,000 farmers in this country with 30 acres of land and over it, and you would find that, for work of an improvement character alone, there is work for one man on every one of those 150,000 farms. If sufficient thought were given to this problem, it would be quite easy to plan a large scale programme of public works which would be most useful in effecting further production in this country. I do not think the Minister is offering any excuse for the Government when he says that a public works programme would be proceeded with if it could be proceeded with. The work is there, any amount of it, if a programme to deal with it were only planned. The Fianna Fáil Party was very fond of talking about a plan ten years ago. It appears to me that they never had a plan. They have not a plan now in this emergency, and they have not even thought about a plan for the difficult times that lie ahead of us. The Minister told us that there were 20,000 people registered as agricultural workers. It is well to be prepared for any eventuality that may occur in this coming harvest. In recent years we have been lucky in the weather that we experienced for harvesting operations, but we know very well that in any year, it is possible to get particularly bad conditions during that period. In view of the very big harvest in the country this year, it is well to make provision for an eventuality of that sort. If we have 20,000 agricultural workers, it is good policy to see that they are not exported, but will be available for harvesting operations if we experience a difficult period.
The Minister referred to the flour milling industry and to the control of small mills. I appreciate the Minister's anxiety to ensure that the Order concerning the 100 per cent. extraction is observed by every mill in the country, but I think it would be unfortunate if some of those very old country mills, which have been of great advantage to agriculturists in rural Ireland in milling not only human food but food for animals, were closed down through any short-sighted policy of the Minister. As I said, I appreciate the Minister's difficulty, but I should like to warn him that he is dealing with a very dangerous matter. If we deny the right of the man who is producing grain in this country to get portion of that milled for his own use and the use of his family, and, to develop that point, possibly create a national pool of wheat for the country, then we would be travelling the same road as the Bolsheviks travelled when they took up all the wheat that was produced in Russia after the last war and redistributed it amongst the people. As we all know, the result was that those who always produced wheat in that country decided that no useful purpose was served by producing wheat—that whether they produced it or not they would get their quota.
The result of that was hunger, starvation and death for vast numbers. I merely referred to that for the purpose of warning the Minister of the danger of interfering with any facilities to which the food producer of this country is entitled, at least in respect of that portion of his production milled for his own use and the use of his family. On the question of the Prices Commission, I should like to draw the Minister's attention to the price of second-hand commodities and, particularly, second-hand agricultural machinery. These prices have skyrocketed.
