In connection with that matter, I want to raise a certain sitution that has arisen in County Monaghan. I am not here concerned to apportion blame because, to tell the truth, I think the difficulty that has arisen in County Monaghan is largely due to a misunderstanding which has arisen mainly from the speed with which it was sought to solve the problem that there presented itself. There were two bases on which persons with surplus potatoes might dispose of them to the alcohol factories: one was that, in the ordinary course of business, a man could sell potatoes to the alcohol factories at the price the alcohol factories were offering; then there was some scheme, of which this Supplementary Estimate, I think, is a development, whereunder the Minister provided some bounty or something for certain classes of potatoes sent to the alcohol factory. I think the alcohol factory, under the Minister's scheme, desired to deal directly with the producer of potatoes, not through a middle man.
In a certain number of cases—a very small number of cases—in County Monaghan, where we have a great many small farmers, there were men with a pit or two of potatoes who themselves could not undertake to fill a wagon to dispatch to the alcohol factory and who yet had, in their own small way, an appreciable surplus which was for them a considerable liability. One or two enterprising persons thereupon set out, doubtless, partly for the object of legitimate profit and partly for the object of accommodating their neighbours, and acted as a collecting centre for these potatoes, which were delivered to them at the local railway station. They filled one or more wagons with them and notified the alcohol factory that they were going to dispatch them. That, however, transgressed the conditions of the special scheme because the alcohol factory was prepared only to deal with the producer. In one case at least a man, whose authority I have to mention his name—McFarlane—had a quantity of potatoes gathered in this way—two or three wagons—and he was informed that the alcohol factory would not take them. The alcohol factory, however, desiring subsequently to come as far as they could to meet the unexpected situation, took one waggon from him and said: "You will have simply to wait your turn in respect of the remainder." These potatoes were left in open waggons at the station and, as might well be expected, deteriorated. The man entered into correspondence with the alcohol factory and they never seemed to get to to an understanding of what each other's difficulty was.
The point I wish to put to the Minister is this: I recognise that when you are drafting schemes provisos are put into them which, when they are being put in, appear perfectly easy of fulfilment, but those of us who live down the country know how desperately difficult it is for small farmers or people living in rural areas to get the wheel of their intelligence around the axle of bureaucratic requirements. They simply get confused and then both parties get at loggerheads and a holdup takes place which becomes virtually impossible to resolve.
I, therefore, ask the Minister would he get in touch with the alcohol factories and say to them: "The existing surplus of old potatoes is very small. Cut the red tape. If anyone offers you potatoes that you believe were honestly grown in Eire, do not inquire whether they are producers or what they are; take the potatoes and dispose of them; do not let them rot in railway waggons and, if you are guilty as a result of that, of some minor breach of the letter of the regulations that we have laid down, we will overlook it this time and between now and next autumn I will take all necessary precautions to make my scheme as simple as it can be made, if a scheme should prove to be necessary next autumn. Furthermore, I will undertake through the agricultural overseers and instructors to ensure that every farmer in the country fully understands the conditions that must be complied with if he is to benefit under the scheme." I believe, if that were done, a lot of unnecessary misunderstanding and difficulty could be removed.
I speak with special feeling for the people of County Monaghan who normally have used their surplus potatoes for the feeding of pigs. At a later stage to-day the general question of the pig problem will arise but the Minister knows as well as I do how severely the County Monaghan pig feeders have suffered as a result of the dislocation that has taken place in that trade. In these circumstances, I make a special appeal to him to tell the alcohol factories in Carrickmacross and Cooley to take all the potatoes offered to be qualified on the ordinary basis of the scheme and to rest assured that, next year, no room will be left for misunderstanding and that they will be free to carry out the scheme in accordance with the letter as well as the spirit of the law.
