asked the Minister for Agriculture whether the acreage under potatoes this year is 46,000 acres less than last year, and whether, if there is a reduced acreage and a consequent probability of a shortage in supplies of potatoes to the cities and towns, he contemplates again setting up the Potatoes Supply Committee to ensure sufficient supplies of potatoes to poor persons in cities and towns at reasonable prices; and whether he will also consider taking steps to prevent hoarding of potatoes at present by well-to-do persons to the detriment of future supplies for poor persons.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Potato Supplies.
The reduction in the area under potatoes in 1943, compared with 1942, was much less than the figure the Deputy mentions. The acreage was 425,501 in 1942, and 407,576 in 1943, a reduction of 17,925 acres or 4.2 per cent. As I have already informed the Deputy, in reply to the questions asked by him on 11th November, and 21st October, measures are being adopted with a view to ensuring an adequate supply of potatoes at reasonable prices for urban consumers. I do not consider that excessive quantities of potatoes are being purchased by well-to-do persons, or that the purchases by such persons will detrimentally affect supplies for the poorer classes.
Will the Minister even now give the assurance that we have repeatedly asked for in this House, namely, that steps will be taken to provide adequate supplies of potatoes for poor people in the cities and towns at reasonable prices? On three occasions the Minister has evaded that question.
I have never evaded the question.
You have.
I have not.
Will you give the answer now?
I have stated more than once that steps are being taken to provide potatoes, as far as potatoes can be got, for the people in this country.
Last year, on a similar occasion, you said that you did not expect to have any shortage.
The Deputy should address the Chair.
I apologise. But within a few months we had queues for potatoes. Are we again going to be faced with the same position? I am asking for a definite statement. Can you, or can you not, give an assurance: do not mind the steps?
The Chair, please.
Mr. Larkin
Is the Minister not going to answer?
I made it very plain to the Deputy, and I do not know why the Deputy should be asking the question in the way he is, that nobody can give an assurance that there will be enough of any commodity in the next six months. All I can say is, that we will do everything possible to see that there is.
I am only asking for an assurance in relation to the poor people who are mainly dependent on potatoes and cannot get substitute food. It is true that potatoes are being hoarded, and on the advice of shopkeepers, too.
Is it not right to say that our production is roughly five times our consumption, and it is a matter of reserving potatoes, and not a question of production?
That is right.
We have ample potatoes for human consumption?
That is right, and steps are being taken as far as possible to get potatoes for human consumption.
Will the Minister indicate what is actually being done when he says "steps are being taken"?
The next question deals with that.
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state in detail the extent and character of the investigation carried out by his Department concerning the potato supply; whether county committees of agriculture have been instructed to survey and report on the yield and quality of the potato crop, and, if so, the nature of the reports thereon furnished by them; whether he is aware that in certain wide areas some varieties of potatoes are poor in quality and that in certain cases as much as 30 per cent. of the crop is unfit for use as human food; whether, in view of the growing danger of a shortage of potatoes, he will immediately set up a board representative of producers, consumers and factors to handle the distribution of the supply available in urban centres, and, at the same time, take the necessary measures to control the retail price of potatoes at not more than the present figure in each urban centre.
The potato inspectors attached to my Department have made a detailed survey of the position regarding supplies of potatoes for the current season. County agricultural instructors are at present engaged in ascertaining by actual weighings the yield of the potato crop in their respective areas, and they furnish monthly reports on the quality of the crop.
The information so far available concerning this year's potato crop indicates that the yield is rather better than last year in most of the areas where potatoes are customarily grown for sale as a cash crop, while in other areas, mainly in the southern part of the country, the yield is somewhat below that of last year.
As I have already indicated, in reply to previous questions, measures are being taken by my Department with a view to ensuring satisfactory supplies of potatoes for urban areas during the present season. I do not think a discussion of details at this stage would be conducive to the success of those measures.
I am in communication with the Minister for Supplies in regard to the fixing of maximum prices for potatoes.
Am I to take it, if there is a shortage in the coming spring, that the shortage will be due to the incompetency of the Minister's Department and not to any actual shortage of potatoes?
No. If there is a shortage, the shortage will probably be due to propagandists like Deputy Larkin creating this scare.