The only information that my county got of the price-fixing idea in connection with wool was a broad hint some months before it took place and a message on the radio on a Friday night to see the daily papers on Saturday morning to find out what the price of wool would be. Did the Minister ever before deal in that way with producers in deciding the price of a commodity? If he did, I have not heard of it and it is a most extraordinary method. I believe that the Departments sent me from post to pillar because they did not want to let us know about the matter. My opinion is that they were afraid to say what the price was. We, wool producers, have been treated in a most cold-blooded way. We are highly efficient producers and, were it not for a certain patriotic sense of responsibility, we would not submit to some of these things. The Emergency Powers Act is being used to swoop down on us and take away one-third of the most important part of the income of the people of rural Ireland. The important thing to the small tenant farmer is the price he gets for his wool, as it is the only portion of his income for which he has not to slave hard. It is a terrible state of affairs when an Emergency Powers Order for this purpose can be made overnight, without consulting us or giving us the least consideration.
Let no one attempt to say that one-third of our income is not taken away by this Order. I will prove that it is. To a question I asked the Minister on the 22nd February, 1944, the reply was that the price of our wool in the year 1943 was 36d. I wish to tell the Minister that was not the case: the price of our wool in 1943 was 3/6, 3/8 and up to 3/9 per lb. The average price in County Galway and parts of Roscommon for the year 1943 was 3/6½, so I take it that one-third of our income was taken away.
I regret to have to say that, when a little prosperity comes the way of the tenant farmer—which happens only during a terrible war—it is swooped down on and taken away. The idea, apparently, is to keep us always in a backwater and there is the policy of the emigrant ship behind it. Not very long ago, when the price of wool was ridiculously low, what help did we get? As a matter of fact, a ban was imposed then on the export of wool, when wool could be exported and the producers could have at least a little income. We did not object to the ban, but when a little comes our way now, we see what happens.
Even comparing the Minister's own prices, it will be seen that he puts down 36d. for washed fine bred wool. In his own figures, in some cases there is a reduction of 10d., in other cases a reduction of 6d. and 5d. He has washed Downs at 36d. I wonder would he compare that with the 30d. that he has decided on, in his Order, for fine bred wool? Would he tell us what is the great difference between those two classes? In Galway and parts of Roscommon, the finest bred wool in Europe is produced. It costs a lot to do it and it has taken a great Sheep Breeders' Society to build up the production of that class of wool. I would ask the Minister to explain why there is such a vast difference in his fixed prices, from 36d. down to 30d., between the two classes of wool.
Of course, you generally hear the cry about the poor and the price of the manufactured article. If the price of our wool in Galway last year went to 3/9 per lb., it was not the farmer or the wool producer who was responsible, but the manufacturer and the combine which put the price up, and the competition which made them pay the price. It has paid the manufacturer and the combine to purchase wool at that price. Now, that is clipped by one-third and our raw material is to go to the combine at one-third less than last year.
We are told that very little wool goes into most articles, but I say that there are certain articles which are 80 per cent. and upwards wool. I would like to know whether the price of those articles will be reduced accordingly. The reports of the combines last year show that they were able to pay big dividends, after paying up to 3/9 for wool. What dividends will they be able to pay this year, when the price of the raw material is reduced by one- third? I suppose they will be much higher.
There is no use in saying that it is better to give people 2/6 a lb. "as a fixed price" than to let them get 3/9. It is a good thing to give them a standard price, but I wonder on what year the Minister based his figure of 30d. Did he go back to the years when wool had to be sold at a sacrifice? Unless the Minister annuls this Order completely, it means that the Government is proving to the wool producers in rural Ireland that they are thinking of the buyers. The buyers do not count much in this. People will say that the producers can hold over the wool and make money, but that is not the case. In my county the people who sell their wool at an average in August do just as well as if they held it until Christmas.
I expect that I will get 15 or 20 minutes to reply to the debate on this motion. I have made these points and, in conclusion, appeal to the Minister and the Government to annual the Order and give these producers their little opportunity, instead of swooping down on them now, when they have a chance to earn a little money other than in the real sweat of their brows.