The purpose of the Bill is to continue in operation the Seeds and Fertilisers Supply Act, 1942, for the period 1st August, 1944, to 31st July, 1947. There has been a Seeds and Fertilisers Supply Act every year since 1940 and in view of the necessity for maintaining food production, it is proposed that this Bill will extend the facilities for a period of three years. As most Deputies know, the Bill is an enabling Bill. It enables county councils to provide seeds and fertilisers on credit terms to cultivators of land. It also validates schemes which have been in operation since July last when last year's Act expired. The Bill is a permissive . It gives county councils the power to adopt schemes if they wish to do so. It is in no sense an agricultural credit Bill. It is more in the nature of a minor social service whose purpose is to help necessitous cultivators to obtain the necessary credit so that they can purchase seeds and fertilisers and thus produce food for themselves and their families.
All the county councils, with one exception, have adopted this scheme this year. The total number of loans last year was 5,453 and the total expenditure or money advanced was £55,169. The average loan has been in the nature of £10 per borrower. In case Deputies would like the figures for the various years, I will mention them briefly. The figure for 1939-40 was 3,157; for 1940-41, 9,269; for 1941-42, 5,509; for 1942-43, 5,465; and, as I already stated, for 1943-44, 5,453.
As Deputies know, under the 1942 Act the State guarantees half the loss that might be experienced by a county council provided the Minister for Local Government is satisfied that due care was exercised in selecting the persons who have not repaid the money they owe and provided that he is able to certify that the loss is regarded as irrecoverable. No applications, in fact, have been made to the Minister for Local Government in respect of any county, so that any losses on advances not repaid must have been too small to warrant the county councils taking any action. Equally, the amounts owing arising from the operation of this scheme in the various years are very small. For example, in respect of the scheme operated for the year 1941-42 the total amount owing in July, 1943, the succeeding year, was £3,449. In the next succeeding year the amount still owing from the scheme which operated from 1941-42 was only £1,269.
