asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state the cow population of the country on 31st December, 1938, and 31st December, 1946; the cause of the reduction, if any; and what action he proposes to take to guarantee the future supplies of milk and butter for the citizens.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Supplies of Milk, Butter and Potatoes.
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state what steps he is taking to ensure especially an adequate supply of potatoes and milk for our people.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 20 together. The number of milch cows and heifers in calf in the country on the 1st January, 1939, was 1,364,306. The number on the corresponding date this year was 1,309,300. There has, therefore, been no significant change in the number of these animals between the dates mentioned.
I am satisfied that the quantity of potatoes available in the country is adequate to meet normal demand, but the inclement weather for some time past has interfered with the removal of potatoes from pits for marketing. I am taking steps, however, to accumulate a reserve in case any scarcity should arise before the end of the present season.
Is the Minister aware that, in The Kerryman, there appeared quite recently a statement to the effect that the cow population had been reduced by 110,000 in nine years and that that reduction had had a serious effect on the production of milk and butter?
I have no doubt that The Kerryman is quite a reputable local journal, but I cannot be made responsible for what appears in that or any other provincial journal regarding this important matter.
The Minister must be aware that that paper made an announcement about the number of gallons of milk and the number of cwts. of butter of which we were short per year as a result of that reduction in the cow population. What I am anxious to know is whether the Minister is safeguarding the supply of milk and butter for the future. Has he stopped the export of milch cows temporarily?
The Deputy has asked me for figures relating to the population of milch cows and in-calf heifers. He has asked no question regarding the performance of these animals in certain circumstances. I cannot be made responsible for that performance.
I am asking what steps the Minister is now taking to guarantee a supply of milk and butter for the citizens. I have already asked questions with regard to the serious scarcity of milk in the City of Dublin, and, in view of that scarcity, I am asking what he proposes to do about it.
The Deputy has mentioned, as a contribution to the problem which undoubtedly exists, the stoppage of the exportation of milch cows. I dealt with that suggestion in another place and I have no reason to change my attitude towards it. I have given the Deputy the figures for which he asked. There has been no serious change in the cow population, but I cannot, of course, give to the Deputy or to the House any guarantee as to whether or not 2,000,000 such cattle will behave in exactly the same fashion in the matter of production as 2,000,000 cattle behaved ten years ago.
Surely that depends very largely on the policy operated by the Department of Agriculture?
In what way?
If the results given by our cow population are not to a large extent dependent on the policy of the Department, I do not know on what they are dependent.
They depend on a number of factors of which the Deputy is quite well aware and to which I need not refer.
The Minister has not answered my question as to whether he intends to stop temporarily the export of milch cows. Am I to understand that——
The Deputy did not ask that question.
——the international buyer with the biggest cheque book can come over here and take our milch cows out of the country, leaving our own people short?
The number of cows exported, as I told the Deputy in reply to a previous question, has no bearing whatever on this problem. Those who are in the trade and who know the business know as well as I know, and better than the Deputy, that it has, in fact, no bearing. If we were to interfere with the export of cows in the manner suggested by the Deputy, we would bring about disastrous results rather than help to mend matters. I suggest that, while Deputy Byrne may be quite competent to deal with a whole lot of matters, this is a subject in which he is not very well versed.
I am not, but I have seen the people in West Cabra coming to the city with jam-jars looking for pennyworths of milk and failing to get it. That is the only knowledge I have of the position.