Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 9 Jun 1948

Vol. 111 No. 5

Committee on Finance. - Adjournment Debate—Bacon Quota.

Mr. MacEntee

I asked the Minister for Agriculture to-day to state:—

"(i) The quota of bacon authorised by the Pigs and Bacon Commission to be supplied by curers to their customers during the current month, and,

(ii) the quotas similarly authorised for each of the preceding months since 30th November, 1947."

The reply was in the following terms:—

"The authorised quota for the current month is 30 per cent. of the monthly average supplies in the year ended 31st March, 1941."

The quota for the current month is 30 per cent. and that is a figure which, I think, we must note.

"The monthly quotas authorised since 30th November, 1947, were: December, 1947, to February, 1948, 40 per cent.; March to May, 1948, 33? per cent...."

For the current month, let me remind the House again the quota is 30 per cent of the basic supply, a decline of 10 per cent. on the figure from March to May, 1948, and no less than 30 per cent. on the quota fixed for each of the months from December, 1947, to February, 1948. The Minister, who has launched a campaign to put more bacon on the breakfast table, certainly found something to explain, or to try to explain, away in these figures, and, of course, the Minister for Agriculture set himself the task. He proceeded to exculpate himself by adding an addendum to the information which was strictly relevant only by way of apology for his failure to improve the supply of bacon on our breakfast tables. He went on to say:—

The decision to fix the current quota was taken while the deplorable situation in the pork and bacon trade bequeathed to the Government by our predecessors was being tackled and it was then impossible to foresee the remarkable degree of success which was to attend the efforts of the officers of my Department, the Pigs and Bacon Commission and the Garda Síochána, but if this should be maintained it is intended substantially to increase the quota next month.

The first issue which that statement raises is as to when the quota for the current month was fixed and by whom it is fixed. The plain implication here, of course, is that it is fixed by the Government, and it was perhaps borne out in the evasive reply which the Minister gave to the supplementary question I addressed to him, in which he said that the quotas given by the previous Government were not filled and the current quota of 30 per cent. was substantially greater than the alleged 33? to 40 per cent. stipulated in the years gone by. I say that, on that reply to my supplementary question, the issue is raised at once as to by whom the bacon quotas are fixed. The Minister in his supplementary reply wishes the public to infer that the quotas are fixed by the Government as a whole, or, if not by the Government as a whole, by the Minister for Agriculture, who is a member of that Government. Unless things have changed and he has overriden the statute, the Minister knows as well as I that the quotas are fixed by the Pigs and Bacon Commission and that they are determined by the commission upon information furnished to them from various sources, which they have at their disposal. It was not the Government, therefore, which fixed this quota in the years gone by. It was the Pigs and Bacon Commission, unless, as I have said, the Minister has overridden the statute and interfered with the exercise of their statutory functions.

The next question that arises is as to when the quotas are fixed. We are now in the second week of June and I understand the quota for July has not yet been fixed. I must assume, therefore, and I am justified in firmly believing, that the quota for June was not fixed until the latter half of May, just as the quota for May was not fixed until the latter half of April, and the quota for April was not fixed until the latter half of March. The principal quotas for which the present Minister must accept the degree of responsibility which the statute imposes upon him, to the extent to which he may be said to be responsible for the operations of the Pigs and Bacon Commission, are those for the period from March to May of 1948 when they were fixed at 33? per cent. For the current month, let me repeat, the quota is 30 per cent., representing a reduction upon the monthly quotas fixed for the period March to May, 1948.

Let me turn now to the reply the Minister gave to my supplementary question and recall its terms to the House again:—

"The quotas given by the previous Government were not filled and the current quota of 30 per cent. was substantially greater than the alleged 33? to 40 per cent. stipulated in the years gone by."

I assume that the Minister's statement refers equally to the monthly quotas fixed for the period March to May, 1948, and those fixed for the period December, 1947, to February, 1948, so that if the Minister intends to stand on the terms of that supplementary reply, what he is telling the House is that he fixed these quotas for some reason or other at a higher figure than in fact he was justified in doing. Let me repeat—if the Minister intends to stand on the terms of his reply—I know, and he knows, that the Pigs and Bacon Commission are supposed to fix these quotas and to fix them on the basis of information which is furnished to them from, no doubt, reliable sources. Therefore, we see this: That the campaign which was ushered in with the banging of the big drum in those organs of the Press which support the present Government—the Hibernians beat the big drums as well as the Orangemen, make no mistake about that—this campaign which was ushered in with such a réclame on 15th April, has proven, so far as the consumers of bacon are concerned and so far as the condition of our breakfast tables is concerned, to be a dismal failure. In fact, the supply of bacon to the general public has touched a lower level than ever recorded in history.

Let me say something about this campaign and some of the after effects of it. The campaign opened on the 15th April with a statement in the newspapers, but particularly in the Irish Independent under the caption “The Minister for Agriculture announces a drive against black market bacon.” Then there followed a very graphic description of the steps which the Minister proposed to take in order to ensure that the black market in bacon would be ended and that there would be a more plentiful supply of that commodity for the general public. Reading the Minister's own statement of the details of the campaign which he proposed to wage against the black marketeers recalls to my mind a famous episode in the history of our neighbours when a certain Cabinet Minister marshalled all the forces of the Crown in order to apprehend two wrong-doers. I know of nothing more apt to apply to the measures which the Minister for Agriculture visualised than a quatrain from the well-known “Ballad of Sydney Street”:—

"The gallant chief sent this dispatch out:

I find pork butchers in arms arrayed,

So send us on all the other polis

Likewise, the army and the fire brigade."

With all the panoply of war, therefore, the Minister sailed into action against the alleged black marketeers.

Mr. O'Leary

It is a pity Fianna Fáil did not do it.

Mr. MacEntee

In April, as is customary at the outbreak of a campaign which has not fully developed, the newspapers—and particularly those newspapers which support the Minister —were filled with highly optimistic bulletins as to the progress of the conflict. On April 19th the Irish Independent announced: “The Government drive may mean more rashers”. On April 22nd, however, it recorded a slight reverse for the Minister. The Minister had previously disclosed to some people that he was in favour of a free market in bacon and the removal of all control. But on April 22nd, no doubt inspired by an observer or by a correspondent at headquarters, the Irish Independent announced that bacon control was to stay—the Minister meets the curers. And then a very extraordinary position develops, which has not been without its influence upon the present situation because, according to this dispatch, the curers were requested—requested was the word used by the Irish Independent though I understand that, in effect, what was addressed to the curers was not a request but an order—not to supply pork to certain elements in the trade because it might find its way to the black market.

I only want to refer in passing to this newspaper announcement. Here we have in Dublin a perfectly respectable trade in which there are hundreds of law-abiding citizens engaged, people who observe the laws as strictly as any Minister of Dáil Éireann. The bacon curers, over whom the Minister for Agriculture has a certain element of control and against whom he can enforce certain coercive measures, are ordered not to supply the members of this trade with the requirements they were customarily used to obtain from the bacon curers of the city and elsewhere; while the trade, as a whole, is branded as a collection of black marketeers. This was done in order that the Minister might carry out one of the most childish and unsuccessful publicity stunts on which any politician has ever embarked.

What happened? Deprived of their normal source of supply, the pork butchers of Dublin went into the Dublin market and bought their porkers there and sold them to the public in the ordinary legitimate way of trade. But, in any event, the Minister's interference did not make any difference to them in that regard. The Minister's Order did not make any difference to the supply of porkers to the pork trade. All it did was to put in jeopardy the jobs of employees in certain curing factories where porkers are killed as an ordinary branch of their business.

What happened then? We have been told that this Government was out to remove control and to restore liberty of trade. The pork butchers, having to go into the market and having to pay whatever prices were necessary there in order to secure their supplies were, I understand, paying higher prices than the officers of the Minister thought justified. I am told that some time in the early hours of this morning a squad of Gardaí accompanied by those officials, whom the Minister for Industry and Commerce has inelegantly and incorrectly described as "pip squeaks", and others raided the Dublin market and seized the books of every buyer whom they regarded as paying too high a price for pigs. The only comment I would make on that, if I had it available, is a quotation from an appeal for funds which was issued by the present Minister for Education, then Chairman of the Fine Gael Party, in which he pledged himself that, if he were returned to power, there would be less interference with private enterprise.

Then, what happened? On April 22nd, a statement appeared in the Irish Independent as follows:—

"Yesterday bacon began to flow into the shops of Dublin traders for the first time for several months."

This was followed by a graphic and tantalising description of the suddenly released bacon that must have made many a mouth water. It was in these terms:—

"Most of it was quite excellent, smoked, dried and hard, indicating that it had been seasoning for a considerable period."

All of it was non-existent bacon, however, because when the Irish Independent and the Evening Herald were written to and requested by a certain number of people to furnish them with information as to where this hard, smoked, dried bacon of excellent quality could be secured these papers could not tell them.

Captain Cowan

It came from Monaghan.

Mr. MacEntee

A number of people addressed letters to the Evening Herald, one of which I propose to quote as a sample:—

"Some weeks ago your paper gave a considerable amount of prominence to Mr. James Dillon's efforts to wipe out the black market in bacon and you went so far as to say that his efforts had succeeded to such an extent that the shops in Dublin City had now stocks of bacon which they had not got previous to the Minister's activities. This statement was, however, contrary to the facts and the mystery of the bacon scarcity gets deeper and deeper. For several days your paper gave glowing accounts of the stern action being taken by Mr. Dillon spreading terror amongst the black marketeers and, as a result bacon suddenly appearing on the shop counters. The Minister for Agriculture may have been extraordinarily active and some shops may have been closed down, but the cold fact remains that in so far as the public are concerned the position has become infinitely worse."

Captain Cowan

Who wrote that letter? Who signed it?

Mr. MacEntee

This campaign has been carried on in order to persuade the general public that there has been an improvement in the bacon supply position in this country. On the contrary, there has not been, and I make bold to make this prophesy that, if the activities of the Minister continue—his misdirected and ill-judged activities— there will be less bacon next month and less bacon in the succeeding months, because the one thing the Minister is doing is to drive the farmers out of pigs and to deprive the Irish consumer of any prospect of getting Irish bacon in the future.

Minister for Agriculture (Mr. Dillon)

Let the rights and wrongs of this matter be determined by whether Deputy MacEntee's prophesy in regard to supplies of bacon next month as compared with this month are proved to be right or proved to be wrong. If Deputy MacEntee be right, then I am not fit for my position here. But, if Deputy MacEntee is proved wrong, will he apologise here for the attitude he has seen fit to adopt? Let me assure the Deputy that his protestations on behalf of the poor individual who can no longer bring pork carcases from rural Ireland into this city will not protect the individual who briefed him for to-night's proceedings. If I can get the man who brought pork carcases into this city and sold them to black marketeers who cut them up and put them into pickle in the pork butchers' shops, I will do all that a prosecution will permit me to do to clap him in Mountjoy Jail and keep him there.

The facts are that when I became responsible for the Department of Agriculture I found in progress in this city an open, defiant and rampant black market in pork. I found that the illegal curing of pork was being carried on openly and in circumstances into which I may not go in detail now, because the facts connected with this matter are sub judice, but every detail will be described in the criminal court in the course of the next eight days, because during the next eight days every one of these gentlemen will be prosecuted in the criminal court— every one of them—and I venture to prophesy that the members of this House will be astonished when they discover the condition of affairs which I was called upon to deal with when I came into office.

They will be more astonished if they reflect on this for a moment. How is it that, within 48 hours of going into office, I discovered these facts, while my predecessor in office, who had been 12 months there, if he knew about them did not appear to be doing anything about them? I have made it a rule since I sat in these benches not to carp at or criticise what my predecessor in office has done. When challenged about the specific actions of my predecessor I have on more than one occasion here said that, doubtless, he did what in the circumstances he thought was best, but that when I came into office I would take another course.

Now I am going to draw the attention of the House to this. Where is Deputy Smith and where is Deputy Lemass? Did either of them raise this matter in the House to-night?

Mr. Davin

They have gone.

Mr. Dillon

You can bet they did not raise it, and I am going to tell the House why. What led up to the situation I have had to grapple with was that the bacon curers were summoned by the Department of Industry and Commerce and there told by the Minister responsible at the time— Deputy Lemass—that they must adhere to the maximum price fixed by him for bacon. Within the same week they were summoned by the Minister for Agriculture—Deputy Smith—and they were told that they must continue to cure pigs or lose their licences. When the attention of Deputy Smith was directed to the fact that the Minister for Industry and Commerce had fixed 200/- as the price for bacon and that pigs were costing 210/- on the public market, Deputy Smith's reply was that that was none of his business and that if they did not go on curing pigs he would not renew their licences. The curers got caught between the upper and nether millstones of two Ministers of the same administration and in that situation Deputies saw the price of pigs going up to 230/- per cwt.

Who was buying them and who was selling them? Did the responsible Ministers ever inquire how you could buy pork in the Dublin market at a price substantially higher than the fixed price for pork and the fixed price for bacon and still sell the pork and the bacon at the fixed price? They knew it could not be done, but what was worse is that they knew it was not being done and, knowing that they deliberately refrained from taking the steps that they were bound to take by their undertakings when they took office in an Irish Government, to see that the law of this House was enforced. The difference between them and me, and the measure of my offending in Deputy MacEntee's eyes, is that I took the undertaking I gave, when I took my seals of office, seriously and, regarding myself not as the master of our people but as their servant, I carried out the instructions our people gave through Oireachtas Éireann. I carried out the law and I told those who proposed to offend against it that whoever they were, big or little, if they fell foul of the law they would be made answerable to that law, and even the individual amongst them who briefed the Deputy to-night will be made answerable to the full letter of the law if I can catch him.

Mr. MacEntee

The Minister has his own private spleen to work on.

Mr. Dillon

No spleen whatever. I do not care who breaks the law, whether he be my brother or Deputy de Valera's cousin, he will be treated precisely the same before the law.

Mr. McAuliffe

What about Dr. Ward and the Monaghan Factory?

Mr. Dillon

I would like to describe to the House the circumstances in which the illegal curing was carried on, but that I cannot do because these matters are sub judice. But the House will read of them and I will return to them when the courts have had their say. It is true, I am happy to think, that the disgusting operations that were proceeding in this city a month ago are now pretty satisfactorily brought under control. It is true that those who thought they could set the law of this State in defiance have now discovered that for such people there is no protection while this Government is in office. It is true that there will be more bacon available next month than there is this month. It is true that the number of pigs going into the factories is rising—a thing it had not done for 18 months before. It is true that there is no one illegally curing bacon in Dublin now. It is true that during the last three months more bacon was being delivered to those who were entitled to get it than was being delivered to them six months ago. It is true that in the months of January and February bacon wholesalers in this city, whose people have been in the trade for over 100 years, got no bacon at all. There is not a wholesaler in Dublin of whom that can be said now. They get their quota the same as the rest.

Donnchadh O Briain

Not in the country.

Mr. Dillon

In regard to the retail shops, if there is any shopkeeper in Ireland who does not receive the last ounce of bacon to which he is entitled under the datum quota, if the Deputy representing him or he himself will address a complaint to me he will get his bacon or I will know the reason why. It is true that for the two or three months before we came into office a great many small retailers in this country were ruthlessly brushed aside and given nothing at all, that others got a part of the quota apportioned to them and that, in fact, general chaos obtained in the trade. It is true that that will happen no longer.

Lastly, I want to say this. It has been suggested that some body of citizens were called to my Department and there given orders. No member of this Government has ever laboured under the illusion that we are the masters of the people. We belong to that old-fashioned class that take pride in the title of being the servants of the people. It is true that the bacon curers waited on my Department, and the vast majority of them, being honest and honourable men, once they were reassured it was the Government's intention to enforce the law and see justice done between them, decided to from themselves into a voluntary vigilance body, and I am glad to say that since that was done they voluntarily, amongst themselves, have ensured that the regulations are being enforced, and any attempt to depart from that has been reported to me for appropriate correction. Those are the facts as they are. Later, when the courts have dealt with these matters, I will give fuller and more dramatic details, but I reserve that for another occasion.

Mr. MacEntee

But the public will get no bacon.

The Dáil adjourned at 10.30 p.m. until 3 p.m. on Thursday, 10th June.