asked the Minister for Agriculture what he intends to do to procure a market for the surplus ware potatoes on the farmers' hands throughout the country.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Surplus Ware Potatoes.
The good yield of potatoes in 1948 has been an embarrassment only to those farmers who have been unable to make use of their surplus for stock feeding or those who habitually grow for sale, and have not yet been able to find a buyer. I have steadily advised farmers to feed potatoes to stock as the most satisfactory means of disposing of them, especially by making potato ensilage for pig feeding, as has been done in South Wexford and elsewhere. I have already procured a market for 50,000 tons of ware potatoes of the 1948 crop. These have been bought and are being paid for as rapidly as they can be taken up. They are being moved at a rate of about 2,500 tons per week, but when shipments are expedited in March and April this rate of disposal will be increased, and I expect that most of the surplus will be eventually cleared satisfactorily.
I have advised farmers to store their potatoes carefully until they can dispose of them, and I regret to observe that a colleague of the Deputy has seen fit to make a speech urging farmers to sell their potatoes immediately. This advice if acted upon can have no other effect than to depress prices.
Is it the Minister's contention that if they hold on to the potatoes they will get a better price and that there will be a market for them? They are getting practically no price at the moment.
I can only assure the Deputy that Deputy Davern's contribution when he exhorted everybody in December to "sell their oats and potatoes now," has done nothing to simplify my problem of securing the orderly marketing of these commodities. If every Fianna Fáil Deputy was doing under the rose what Deputy Davern did on a public platform, small wonder there has been considerable embarrassment for people who had potatoes and oats for sale.
Will the Minister answer the question now?
Has the Deputy a supplementary question?
It has been put and it has been evaded.
What is the question?
May I ask the Minister whether he will translate into pounds, shillings and pence the satisfactory price which he has now promised to the farmers if they hold on to their potatoes?
Farmers have been getting between 6/- and 8/- per cwt. for potatoes, a very substantially higher price than the 3/- to 4/- per cwt. that they were getting when the previous Government was in office.
Is the Minister aware that in my constituency and, I may say, in County Galway in general, a lot of farmers produce certified seed potatoes? They get conacre to the extent of about ten acres. They have a surplus of ware potatoes lying in their yards. These farmers are not able to keep sufficient stock to feed with ware potatoes. What are they to do now while the Minister is making up his mind?
Does the Deputy suggest that there is a guaranteed market for all the potatoes that are produced, in every circumstance——
You said so.
Just a moment, please.
Order!
——and that there should be a cash market for all the potatoes that are produced in every circumstance? At the present time in Great Britain, potatoes are being used for alcohol, for cattle feed. They are being reduced to powder, and all the devices appropriate to an unmanageable surplus are being arranged. Nevertheless, they are taking delivery of 50,000 tons from us and, at the same time, every farmer in this country can dispose of every stone of potatoes he has at a handsome profit if he will put in one sow or two sows or store pigs and boil the potatoes and feed them to the pigs—as I am doing, and most of my neighbours.
I did not ask the Minister for any suggestions. I pointed out that there are farmers who have taken a lot of conacre. They cannot put in five or six sows or nine or ten cows— and anything less would not compensate them. They do not want longwinded statements. They want to know what the prospects of a market are if they hold their potatoes for several months more. Is there any hope for them?
I want the Deputy to be as clear as crystal about it, but let him not follow Deputy Davern's disgusting practice. Let him tell his constituents that there is only one guaranteed market——
Answer the question, please.
——for the commodity to which he refers—one guaranteed market—that is, to walk it off the land by feeding it to live stock, preferably pigs, which will yield them a handsome profit. With a material surplus that is the best market farmers could have.
That is not what you promised.
I did not ask the Minister to give me a lecture on the subject. I want an answer to my question.