This debate has covered a very wide field but I do not propose to go into all the details of the different aspects of the administration of the different Departments during the past 12 months. I intend to confine myself to certain matters and particularly to matters pertaining to the people of my constituency. As the members of this House are aware, Donegal is primarily an agricultural county. Her farmers are, generally speaking, small farmers and, being small farmers, they have relied and still rely to a very great extent on tillage as the means by which to live. That being so, the production of those crops which are most suited to them and to their land, and the marketing of those crops are matters of paramount importance to those people. Briefly, the main cash crops in my constituency are oats, potatoes and flax.
If we consider the position in regard to the marketing of flax we shall find that a rather grave state of affairs exists for the growers. We are all aware—it has been discussed very widely of late—that negotiations were carried on on behalf of the Government with the Northern Ireland spinners to arrange a price for the coming year's flax crop. Last June the Northern spinners offered 31/3 per stone, grade 5, hand-scutched, dam-retted flax. That offer was turned down and, in the light of subsequent events, it was a grave mistake to have done so. Possibly those responsible may have seen some reason why it should have been turned down, but the results have shown that it was a grave error of judgment. A sum of 31/3 per stone for 4,000 tons of flax would realise to the farmers growing that crop £1,000,000. It is strange that that price was not accepted, but stranger still is the fact that no approach, so far as we know, was made to the Northern spinners until some time before Christmas and by that time the spinners had made alternative arrangements. Instead of offering to take 4,000 tons of flax, they were then in a position to accept only 2,000 tons and at a figure very slightly above the original offer. Their offer then was to take 2,000 tons at 32/- per stone. That would realise £544,000 odd to the farmers growing flax. Apparently the Government considered that that offer was not acceptable and, so far as we know, the spinners were told that we would have nothing to do with it. But had the growers been told then and there that there was no possibility of a satisfactory arrangement I would not criticise that action, because had these negotiations been completely broken off in December and the country informed of the position, the farmers who had intended to grow flax would have had an opportunity of changing around to some other crop.
My criticism is that the farmers were not given that opportunity and that those people who were in the habit of taking land in conacre were in the position that the land was going up for auction and it was a case of either taking it then or not getting it at all. Further, due to the collapse of the oats market—to which I shall refer shortly —the demand for land for flax round December and January was greater than ever before. Farmers contracted to take land in conacre this year for as high as £20 per acre on the assumption —an assumption for which one cannot blame them, since no statement was made to the effect that there would not be a satisfactory price—that there would be a satisfactory market price for their crop. We find that, having taken the land and having committed themselves very heavily, the Government Information Bureau announced as late as the 3rd March that negotiations were completely broken off. The urgency of this matter may not have been evident to the Government or to the Minister concerned, but it was evident to the flax growers and to the millers. Representatives of the flax growers and of the flax millers met the spinners and arranged to sell this year's crop of flax at a price which is 4/- lower than the second offer which was made to our Government. The price of 28/- per stone for 3,000 tons, which they are now offered, is not really a good price nor is it anything like a really good price, but the farmers who had committed themselves —who had taken the land and made arrangements, and who had been preparing the land up to the time of the break in the negotiations—were not then in a position to say one thing or another. They had to have a market for their crop and if they could get a market which would pay their costs then they had to accept it. That was not the position the farmers were in last December. That was not the position the farmers were in last June. I say that, when there was power of bargaining on our side and when a fair price was offered for 4,000 tons last June, the price offered should have been accepted, and it was a fairly good basis on which to begin negotiations. I would urge the Government and the Minister, therefore, not to leave the farmers to carry the burden which is placed on them by the failure of the Government and the Department concerned to negotiate a fair price, a fairly decent price, when they had the opportunity. I would urge on the Government and the Minister to consider subsidising to some extent the farmers who grow this crop in the present year.
Let us leave that and consider the question of oats. Oats is a crop which is of great importance to the people of Donegal, particularly the people in my constituency. Last spring very great encouragement was given by the Government to farmers to grow oats. On the 3rd March, 1948, the Minister for Agriculture was quoted in the Irish Independent as follows:—
"I ask you to do all you can to increase the area in barley, oats and potatoes. For each of these three commodities there will be a certain and profitable market all next year."
There has been neither a certain market nor a profitable market for oats or potatoes up to the present. The quotation continues:—
"The more oats a farmer grows the greater the service to the nation. If any farmer finds himself with a surplus and communicates with the Department of Agriculture, arrangements will be made to put him in contact at once with a purchaser who will take his surplus at a satisfactory price."
As to the statement that the more oats the farmers grow the greater the service to the nation, possibly there is something behind all this that I cannot see and that the farmers of County Donegal cannot see. I cannot see where the greater service is. The farmers cannot see it. There is one thing that we can see very definitely, and that is lots of oats—some of it in the fields, where they have no storage —lying there without a buyer at any price. If that is service to the nation then some of us had better be born again. As to the point about communicating with the Department if there is no market available and arranging a purchaser, that is a question that has been brought up in the House and has been spoken of outside. The Minister has been asked on a few occasions, both inside and outside the House, where the purchaser was for these oats, where the promised market was available. Although he said there that if he was made aware of a surplus of oats he would immediately put the farmers in contact with a buyer, he has not done so, and at this late stage in the season it is hardly likely that a buyer exists; otherwise, we would have heard from him.
There is another aspect of that encouragement to grow more oats that was given this time last year. There was an increase in the area under oats of 57,000 acres. That merely adds to the complications in the market at the moment. Another serious feature is that 63,000 acres less of wheat was grown and that consequently we have to import the wheat that might have been grown on those 63,000 acres.
In the Irish Times of the 20th March of last year an announcement appeared urging the farmers to grow from one to five acres extra of barley or oats. The announcement was concluded with the words “Let's show them”. It was signed by the Minister for Agriculture. I presume that “Let's show them” meant “Let's show Fianna Fáil and their followers what the farmers could do and what the Department of Agriculture, under the guidance of Mr. Dillon, could do.” I will grant that they have shown us all right but I am very much afraid that what they have shown us is not what one might have expected would be shown from reading that announcement this time last year.
In my constituency there are farmers to-day who last year paid up to £20 per acre for land on which to grow oats. In addition, they had to buy seed oats at from 4/- to 4/6 per stone. That was a large outlay before they had started even to put a plough in the ground. Consider then the ultimate cost, the cost of preparing the ground, sowing the crop, harvesting. The amount of money laid out by small farmers in this grow oats campaign was very considerable and in many cases was beyond the means of the people concerned and they had to go to the banks for loans to cover the cost. The money due on land had to be paid some time around October or November. At that time the promised market for oats had not materialised and the farmers who had taken land and bought dear seed and dear manures were faced with bills which they could not pay. They had taken the Minister's advice in all good faith, as any farmers would be expected to do, and they found themselves let down very seriously.
Then came the election which was the cause of my being here. There was no market for oats when the election campaign began. There was no hope of a market for oats but, as the election campaign progressed, and in the hope that something could be done to stem the anti-Government tide that was already beginning to flow at that time, announcements and advertisements were inserted in the paper the week prior to polling day in East Donegal, saying that a price of 2/- per stone had been fixed for oats. They did not, however, elaborate to the extent that might have been desirable in that case. They did not say that that 2/- was in respect of oats bushelling 40 lbs.
The oats which was below 40 lbs. to the bushel was further reduced in price. All that we heard at that time was that oats was 2/- a stone. There was no question as to whether it was good oats or bad oats. I may say that oats has to be fairly good to bushel 40 lbs. Had the market promised in those advertisements held out, the farmers, who were put to the costs which I have enumerated, would at least have got out with their costs.
They might have lost a little, but it would not be very much. However, those advertisements and the market promised at the last moment before the polling day of a critical by-election struck me, as it struck many others, as being very fishy. On all the platforms from which I and my colleagues spoke the time those advertisements were inserted promising 2/- per stone, we advised the farmers, in good faith, to sell their oats and to sell it before polling day, or otherwise there might not be a market available.
Now, that statement on my part was mentioned in the House here a short time ago. Why it was I still do not know, but unfortunately the exhortation which I addressed from all platforms during that election campaign was only too true. Oats bushelling 40 lbs. was being bought at 2/- per stone until the Saturday before the election by the limited number of millers allowed to buy the oats, but even that limited number found that they had not sufficient storage for the glut of oats offering. Strange enough, at that time there were other millers who had storage, but they would not be allowed to buy. Even if they had that would have been only a drop in the ocean. The market closed on the Saturday before the election and was never reopened.
When the Government is questioned as to what is to happen the surplus oats, we are told that the good market promised is actually there if only we avail of it, and that the way to do so is not by going to your miller or buyer to dispose of the oats, but to feed it to live stock. That reminds me very much of promising a man that you will pay him a good price if he quarries stones, but when he does you tell him that the market which you promised him for the stones is there, but with a difference. You told him that you would give him a good price for the stones and that you are still prepared to do so if he uses them to build houses. A parallel can be drawn with the promise given this time last year to buy oats at a good price, namely, that there is according to the Minister a good price for it provided the farmer feeds it to live stock. That promise was even more ridiculous than my comparison about the stones, because in the case of the latter they can be used ad lib for the building of houses, but you cannot get cattle and other live stock just by pressing a button to consume your surplus oats. It would take time to produce live stock in sufficient numbers to consume the vast surplus of oats which we have in our county this season. The promises that were set forth in the Minister's advertisements were fulfilled in a very negative way.
That is all, I think, that I have to say about oats, except that the market position at the moment has left our farmers in Donegal, and I am sure elsewhere, in a very critical position indeed. I really wonder if the Minister is fully aware of the hardship that he has been responsible for causing to good, industrious, honest farmers in my county. If he were, I wonder would he treat the matter as lightly as he has done up to the present. It is really hard to believe that he fully realises the implications of the flop which there has been in the oats market. I scarcely believe that if he did he could possibly let things just drift as they are doing at the moment. I would say, for the Minister's information, that even at this late hour, I would be very glad to see some effort made to shift this oats, and thus help to relieve our farmers who are being crushed out of existence by this flop in the market—if ever there was a market.
Potatoes are another crop which is of very great importance to our people. There are two markets for them, one for ware potatoes and the other for seed potatoes. I think that I had better deal with them separately, and take the market for ware potatoes first. We were told that there was a guaranteed market for 50,000 tons at ware potatoes. For some reason or another the market for 50,000 tons at £10 13s. Od. a ton did not materialise at all. There was a substitute arrangement. Instead of 50,000 tons of potatoes being exported, as we had expected, to Great Britain at £10 13s. Od. a ton, an arrangement was arrived at whereby £8 15s. Od. per ton would be paid for those 50,000 tons, 30,000 tons of which would remain in this country and the balance of 20,000 tons would be exported to Britain. Some people were puzzled as to what it was intended to do with the 30,000 tons to be retained here until a project, much criticised and much maligned by members of the present Government when they were in opposition, came to the rescue.
We find that the alcohol factories were described some years back, when they were being erected, as white elephants. If it was not for these white elephants, 30,000 tons of our potatoes would be rotting, together with other innumerable tons that are rotting at the present time. They relieved the situation, but it was only a substitution, because the potatoes taken to the factories were graded potatoes, strictly graded. The smaller potatoes and the mis-shaped potatoes were not accepted. Those were the types of potatoes which in former years the farmer sold to the alcohol factories. I believe 30,000 tons are the total capacity of these alcohol factories; at least that is the total quantity they will handle this season, so that the usual type of potato which would have gone to those factories will not now be taken. The factories actually have more on their hands than they can handle. It is a case of taking from one pocket and putting into the other.
That is only part of the story. That is the part which has affected us seriously in Donegal, but that is not quite so serious as the present bungling and muddling in regard to the seed potato market. Questions have been asked here as to what will happen seed potatoes for which the price was fixed before the crops went into the ground last year. Although some of those seed potatoes were bought at the proper time, early in the season, the vast bulk of them are still on the hands of the farmers, and they are depreciating. At the last moment we find that not alone have the alcohol factories been used to get rid of the ware potatoes, but the seed potatoes are now to be offered. There are complications there. One complication is that the factories have only a certain capacity and that capacity is already filled. How then will it be possible to continue taking the ware potatoes that we were recently promised would be taken, if we are to send in seed potatoes as well?
I should like to know what price will be paid for these seed potatoes. It is said that the price will be £8 15s. Od. for graded seed potatoes which the farmers were led to believe would fetch £14 or £15. Most farmers balanced their budgets for the year on the return they expected to get from their crops. The return from the seed potatoes will, from what I can hear, be very much diminished. If a farmer has made certain commitments on the strength of what he would get for his potatoes and he finds now he will get only half that amount, I wonder will the commitments he made be settled for half the amount for which he originally committed himself? I feel sure they will not.
Again, just as in the case of flax, I urge the Minister to compensate the farmers, help them to make up the difference between the price which they will get and the price which they believed they would have got. If he will do that it will relieve the farmers at least for this year. The Minister should now make a statement in relation to these matters. There is no time to be lost as regards the position of the seed potato market next year and for years to come. Do not let the same thing happen as happened in the case of flax. Do not wait until the twelfth hour, until the point is reached when you can do nothing. Do not wait until you have no bargaining power left. In other words, if we wait until the seed potatoes are sown we will have a very poor hope of driving any sort of good bargain with a foreign country to take that crop when it is harvested.
It is already late in the day and I ask the Minister to realise that it is not when the crop is growing that the price should be fixed or the market arranged. He should do something now because this is and has been a very remunerative industry for our people. Nobody can claim that this was really an emergency market. This market was in existence long before the emergency and there is no reason why it cannot be kept going. It is about time the farmers concerned were told whether or not they should grow seed potatoes. I hope the Minister will soon make a statement about the future policy with regard to seed potatoes.
There is one thing which gravely affects my county and that is the abandonment of the hand-won turf industry. I do not intend to go into this in any detail further than to say that it has caused grave hardship and has been responsible for much unemployment and emigration. I listened here a few nights ago to a Government Deputy painting a very sorrowful picture of the situation in Dublin because of the scarcity of fuel in the very severe winter of 1947. With that picture I entirely agree, because I know what it was like here in Dublin. I would not mention this had the Deputy finished there, but he went on to blame the then Government entirely for that fuel famine. He did not take into consideration what the weather was like during the previous turf season. He did not take into consideration just how severe that winter was. He considered none of these things, but in a broad statement he said that the then Fianna Fáil Government was entirely to blame for that very sorrowful picture which he had painted of people shivering in Dublin during the winter of 1947. The shivering was right, but the second part was wrong. That brings me to something which may amaze people here. I come from a county which was one of the largest turf-producing counties during the emergency. Though the past winter has been a mild one, people shivered in Donegal. I wonder will that be put to the credit or the discredit of the present Government, just as the shivering of 1947 was put to the discredit of Fianna Fáil. It must be remembered that this year the position was somewhat different from 1947. In 1947 coal was not available in any quantity. The hand-won turf scheme was abandoned and the production of hand-won turf was frowned upon and discouraged because, as we were told, ample coal supplies would be forthcoming. This year hand-won turf was not produced for sale in Donegal. Because of the discouragement of the production of hand-won turf by the Government many of our young men in Donegal left the county, with the result that not even enough labour was left to produce turf for ourselves. When the winter came, coal supplies, which we were told would be readily available, were not available. There were weeks since last October when no coal could be obtained. There were weeks when no turf could be obtained. In Donegal we have very little timber. Had we had the same severe winter as we had in 1947, the shivering in Dublin in 1947 could not be compared with the shivering in Donegal this year. If the Fianna Fáil Administration is to be blamed in any small degree for what happened in 1947, then the present Government is very much to blame for the situation in Donegal during the past winter.
The abandonment of hand-won turf resulted in unemployment and emigration to a considerable extent. We are told that the machine-won turf scheme would be doubled. In other words, the scheme which Fianna Fáil had in mind is now to be put into operation. Due to the fact that a year has elapsed before the scheme is implemented, we now find that 40,000 emigrants have left the country and are not available for employment on that scheme. In 1947, 31,000 left. In 1948, 40,000 left. In my county alone there was an increase of 1,000, representing a 50 per cent. increase, in emigration. In the western counties the official figures show a 5,000 increase in unemployment this year. In Donegal there has been an increase of 1,000. When we throw our minds back over the past 12 months and recall the promises that were made before the general election, the situation is appalling. Emigration was to be stopped. Unemployment was to cease and nobody would be asked to work for less than £6 per week. After 12 months in office we find the Government who made those promises faced with an emigration rate unequalled for many years. Unemployment is rampant. If some improvement is not shown there will be very few left in my county at the end of the next 12 months with the exception of those who have private means. I urge upon the Minister the necessity to bear in mind the recommendations and requests I make. I make them in good faith. The farmers are in a very serious situation and it is the Government which is responsible for that situation because they are the governing body of this State. I urge upon him the necessity of relieving the situation to such an extent that we will at least keep our people at home.
There is one other matter to which I wish to refer. It does not concern Donegal alone. It concerns every county of the 26 counties. As the youngest and most recently elected Deputy to this House, I wish to protest in the most emphatic manner against the decision of the Government to abandon this year the erection of a memorial to the heroes of 1916 and the Black and Tan war. It is strange that in this year, of all years, with the Coalition Government boasting a 26-county Irish Republic, men like Pearse, Connolly, Brugha, Mellowes and others should be forgotten. It is stranger still that the decision of a Fine Gael Minister on this matter should be approved of apparently by all Parties in the Coalition Government. I do not want to say anything that might cause friction in this matter. It is a matter which is above politics and it should be kept above them. I appeal to the Government to think twice before they abandon the proposals or reject the plans already made. Surely the members of the Government are not so devoid of gratitude, so lacking in public spirit or in Irish spirit as to forget the men whom I have mentioned, the men who, by their actions and by their sacrifices, have made it possible for us to be here as we are, freely elected representatives of a democratic nation. There is still time, and I make this appeal not from any political idea. I make it purely and simply, as I feel it should be made. I feel that possibly the significance of this matter to the Irish people has been overlooked, and I appeal to the Government to reconsider it while there is yet time. In making this appeal I feel sure that I am expressing the sentiments of the people, young and old, of this country, and I ask the Government to alter this decision and to go ahead with the plans and proposals to erect a fitting memorial to commemorate the men who won for us the freedom that we enjoy to-day.
