asked the Minister for Agriculture if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the British Government have announced substantial increases in the prices paid to their farmers for milk, pigs, eggs, wheat, barley, oats, potatoes and other farm products; and, if so, whether he will state what steps he proposes to take to provide similar increases to farmers here.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Farm Produce Prices.
I am aware of the fact that the British Government have announced increases in the prices mentioned in the Deputy's question. As the Deputy is no doubt aware it is the present policy of the British Government substantially to subsidise the production of certain agricultural produce so as to stimulate domestic production of these commodities with a view to correcting the balance of payments position vis-à-vis the Western Hemisphere. These subsidies on home production are costing the British Exchequer nearly £300,000,000 per annum and can be found only by drawing on the great industrial and entrepot wealth of Great Britain where agricultural production represents only a small fraction of their national product and where the entire domestic agricultural product is consumed by their own people.
No analogy between conditions obtaining in Great Britain for agricultural production and those obtaining in Ireland can be drawn because our agricultural industry is our main source of wealth, and far from being subsidised, must itself carry all the other activities in which our people engage upon its back. Any subsidies provided in Ireland for industrial or agricultural production must ultimately come out of agriculture itself and, inasmuch as maximum production on the land of Ireland involves production of a substantial export surplus, the subsidisation of agricultural prices by our Government involves paying foreign consumers to consume our produce, when surplus production is achieved. The relevant comparison for prices received by our farmers for their produce is the price received by other countries for produce of similar quality in the foreign market where our surplus must be sold, and judged by this standard our farmers have every reason to be satisfied, inasmuch as our ability to deliver perishable agricultural produce in a fresh condition secures for them a price advantage not available to other exporters less favourably situated geographically.
The Deputy will be glad to know that in connection with the recent increase in the price for fat cattle made by the British Government, Part A of the Annex to the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement of 1948 requires a similar adjustment to be made in the price payable for Irish fat cattle and the relevant price schedule is at present under review.
Is the Minister aware that the increased prices for agricultural produce have been paid to the British farmers not out of any feeling of generosity on the part of the British Government towards these farmers, but simply because they realise that they cannot economically produce at a lesser price and, since the British farmers, with lower costs of production, have established their case for a higher price, why should not the case be equally established for our Irish farmers, where the costs of production are much higher — that is, the cost of raw materials, seeds, manures and implements?
The Deputy apparently overlooks that a large part of the £300,000,000 is used in subsidising seeds, manures, etc., in Great Britain. I can assure the Deputy that I agree with him that it is not out of love for the farmers that they pay them the subsidy in Great Britain; it is out of the £300,000,000 which they extract from the taxpayers and consumers there. I know of no source from which a similar sum can be extracted in this country, even if it were desirable to do so.