asked the Taoiseach if he will state (1) the total acreage of beet grown in each of the years 1948 and 1949, and (2) the total acreage contracted for for the 1950 season.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Beet Acreage.
(1) The information required by the Deputy is published on page 237 of the December, 1949, issue of The Irish Trade Journal and Statistical Bulletin, of which a copy is available in the Oireachtas Library; (2) the figure for the total contract acreage for the 1950 season will not be available until about the end of this month.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the acreage under beet in 1948 was 64,000 acres; that in 1949 it was down to 56,000 acres, and that up to the present, which is practically the contract period, it is only 49,000 acres, and that these figures represent a reduction of about 15,000 acres in two years?
I am aware that last year there was more sugar produced at the factories than, I think, in any other year.
That was a seasonal and manurial improvement. The point is that the acreage has gone down each year.
It is a crime to get more sugar from a less acreage!