Surely Deputy Cogan or any other Deputy does not think that at this hour of this Dáil I should dream of betraying my friends? To get back to the water supplies to farm dwellings, about which Deputy Cogan and some others may not be anxious to hear, this is equally as valuable and beneficial as the land project. Surely one would expect the charity of the silence of the Opposition if they had not a good word or a word of praise for this scheme? If they could not praise it, if they could not give the Minister the benefit of saying it was another good scheme, surely they would say nothing whatever about it? By the end of the financial year 1950/51, 3,713 people had made application to the Department under the water supply scheme and a sum of £100,000 has been provided in the Estimates for this service for 1950/51.
Is there a Deputy who will go down to his constituency next week-end or the following week-end and say: "I have voted against a sum of money which will put a water supply into your kitchen"? How many Deputies in the Opposition Benches, how many Deputies in the Government Benches, would dare dream of going to their constituencies and telling their constituents, whom they have the honour to represent here, that for one moment they stood and walked up those steps and turned into that Division Lobby and deprived the farmer of having a water supply to his house? Is it not true that Deputy Allen and Deputy Corry have been crying and weeping over the amount of money which the Wexford County Council and the Cork County Council have to spend in providing public pumps in their areas in order to supply water for domestic purposes? Is it not true that the Department of Agriculture, on more than one occasion, refused to provide grants for pumps in certain areas? Is it not true also that people were put to great expense in the provision of a water supply?
May I say that the late Deputy Willie O'Donnell—God rest his soul and I hope he is in heaven to-night— often spoke from these benches on many an occasion and appealed to Deputy Smith when Deputy Smith was Minister for Agriculture, and appealed to Deputy Dr. Ryan when he was Minister; but not alone did Deputy Ryan and Deputy Smith give the late Deputy O'Donnell the deaf ear and the blind eye, but they paid no heed whatever to his appeal and request on behalf of the farmers who needed a water supply to their homesteads. Deputy O'Donnell made that appeal here as far back as 1943. Why did not Deputy Smith or Deputy Dr. Ryan, when in charge of the Department of Agriculture, foresee the difficulties that Deputy Dillon foresaw to the many farmers who had no water supply in their areas? I will ask even Deputy Paddy Burke, and when asking even him I am sure I may expect some atom of common sense in the reply—is there any more inconvenience that could be created or caused in any house or home than to provide that there is no water supply? Does not the appeal come from every area?
Deputies associated with local authorities, who have been mixed up with county councils and urban councils, know that it does. This is where Deputy Cogan comes in. Deputy Cogan knows that he made representations to the Carlow County Manager, to the Kildare County Manager and to the Wicklow County Manager, asking that pumps be erected in various places. But Deputy Cogan knows that when those county managers wanted to have those pumps sunk a water diviner had to be obtained first.
Like everything else, there is a special manner in which water can be divined. It is very hard and difficult to secure the services of a good diviner. There are many areas where local authorities are anxious to have pumps. I have known a number of areas in my constituency around Clara and Ballylinan and elsewhere where there was no water supply whatever and where the local authorities found that the erection of a pump would not justify a demand on the rates. I now find that the problem will be solved and that people will get assistance from the Department of Agriculture for the erection of pumps and a supply of water to the homestead. Can any Deputy deny that there is no greater scheme after the land project than the provision of water for the homestead? Is not the provision of a water supply necessary for the dairy farmer? If anyone wants to see the success of a real water supply let him go to the Salesian College at Warrenstown, County Meath, and there he will see it. There is no greater benefit, there is no greater convenience to the housewife than a water supply for the purpose of washing household utensils. Even if someone like Deputy Pat McGrath was in the area and dropped in to a housewife for a cup of tea how anxious he would look if he were told that there was no water supply. May I say that the Minister for Agriculture is to be congratulated. I want to say that the people of this country are leaping out of their pants and shoes to get an opportunity of showing their appreciation, and as sure as there is a bill on a crow, they will show that appreciation before long. Those schemes are not schemes that can be forgotten.
May I say that the water supply scheme is one of the best schemes that has been introduced by the present Government. Another reason why I, as an Independent Deputy, am voting for this Estimate is because there is included in it provision for a certain sum of money to be spent in my constituency on a water supply. My constituency will receive the benefit of the Minister's wisdom in having this scheme formulated. The number of applicants under this scheme is 3,713 but, since these statistics were supplied to us, the number of applications must have undoubtedly increased. I believe that, by the end of the present financial year, 31st March, 1952, the number of applications will have increased still more. More important still will be the number of increased applications which will be received from those persons anxious to avail of the Minister's scheme, knowing that it is a scheme that will render very great service and one which will be very highly appreciated.
We have in this country a voluntary organisation known as the Young Farmers' Clubs. Very useful and valuable work has been done throughout the country by the Young Farmers' Clubs. I have the honour of having in my constituency Mr. William Bland, a past president of the Young Farmers' Clubs of Ireland. Mr. Bland, who is one of the most practical farmers in this country and one of the finest farmers worthy of the title of farmer, has on more than one occasion, with the executive committee of the Young Farmers' Clubs, approached the Department of Agriculture. I am satisfied from my own knowledge that the Minister for Agriculture has met the Young Farmers' Clubs with open arms. He has been prepared to accept their views. He has listened to their suggestions and has given a sympathetic ear to any grievances or suggestions that they desired to put before him. But the Young Farmers' Clubs serve a purpose other than to advise the Minister.
Soil testing is carried on in my constituency by the staff of the Laois Vocational Education Committee. In the various vocational schools where soil testing is carried out, members of the Young Farmers' Clubs provide the seeds and have the soil tests carried out. I say in all sincerity to the Minister that the Young Farmers' Clubs deserve every support and co-operation that is humanly possible from the Minister for Agriculture. What greater advice could the Minister ask for? What greater advice could be given than that tendered by the Young Farmers' Clubs who give the weight of their experience to the Minister on problems which affect the agricultural community.
In those clubs, we have the young farmer who has more modern and up-to-date ideas than the head of the household, the old and experienced farmer. The Young Farmers' Clubs are advising the farmers to become more mechanical minded and to leave aside the plough. That has been made a skit of by the Opposition, but suppose the Athlone Woollen Mills of which Deputy Lemass is a director went back to the day of the spinning wheel, how long would it take the mills to get the same return as they are getting to-day by the use of up-to-date machinery? Deputy Lemass would not tolerate the use of the spinning wheel for one moment because he is a business man who does his own business in a businesslike way. He is associated with a company that yields a profit and not a loss. He would not associate himself for one moment with the old spinning wheel of 50 years ago. Therefore, is the Minister wrong in advocating machinery instead of the old spinning wheel of the land, the plough? I think it is slavery to be working a plough. I believe that the day of the horse plough is gone completely in this country. We are getting more machinery minded and up-to-date. We had no fine day in this country from the 17th July, 1950, up to the 28th April of this year. We had rain, frost, snow and sleet.
In January, not only were the farmers unable to stand on the soil but they could not look out the door. February was no better for them. In March, not only could the farmers not plough but they could not stand on their feet as they would be blown skyhigh. A few days ago, the Irish farmers were blessed with a few fine days, and with the service of the tractor they ripped up and tore the land just as if they had been ploughing since last November. If the farmers work is not as far advanced to-day as it should be, it will be as far advanced next week as it would have been had we had fine weather the whole year round. The sowing will be done and, with God's help, the crops will grow and we will have as good a harvest this year as we had in other years. There will be no need to import wheat.
The young progressive farmer and the tractor are most important. The old farmer is inclined to take the attitude that the horse and plough are good enough for him; they were good enough for his father and his grandfather before him and he will not change. The young progressive farmer on the other hand regards the horse plough as slavery. He realises it means time lost. He knows that speed and efficiency will give a good return, the kind of return we want, and he will bring the modern tractor into service. I hope the day is not far off when every farmer will be able to afford a tractor. I hope that the Department of Agriculture will make available tractors for hire in every parish through the medium of the county committees of agriculture for those farmers who need them and who cannot afford them. I hope that the old horse plough will be used only for the headlands. When the old horse plough has done its work on the headlands I hope the clay will be scraped off and the plough laid up in the haggard until it is required next year to do the headlands again.
The tractor will do more in one day than the horse plough will accomplish in a fortnight. For that reason I want to see the modern tractor installed in every farm. The Minister has wisely adopted the policy of making our farmers machinery conscious. It is because of the wise advice the Minister has given that I was able to-night to read for the House the report I was so happy to quote. The more machinery we utilise on the land the more production we will get out of the soil. During Deputy Smith's period of office as Minister for Agriculture there were inspectors for almost every phase of our agricultural economy but to my knowledge there was no inspector to carry out inspections of broken down threshing mills. I never heard of an inspector inspecting these old crocks.
In the harvest time there are old mills going out behind the tractors and, judging by some of them, they must have seen service in the days when Brian Boru was busy at Clontarf. These old mills should be condemned. They should have been put out of use long ago. Because they are defective a certain percentage of valuable grain is lost in the chaff. That grain represents a loss to the community. The owner of the threshing mill charges the farmer a fee of anything from £5 to £7 a day. If these old mills continue to function the results will be disastrous for the farmers. I think these mills should be subject to some system of inspection by an officer of the Department of Agriculture so that the farmers will no longer have to see some of their wheat, a big quantity of their barley and a great percentage of their oats being swept into a heap and burned with the chaff. That is what happens at present.
I am not sufficiently qualified to inform the House exactly what adjustments would be necessary to ensure that none of the grain will be lost in these defective mills. I believe these mills should be condemned and no time should be lost in condemning them. At present their operations represent a serious loss to the farmer. The farmer has to pay heavily for the use of the mill. He has to provide food and refreshment for the mill owner and his workmen. Everybody knows harvesting is an expensive turn-out. Threshings are looked upon in my part of the country as occasions for rejoicing. There are harvest celebrations after the threshings. Though the farmer is very happy to see his harvest successful, nevertheless he has to incur certain expenses in connection with it. I admit that the farmer to-day can well afford to rejoice under the administration of the present Minister for Agriculture. He had no reason to rejoice during the economic war, and he certainly had no occasion to celebrate under the administration of Deputy Smith when he was Minister for Agriculture.
Recently the Minister met a deputation from my constituency, composed of the chairman of the Laois County Committee of Agriculture, Deputy T. F. O'Higgins and Deputy Davin. Deputy Gorry was also present. That deputation pointed out that in the Luggacurran electoral area there are small farmers who suffered very severe losses in the winter of 1946-47. The Government of the day came to their rescue at the time, and provided them with a scheme under which they got loans interest free from the Agricultural Credit Corporation for the purchase of live stock to replace the live stock that had died during the previous bad winter. The present Minister met the deputation to which I have referred very sympathetically and, as a result of our efforts and his action, supplies of feeding stuffs were made available through Messrs. Odlum of Sallins to the Dunmore Co-operative Creamery for the farmers in that area whose live stock were dying because of lack of fodder. The hay crop was a complete loss.
In that area they are all honest farmers. The Minister has often said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it. Those farmers who availed of the interest-free loans from the Agricultural Credit Corporation to replace the live stock they lost during the bad winter of 1946-47 have a good record in relation to the repayment of their instalments of the loans made available to them. The chairman and members of the Agricultural Credit Corporation know that they have a good record. Those loans were guaranteed by two solvent backers who guaranteed that if the farmer did not pay up they, the guarantors, would be responsible. Because of the bad winter through which we have just passed, because the hay crop has again been lost, because the land in this area, which is very mountainous, is poor quality land—there are coal mines at Killeshin, Rossmore and Wolfhill— the farmers are once more seeing their live stock die for want of food. Would the Minister, then, be prepared now to give a further interest-free loan? The county agricultural instructor can prove that the farmers have suffered severe losses during the past winter. Would the Minister be prepared now to give them the same facilities as they got before? Would he give them an interest-free loan? Alternatively, if he cannot do that, will he request the Agricultural Credit Corporation not to press and not to institute legal proceedings against the guarantors in these cases?
I trust that some chance will be given to the unfortunate smallholders in the Luggacurran area until such time as conditions will improve for them and that they will be enabled to pay back the instalments. Better still would be the introduction of an additional scheme for the most deserving applicants, not alone in the Luggacurran and Wolfhill areas, but all along the Shannon Valley, part of which would be in Deputy O'Rourke's constituency and also in the constituencies of Deputy Fagan and Deputy McQuillan. I am referring now to the areas that lie in Offaly quite convenient to the Shannon, right around Lusmagh in Offaly and convenient to the Birr area and the Banagher area.
In this connection I have also in mind Ferbane and the whole parish of Shannonbridge. I am sure the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance will bear me out there as a result of the representations made to him by the parish priest of that parish in regard to the carrying out of relief works. There is no farmer in the barony of Garrycastle or from Meelick up to Athlone—if Deputy Beegan was here he would have some knowledge of that area, I am sure—who succeeded in saving even a wisp of hay, so bad was the season. There is no farmer along that stretch who has not had his land flooded for at least nine months out of the 12 because of the overflowing of the River Shannon. There is no farmer there who can use his land for more than three months or put a beast on that land because his beasts will suffer from fluke, due to the water-logged condition of the land.
Would the Minister not consider some scheme with the object of curbing the fluke, as a safeguard against the fluke? I am sure he is prepared to do everything he can to assist those people. He always makes an effort to assist them, but on this occasion I would ask him to go a step further and give special assistance to the unfortunate farmers in the Shannon Valley area who, according to the information we got here recently, received sad news. They were told that we can never hope to have a comprehensive drainage scheme carried out on the River Shannon.
What does the Minister for Agriculture propose to do about the fertility of the soil in the Shannon Valley? Does he propose to come to the aid of the unfortunate farmers who are thinking seriously of leaving that area? What provision does he propose to make in order that the farmers may exist there? I respectfully suggest to the Minister and to every officer of his Department that it is of supreme importance to give immediate assistance to the farmers in the Shannon Valley area and in the electoral area of Luggacurran, in County Laois. Perhaps they can provide some scheme which will meet the needs of these people?
I do not propose to harp unnecessarily on the Shannon Valley area or Luggacurran, simply because it is in the constituency I have the honour to represent. There are also parts of Leitrim, about which Deputy Maguire spoke, and there are certain areas in Wicklow that Deputy Cogan has been speaking about. There may be isolated cases in these areas. There may be, particularly in County Leitrim and, I believe, in parts of Donegal, hard cases, cases in which genuine hardship can be proved. I do not believe any section of our taxpayers would stand in the way if relief were proposed for these genuine cases of hardship. There would be no objection to giving them financial aid or giving those people interest-free loans in order to allow them to purchase live stock to put on their land.
Most of the small farmers in these areas had to dispose of their live stock before the animals were fit to be disposed of, all through lack of fodder —a shortage of hay. I have known farmers to go to the fair of Kilcormac, in Offaly, and sell their beasts months before those beasts were fit to be sold. The Minister said he was after the tangler. The tangler took the bull by the horns; he took a mean advantage of the unfortunate farmers who had to clear their land of stock because of the shortage of essential foodstuffs, particularly hay. The farmers had to take their live stock to the fairs and they met the tanglers in the early hours before they could reach the fair of Kilcormac, the fair of Clara or the fair of Tullamore. The tanglers met them before they could enter the fair where they would meet their friends. Possibly their friends were in the same position, if they were not worse off.
These farmers had to sell their cattle months earlier than they would have sold them if the fodder was available. In that way many pounds, shillings and pence were lost to the small farmers. They had to dispose of their stock at a loss. Is that not a sad commentary? We have had a hard and disastrous winter. For years we never experienced such a bad winter as the one we have just gone through. I hope and trust the Minister will take the necessary steps to see that in the future his Department will provide for such cases of hardship as I have just referred to.
There are many aspects of the Minister's policy into which I would like to go in detail to-night, but I find that the time will not permit me to do so. I would like to elaborate on the many beneficial schemes the Minister has introduced. I would like to have spoken on the subject of wheat storage. Fianna Fáil neglected to provide storage for wheat. I should like to speak at great length on the many failures of the Opposition when they were on this side of the House, so far as the agricultural community was concerned.
I join with the farmers of Ireland in trusting and praying that the day may be very far off when the agricultural community will find themselves within the palms of irresponsible hands, within the claws of those not prepared to attend to their requirements. I trust that the Minister for Agriculture, under whom we have had the honour to serve for the past three years—three fine years of prosperity so far as the agricultural community is concerned— will be spared to us for many years to come. In the interests of agriculture he has exercised his wisdom and he has used a true and sincere discretion in relation to the many problems which confronted him in his Department.
He has been made the subject of severe criticism, but he is thick-skinned enough to take that criticism. We must remember that anyone who does good will be bitterly criticised for it. To do good you must offend others and others become jealous and it is through petty jealousy, sheer jealousy and madness because of the volume of support the farmers are giving the Minister, that the Fianna Fáil Party are so bitter in their criticisms of the one man who has proved himself such a worthy successor of the late Paddy Hogan who, God bless him, served his country for many years and who spoke from these benches before I got the honour of serving the people whom I have been proud to serve for the past nine years. I move to report progress.
