andMr. Fanning asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the reason why Bord na Móna has decided to close down the bogs at Shanagh and Redwood, Rathcabbin, County Tipperary, thereby throwing a big number of workers out of employment.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers - Bord na Móna and Tipperary Bogs.
The bogs in question, together with a number of other bogs in different parts of the country, were worked by Bord na Móna under a special scheme for the production of turf by semi-automatic machines on small bogs. This scheme, which was distinct from the permanent operations of the board under the Turf Development Acts, 1946 to 1953, was undertaken by the board at the request of the Government and was a carry-over from the period of fuel scarcity during the emergency. The need for the turf produced under the scheme no longer exists. Turf produced under the scheme was dearer than fully-machined turf produced by Bord na Móna under their permanent schemes and could only be sold at a substantial loss. Efforts to find a market for it interfered with the sale of fully-machined turf produced by the board and of privately-produced hand-won turf.
In these circumstances, the Government decided recently that the scheme should be discontinued.
Could the Minister give any indication of the number of persons employed in these two bogs?
At the maximum 150; that is for short peak periods in the middle of the year.
Are there any proposals under consideration for the employment of those who will now be unemployed as the result of the closing down of these bogs?
The position was reported to the Department of Local Government and the Special Employment Schemes Office with a view to considering what alternative schemes of providing employment in these areas could be operated.
Is there any possibility of providing any useful work out of the National Development Fund in the area?
Certainly.
The Minister will appreciate that in a rural area of that kind the disemployment of 150 persons is a serious matter.
It is not 150 in one area. That is the total for the two bogs.
Would it be possible for Bord na Móna, if they have decided to abandon the cutting of turf by semi-automatic machines, to make arrangements whereby they could utilise these bogs for the production of machine-won turf as part of their ordinary activities rather than apparently abandon the bogs so far as the production of turf by machinery is concerned?
That may eventually happen but not this year. In 1953 Bord na Móna produced machine-won turf to the extent of 200,000 tons in excess of the quantity required and the marketing outside the E.S.B. of that quantity of turf is a problem for the board.
I agree that there are difficulties, but they are not insuperable. You can still ration the supply of coal so as to ensure that the production of machine-won turf will be absorbed by the home market. It seems a pity, after we have spent a good deal of money on these bogs for development purposes, that they should be abandoned merely because the semi-automatic machine method of production has been abandoned. I urge the Minister to ask the board to see if it is not possible to enable us to continue to get the advantages of the development of these bogs by utilising the ordinary machine-won methods of turf production which are extensively used by the board on the bogs entirely operated by them.
As the Deputy knows, the programme involves the production by the board of machine-won turf in the course of the next ten years, so that very considerable expansion is intended, but I cannot say off-hand whether these bogs were included at any stage in that programme.