At any rate, I want to challenge Deputy Childers — a former Cabinet Minister — on what he did to relieve the situation with regard to flooding in the Shannon area when he had the power to do it. If he had done anything about it, I am sure the farmers of the Shannon area would not now find themselves in the plight they are in. We have only to read the newspapers to realise how grave the situation is. Certainly they have my sympathy — as has every farmer throughout the length and breadth of the country.
Deputy Childers came into this House and took advantage of this motion to try, as he thought, to create embarrassment and trouble among the Parties that form the inter-Party Government. If that is what he is aiming at, I can assure him that he is mistaken. I am proud to say that we in the Clann na Talmhan Party have the greatest confidence in the present Minister for Local Government — as we have confidence in the present Minister for Agriculture and in the other Ministers in the Cabinet. We considered it was advisable to table this motion to afford the House an opportunity of discussing the matter in a sensible and sincere way, to afford the Minister an opportunity of giving his views and to afford the farmers of Ireland in general an opportunity of reading in the daily papers what the various Ministers — and, on this occasion, it is the Minister for Local Government — have to say regarding their plight.
The Minister has given this House an assurance to-night that this whole matter is very much to the forefront in his mind. That, coming from a Minister of the standing of Deputy O'Donnell, the present Minister for Local Government, is something that the people will have confidence in— unlike some of his predecessors who were prepared to make every type of promise for the sake of holding power and office. Personally, I have the greatest confidence in the sincerity of the Minister and in his statement here to-night that, at the earliest possible moment, he will review this whole question and see what can be done.
I have sympathy with the Minister, too, when he states that he has taken over from another Minister and that he is operating his finances and trying to work things out as best he can. We all know that it would be impossible for the present Minister to wave a wand and remove all the headaches of the farming community in the short space of five or six months. However, when we get an assurance from a responsible Minister who, we know, is sincere and honest, that he will review the whole situation in the light of the conditions that prevail at the present time among the farming community, the Clann na Talmhan Party feels it has succeeded in focusing the attention of the present Minister and of the Government generally on a really important problem and we are satisfied that the Minister will, at the earliest possible date, as he has stated, review the whole situation and then give certain reliefs to the agricultural community.
There is another important matter that I should just like to refer to in passing. Other speakers, including Deputy Beirne who opened this debate, referred to it as well. They stated that it was the practice in recent times to shift taxation from central to local authorities. Unfortunately, that is all too true. It is true of successive Governments but certainly no Government ever achieved what Fianna Fáil achieved in that regard. I refer to the piling-up of taxation on the farming community, in particular, and to the shifting of certain taxes from the central authority to the local authority.
I do not intend to go into all the figures that Deputy Childers quoted when he was speaking. He quoted a lot of figures and, as the Minister for Local Government pointed out a while ago, he quoted certain figures that suited his own purpose; certain other figures he did not quote. It is all too true that the shifting of taxation from the Central Fund to the local councils is a regrettable trend and I would like to impress on the Minister that anything he can do while he is a Minister of this Government — I hope he will be there for quite a long time and I believe he will — to lighten the load of local taxation will be appreciated by the farming community and by any other people who may benefit.
The Minister himself comes from a rural constituency very much like mine. It is rugged and mountainous. The people who sent him here are mainly small farmers; many of them, I think, are fishermen, and the present Minister knows the conditions that exist in the country just as well as I do. He did not come from the plains of Kildare, Meath or any other county; he came from a county that is to a great extent Gaelic speaking and he is a native speaker himself, I am glad to say. He understands the problems of the ordinary small man, so I feel, having brought these matters to his notice, that when he is reviewing the whole situation at a later date he will take some steps to relieve the present plight of the people.
In listening to the Minister for Agriculture to-day and to the Minister for Local Government now on the question of certain reliefs for the Shannon area, I personally was disappointed, not disappointed because the people of the Shannon area should benefit in any way from anything the Government or the present Minister might do to relieve their situation. I am not in any way parochial-minded. Speaking in the National Parliament on a matter of this kind I realise it is our duty to cater as best we can for all sections of the community. My disappointment arose from the fact that the Minister did not seem to be specific enough. I am very much interested in a serious problem that exists in my constituency. I refer to the flooding of the River Moy which concerns a number of constituencies as well as mine. It has wreaked havoc on the farmers around the banks of the Moy. I have spoken about it before in this House, and I repeat that I was disappointed that neither the Minister for Agriculture nor the Minister for Local Government referred to the plight of the farmers in Mayo and parts of Sligo who are seriously hit by the flood damage caused by the River Moy.
I have received scores and scores of letters from farmers who complain that they have lost all their potatoes; others complain that they have lost their oats and their wheat. We are not a wheat-growing county, but the little we have we must use to the best possible advantage. It is very serious for people in areas where you have a great many uneconomic holders when they lose their crops in the way they have lost them this year. While the people I speak for are very sympathetic towards the people in the Shannon area, I feel that any benefits that may be afforded in respect of the Shannon Valley should also be afforded in areas, constituencies or counties such as I represent.
I should be obliged if the Minister could tell us briefly when I have concluded if it is proposed to do something for the people along the River Moy and, for that matter, along other rivers. I do not wish to be unfair; I do not grudge the people along the Shannon Valley anything they can get. They have been hard hit and they have my greatest sympathy. Nevertheless, I feel obliged to speak in the strongest possible terms to focus the attention of the Government on the plight of the people in my own constituency. They have suffered for years and years. On this occasion they have lost everything; many of them have lost their entire crops and they are faced with a situation where they must, in many cases, replace turf which they used as fuel. This is a county which, during the emergency produced quite a lot of turf for the national pool. Now they have lost practically all their turf. It has been carried away by the flood waters of the River Moy, and the same thing applies to their crops.
The Minister for Lands pointed out when he was speaking of the expense of implementing the health services and that the added cost to the rate-payers would be very serious. I have been addressing a number of meetings in my own constituency in recent times. When you inquire from your constituents what is their main grievance, they will ask you to try to pull down rates. They are very much alarmed at the present time because they appreciate that the introduction of certain sections of the Health Act will further increase the rates. I would ask the Minister in the light of this knowledge—I know he takes a deep interest in it—to focus his attention on the effect that this will have on poor counties like Mayo. Rates have reached such an alarming figure that in many instances you have people emigrating by the thousand. It is a common sight in my part of the county to see bus load after bus load fleeing from the Barony of Erris and even from the town of Ballina. Houses are closed up and people have gone over to England to seek employment. People are alarmed on this question of the additional cost of running the health services and I would ask the Minister to take steps at the earliest possible moment to relieve the situation.
Again I must refer to the gentlemen on the far side of the House, the Fianna Fáil Deputies who have spoken. They showed their marked sympathy to-night for the farming community. They shed tears, mar dheadh. The same thing applied when this was being debated last week. They did not shed tears when the calves were being slaughtered. I am not going into the merits of the economic war——