asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will take steps to secure a market for malting barley grown by some 50 small holders in the Ring and Ballinacourty areas, County Waterford, to ease the hardship imposed on them by the precautionary measures taken in regard to the presence of eelworm in their land which obliges them to omit beet, one of their most lucrative crops, from their tillage programme.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Market for Waterford Barley.
As the Deputy is, no doubt, aware, the marketing of barley intended for malting is not subject to official control, and growers are free to negotiate with the industrial users in regard to the sale of malting barley. In the circumstances, intervention on behalf of individual growers by me is not practicable.