I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £10 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1955, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Agriculture, including certain Services administered by that Office, and for payment of certain Subsidies and sundry Grants-in-Aid.
I think it might be more convenient for the House if I began by mentioning the sources from which the savings of £447,390 are derived to offset the supplementary sum of £424,400 plus £23,000 of deficiency in Appropriations-in-Aid. There are savings of £447,390 on sub-heads M (9), O (5) and O O (5). Sub-head M (9) relates to the land rehabilitation project. I think the House will understand that the same circumstances that created our difficulties in the Shannon Valley of excessive rainfall and bad weather restricted the ability of contractors working under the land rehabilitation project to carry out as much work as it was hoped they would. The result is that we have £122,390 on hands which we expected the contractors to have earned before the 31st March but which, owing to the inclemency of the weather, they were actually unable to earn. Of course, that money will come in course of payment next year if the work is done.
With regard to Sub-head O (5), there is a saving of £25,000 on the sum provided for the redemption of fertiliser vouchers tendered for payment. It was anticipated that a sum of £41,783 would be claimed by holders of fertiliser vouchers but, in fact, it was not. This is a dwindling service and we have to make a very approximate Estimate in each financial year for a sum which will come in course of payment for these vouchers. The payments cannot be made if the vouchers are not tendered but, according as they are tendered, they will be paid.
Sub-head O O (5) relates to the Grain Storage Loans Act. As is so often the case in matters of this kind, legal procedures relating to mortgages, deeds, and so forth, take a great deal longer to carry to completion than any rational anticipation can provide for. A number of the loans on foot of works done towards increasing storage and drying accommodation cannot be advanced until title documents have been completed. We estimate that the £300,000 which we expected to be in a position to disburse to applicants this year will not, in fact, be disbursed in this financial year, but will have to be found next year, as soon as the legal formalities in connection with title and such like matters are completed.
Now to come to the sub-heads of the Vote. Sub-head E (5) relates to the inquiry into costs of milk production. It was hoped that this inquiry would have completed its work before this financial year began at all and therefore only a token sum was provided. In fact, however, a variety of circumstances have arisen which make it, as we are informed, necessary for the clerical and statistical staff on the inquiry to continue their work for some time, co-relating and evaluating the material which has been collected by field workers. In that connection, I think it right to say that I am not infrequently asked why I do not provide the public with the report of the Milk Costings Commission. The answer is that I cannot provide the public with a report of the Milk Costings Commission until that commission provide me with their report. I do not think it is expedient that I should press upon them that they should waive any procedure that they, in their discretion, think necessary to produce their report. Therefore, I can only await the completion of their operations. As soon as the report is available to me I will make it available to everybody else.
Sub-head G (3) provides for £40,000. This sum is required to complete the winding-up of Eggsports, Limited, which has been in the hands of a liquidator, Mr. Vincent Crowley, of Messrs. Kennedy and Crowley, Limited, Dublin. Mr. Vincent Crowley was appointed official liquidator. I think he has now reached the end of his labours and this sum represents a final payment in the winding-up of Eggsports, Limited. It is well known to the House that my predecessor and myself were not in entire agreement on the expediency of winding-up this business. However, I do not believe any useful purpose would be served in stirring up the ashes of a now dead controversy. Whatever the merits of the case may be, Eggsports, Limited, have been wound up and, once the matter has been placed in the hands of the liquidator, it only remains to enable him to finish the job this House decided he should undertake, in the period of my predecessor's occupation of office.
Sub-head H requires £8,000 and this Charge comes in course of payment on foot of a scheme operated in the previous financial year under which the Government undertook to recoup the county committees of agriculture for certain demonstration plots which they were asked to establish to demonstrate the value of the user of appropriate fertiliser mixtures and, in certain areas, the remedying of cobalt deficiencies. It was possible in the vast majority of cases to recoup the local authority for the expenditure in the financial year in which the plots were laid down, but certain of the local authorities were not able to complete their vouching in that year and this £8,000 represents the balance of unvouched expenditure which was vouched in the course of the present financial year and for which provision has to be made.
Sub-head L (2) represents the total outlay of the Department of Agriculture in the discharge of the duty put upon it by the Government to maintain and supervise the Bryce bequest. This bequest came to the Government under the will of the late Mr. Roland L'Estrange Bryce, who died on the 4th December, 1953, and left certain property at Glengarriff, including Garnish Island, to the Taoiseach in trust for the State until some special body would be set up for such purpose. I do not think I need go into a detailed description of Garnish Island, when I tell the House that having attempted to discharge the duties involved in its supervision and maintenance for some time, I approached the Government and said that in my judgment the Department of Agriculture was not properly equipped to deal with such matters at all and that the property ought to be transferred to the custody of the Minister for Finance and the Board of Works, who have machinery for handling property of this kind. The Government accepted that view and therefore, as from the 31st March of this year, responsibility for the maintenance of Garnish Island will be transferred to the Board of Works— and doubtless on an appropriate occasion an account will be given to the House by the Minister for Finance as to the future of the bequest.
In regard to sub-head M (3), for a sum of £2,000, this includes £595 for the printing of a volume of the register of dairy cattle and £1,405 for the printing of the Department's agricultural leaflets. As the House is aware, we have to print leaflets as they are required. We are constantly trying to revise the leaflets, to withdraw those that have become out of date, and to substitute up-to-date leaflets for those withdrawn. In addition to that, I am glad to inform the House that we have at last filled one serious lacuna in the leaflets available from the Department, that is, that the leaflet on sheep has now been prepared and is in process of being printed. When we have it available I think it will constitute a very valuable addition to the range of leaflets available for the public. Perhaps I might take this occasion to remind the public and the farmers of this country that they can get any of the Department's leaflets for nothing— simply by asking for them. A "halfpenny postcard"—or indeed a postcard without a stamp on it at all—addressed to the Department of Agriculture asking for any leaflet published by the Department will I hope be answered by return of post with a copy of the leaflet—free, gratis and for nothing— to any farmer in good faith who wants to peruse it.