Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 15 Dec 1955

Vol. 153 No. 11

Committee on Finance. - Agricultural Produce (Cereals) (Amendment) Bill, 1955—Committee and Final Stages.

Sections 1 to 3 inclusive put and agreed to.

SECTION 4.

Mr. Dillon

I do not propose to move Section 4. I indicated when introducing the Bill that a new arrangement for calculating the quantity of wheat milled annually was under consideration. This is the purpose of the new Section 7 which it is proposed to insert in the Bill.

Section 5 of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1935, provides for the calculating of millings irrespective of the moisture content of the wheat concerned. The new proposal is that the calculation of the quantity of wheat milled shall be on the basis of total output of flour and wheatenmeal and other products, including wheat offals. This arrangement overcomes the difficulty of fixing a relationship between artificially dried wheat and green wheat. If the proposed amendment is accepted the question of the fixing of a relationship between artificially dried wheat and green wheat for the purpose of millers' records would arise only in respect of calculations associated with the Purchase Percentage Orders made under Section 10 of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1935, as amended by Section 14 of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1936.

It is accordingly proposed to dispense with Section 4 of the Bill and to repeal Section 14 (2) of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1936, which restricts the manner in which calculations may be made in connection with the Purchase Percentage Orders to actual purchases of wheat. If the amendment is accepted it will be open to the Minister for Agriculture to take account of the relationship between artificially dried wheat and green wheat in calculating millers' compliance with the Purchase Percentage Orders.

Section 4 deleted.

Sections 5 and 6 put and agreed to.

SECTION 7.

Mr. Dillon

I move the following amendment:—

Before Section 7 to insert a new section as follows:—

7. Sub-section (1) of Section 5 of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1935 (No. 26 of 1935), shall, as respects any preliminary period or quota year which is unexpired on the day of the commencement of this Act or begins on or after that day, have effect as if it provided that the amount of wheat milled at the particular licensed mill during that period or year (as the case may be) shall be taken to be an amount of wheat the weight of which is equal to the aggregate of the weights of flour, wheaten meal and other products (including wheaten offals) produced at that mill in that period or year (as the case may be).

Question—"That the new section be there inserted"—put and agreed to.

Sections 8 to 16 inclusive and the First Schedule agreed to.

SECOND SCHEDULE.

Mr. Dillon

I move the following amendment:—

To insert the following repeal:—

No 30. of 1936.

Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1936.

Sub-section (2) of section 14.

Question put and agreed to.

Schedule, as amended, agreed to.

Bill reported with amendments and received for final consideration.

Question proposed: "That the Bill do now pass."

Mr. Allen

On the Final Stage, there is a matter which I would like to raise which may not arise under the Bill at all. The Minister may remember that yesterday I put down a question asking the Minister for Industry and Commerce for details regarding the amount of subsidy payable to farmers on wheat so that the price of flour and bread to the consumer would be reduced. While I think I heard the Minister for Agriculture give an estimated figure about a year ago which was much greater than the one the Minister for Industry and Commerce had, I think it is time that the matter was cleared up once and for all. The Minister for Industry and Commerce has sufficient machinery at his disposal to do this—in fact, I am sure every day of the week a calculation is made of the cost of drying, transporting and storing wheat and there should be no serious difficulty about that.

I raise the matter on this Bill because it is not entirely out of order and it will not delay the Minister very long and because a deliberate campaign is being carried on to suggest that the total subsidy is going into the pockets of the farmers. Something must be done to get a figure that cannot be challenged as to what portion of the subsidy may be going to the farmers and what portion is going to reduce the price of bread. I think it is only fair to the farming community and to the wheat growers that an authoritative figure should be given so as to prevent this campaign from succeeding. It is being used in different directions. Those who are opposed to growing wheat in this country—I suppose they are not all inside the House —are waging that campaign and deliberately misrepresenting what is the true position. I hope the Minister will turn to his officials and get a calculation made that we can stand over, whether it be for or against the farmer. But, in any case, the farmers should not be charged with getting a subsidy they are not, in fact, getting. The rest of the communuity see it from that aspect and I think it is most unfair to the agricultural community that that should be so.

Mr. Dillon

It may be of assistance to Deputy Allen if I take this occasion to say here and now that far the greater part of the subsidy payable on flour at the present time is payable for the benefit of consumers of bread as part of this Government's policy of trying, in so far as its resources permit, to keep down the cost of living by subsidising essential articles of food which the majority of our people must consume. That is one fact.

Mr. Allen

That is a well-known fact.

Mr. Dillon

The second fact is this. It is hard to determine with precision an accurate basis of comparison which would enable anybody precisely to determine the element of subsidy paid on home-grown wheat as compared with wheat of similar quality obtainable elsewhere, but I think it is fair to say that the element of subsidy received by the growers of home-grown wheat may be fairly computed to lie between 13/- and 15/- per barrel. I would not care to go closer to it than that, but I believe that that spread would cover the highest and the lowest reliable estimate that has been made of the subsidy element in the prices for home-grown wheat.

Question put and agreed to.

The Dáil adjourned at 7.40 p.m. until 3 p.m. on Wednesday, February 8th, 1956.