asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state the number of barrels of oats imported since 1st August, 1957, and the average price of such imports per barrel; whether he has given licences for further imports and, if so, for how much; and whether all such imports were for oatmeal or for what purpose licences were given.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Imports of Oats.
10.
From 1st August, 1957, to 30th November, 1958, which is the latest available date, 236,131 barrels of oats and 179,640 barrels of seed oats were imported at an average price of 37/3 and 49/9 per barrel respectively. Licences have been granted for further imports in the period subsequent to 30th November, 1958, to a total of, approximately, 190,000 barrels of seed oats and 63,000 barrels of oats to meet the requirements of oatmeal millers and horse owners, mainly bloodstock owners.
Is the Minister not aware that the oatmeal millers have such supplies of foreign oats that they will not purchase any home-grown oats at all at present and that therefore further licences for oatmeal should not be granted?
They appear to be pressing for more.
Is it not a fact that the Minister has had complaints that native oats is not being bought?
The oatmeal millers and the bloodstock owners both make the same case that the oats harvest outside County Donegal is not suitable for oatmeal milling or for the feeding of bloodstock.
Are we not now face to face with the situation that the flour millers are the sole judges of the mill-ability of Irish wheat and the oatmeal millers the sole judges of the mill-ability of Irish oats? If they are this country has gone daft.
To those who are daft themselves all things seem daft. They are not the sole judges, but the Minister for Agriculture is a very courteous man and he listens to representations from everybody.
Since when?
Is it seriously suggested that the existing stocks of Irish oats, which have been in store since last autumn and are therefore presumably dry and sound, are for some mysterious reason becoming unfit for conversion into oatmeal? Anyone who knows anything about this business must realise that such a contention is fantastic. It is absurd to accept it if it is being made, but I do not believe it is being made by any responsible miller.
Were the figures the Minister quoted for licences confined purely to oatmeal, as I asked, or did they include other purposes as well?
As I told the Deputy, licences have been granted for 190,000 barrels of seed oats and 63,000 barrels of oats to meet the requirements of oatmeal millers and horse owners.
Surely it is possible to segregate them?
I am afraid I have not got that.
It is nonsense so far as the oatmeal supplies are concerned —not as regards the other.