Why do we refer to the marketing of milk? The only marketing of milk that I know goes on in this country is the sale of milk. This is in the text of the Financial Resolution we are now considering, No. 5 on the Order Paper. You have paragraphs (a) and (b) and then the text continues:
under any Act of the present session to make further provision in relation to the marketing of milk and milk products and the improvement and development of such marketing.
I should like to be clear as to what these levies mean. Can they attach to all milk, including milk sold in the Dublin Milk Board area, the Cork Milk Board area and other areas where liquid milk is sold for human consumption? That is one question.
The second question I want to ask is this. Can the Minister give us any indication of the probable or contemplated size of the levy? It may be that the Minister is obliged to say: "No, I have not the faintest notion" but at present there is a levy, I think, of 1d. per gallon on milk to meet one-third of the cost of an export subsidy on butter, the Government contributing two-thirds of the cost.
I should like to know whether, under the procedure envisaged in this Financial Resolution, it is possible for that levy to grow and, if so, is there any upward limit on the levy which can be made on creamery milk as it stands today at 1d.? Can this Resolution raise it to 2d. next year and 3d. the year after? Or does the Minister intend to say that the purpose of this Resolution is to maintain the existing levy of 1d. per gallon and that there is no prospect of it rising any further? I see nothing in this Financial Resolution which limits the levy but I do see in the Resolution the possibility of making this levy 2d., 3d., or 4d. as the quantity of milk converted into butter, cheese or dried milk for export expands.
We ought to be clear in our minds before we pass a Resolution of this kind what it means. It is for that reason I raise this matter on two distinct issues. Is it possible to attach the levy to all milk that is creamery milk and milk for human consumption in liquid form on the domestic market? That is one question. The second question is this. Is there any upward limit on the size of the levy which could be made on each gallon of milk under this Financial Resolution or are we to anticipate that the levy which now stands at 1d. per gallon is likely to be increased to 2d., 3d. or even 4d. a gallon as the quantity manufactured and exported tends to expand?