Deputy de Valera spoke here for two hours on the Estimate for Agriculture, and he is no farmer. I do not suppose he knows anything about farming. But any Deputy is entitled to sign a motion like this. It is a fair guess that such a motion would have been signed by Fianna Fáil Deputies. We have the proof of that in what Deputy Dillon said here this morning; in the 1956 election, it was wheat all the time and we were accused of trying to stop the growing of wheat and do the farmers out of their rights. What is the position today? Opposition is reversed and Fianna Fáil Deputies come in here full of sweet reasonableness; they are trying to do the best they can. So they say. They have too much wheat. That is a position they themselves have created over the years.
I want to come back again for a moment to a very good point Deputy Tierney made. He said that, when you get a letter, you still see stamped on it "Grow more wheat." I advise Fianna Fáil Deputies to take a look at their correspondence in future. I do not say they will find the slogan on all their letters, but they will find it on some. That stamp is put on by Government direction. Perhaps, as a result of this debate, the Department of Posts and Telegraphs will get a fresh order to say nothing more about wheat growing.
I am glad the Taoiseach intervened in this debate. I am glad the Head of the Government took an interest in an important motion like this, a motion introduced by the principal Opposition Party. I am glad he intervened even though the motion is supposed to be a piece of political chicanery or political expediency. His intervention shows that the decision taken in regard to wheat was not entirely the decision of the unfortunate Minister for Agriculture, who is the subject of abuse throughout the length and breadth of the country among the farming community. The decision was a decision taken by the Government, a Government headed by a man who lives in Dublin and who has no knowledge whatsoever of farming or rural conditions. That bears out something I have stated here before; you have in Fianna Fáil a Dublin-minded Government and problems affecting the farmers do not matter. When the farmers find themselves in difficulties, in many cases almost on the verge of bankruptcy, that does not matter. Their problems are not vital to a Dublin-minded Government. A Dublin-minded Government have more vital problems than that. They like to spend money on jets. According to yesterday's Irish Press, they intend to spend £2,000,000 on locomotives but they have not got a few pounds to keep from bankruptcy the men who played their part when this country wanted food, who produced the food and carried out the directed policy of the Fianna Fáil Government. When they find themselves in difficulties now and come in here, they have no consolation to get from the Taoiseach.
The Taoiseach says it is not the policy to grow wheat other than the quantity necessary for our requirements. He says those who grew the wheat knew what they were doing, and took the risk. He did not say one word about the weather. I wonder does he know the sort of weather we had down along the east coast, with the farmers up to their ankles in mud trying to save what they could? I do not suppose he realises these things when he gets up here and talks about over-all policy, 280,000 tons of wheat and 25,000 tons of seed. He said quite definitely it would be a bad thing for the farmers if they had any check between themselves and the millers. In other words, when the millers refused the wheat sent in by the tillage farmers as unmillable, it would be a bad thing for the farmers to have someone to check and defend their rights. The innuendo was that the millers who chucked out wheat wholesale, wheat known by experienced dealers to be sound and millable, were really taking in wheat that was not millable at all.
The Taoiseach's arguments are all in favour of the millers. He knows nothing about the farmers. I do not blame him for that. What could he know about them? But, at least, he could listen to the Deputies behind him. No matter what Fianna Fáil Deputies said here today, no matter what the Minister for Agriculture said, I know perfectly well that there were strong representations going into the Taoiseach's office, and not just for one day or two days but continuously over the period of bad weather we had then, asking him to take some action to protect the farmers. There was no protection for them. That is the reason why we put this motion down.
Is that political expediency? Is it political expediency that I, elected to Dáil Éireann from a tillage county, a county that grows more wheat than any other county in Ireland, should come in here to fight for the rights of those who sent me here? It is not political expediency; it is democratic Government functioning as it has the right to function. The Government do not like being told these things. They try to blanket them down by saying this is the Fine Gael Party acting for the sake of political expediency. Every one of us who put his name to the motion is prepared to stand over it. We did not put our names to the motion on behalf of the N.F.A. This is a Fine Gael motion, signed by Deputies from all over the country and tabled by Deputies acting upon the representations they received, not one day but every day. I was no sooner returned to Dáil Éireann than I had the representations pouring in to say that the wheat which was being sent back was millable.
I did not come in here without making preparations. I have taken care to go round and discuss the matter with those who know whether the wheat was in good condition or not. They were absolutely satisfied that wheat was being sent back to them that was millable. They told me that as far as they knew from their long experience, the wheat was as good as any they sent in any other year and it could have been taken.
What has happened to the money which the millers have on hand for the purchase of wheat overseas—wheat which they could buy cheaper than home-grown wheat? What has happened to that money? There was not a word from the Taoiseach or from the Minister for Agriculture as to what happened to it. Where has that profit gone to? Has it gone into the overfull pockets of the millers already? I suggest that, when a body of men such as the millers in Ireland have an overall monopoly such as they have, they have a duty to the public at least to show where the funds are going. It is only one arm of a big economy. They may have built up their machinery. They may be experts in the milling of wheat but at least they owe a duty to the Irish public to show where the money is going.
The Minister for Agriculture should have dealt with those facts today. We were given the old cry all the time that they did not ask the people to grow wheat since 1950. How could responsible Deputies accept such a futile statement? They put advertisements not only in the national but the local Press. The Minister did not give us any vital facts as to what happened to the millers' profits or the profits that will accrue from buying outside wheat. He should have given us those definite facts.
While the Minister was speaking, he was looking at me all the time and saying that the motion was put down by those who were not farmers. I do not know whether or not the Minister thinks I am a farmer, but for his information, I am a farmer and I grow wheat. Further, for his information, I got the millable price for wheat this year, so I have no personal bias whatever in this matter.
In conclusion, let me say that we have done our best and we have done it on our own initiative. We would do the same again, if it were necessary, because it is our duty and democratic right to fight for people who are not getting a fair deal. Fianna Fáil argue that if they did this for one, they would have to do it for others. We are asking them to deal with people who are literally facing an emergency. If they do that, they will save the whole economic fabric from falling into disorder. Surely they could accept this motion or give us the satisfaction of knowing that they intend to do something about it, instead of presenting us with a stone wall resistance which is all we have got from them.
