andDr. Browne asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether there is any prohibition or disability imposed on the Sugar Company from disposing of its total preserved food products, if it so wishes, on the home market.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Disposal of Sugar Company's Food Products.
10.
Full information on this subject was given in the replies to the questions put down by the Deputies on 9th and 17th May, 1961, and 22nd November, 1961. There has been no significant change in the position.
Is it not a fact that the Irish Sugar Company is prevented from selling its entire range of processed foods on the home market? In the light of the Minister's statement and the Taoiseach's statement that any restrictions in the line of trade are disastrous to the country, surely the Minister will agree with me now that an Irish sugar company promoted with Irish capital and run for the good of the nation——
That is obviously an argument, not a supplementary question.
——should be allowed to sell its produce on the home market?
They are advertising it on TV every night. Why is it found necessary at this stage to prevent an Irish company from selling all its products on the home market?
These questions were asked by the Deputy previously and I gave him a very full answer. In the first place, the arrangement that has been made whereby the Sugar Company can sell ten per cent of its production on the home market has been found acceptable by the Sugar Company itself. The food processing industries set up and proposed to be set up by the Sugar Company are intended mainly for the export market. Furthermore, of the six private enterprise companies now producing, they are Irish-owned as to 90 per cent of their undertakings and they purchase the raw materials from the same source as the Sugar Company, that is, the Irish farmer, to whom they pay over £1½ million annually for their supplies.
Is it not a fact that a number of the other companies in this line of production are subsidiary companies of parent companies in Britain; that, in addition, they draw 40 to 70 per cent of their requirements of raw material from abroad and this material is processed in Ireland? Under these circumstances, why should the Minister place restrictions on the Irish Sugar Company which depends on the Irish farmer for the entire raw material for its production? Is it not scandalous?
Of the six companies to which the Deputy has referred, four are wholly Irish-owned. The remaining two companies have a majority Irish interest so the suggestion that any policy is being dictated as far as these companies are concerned from outside is all wrong.
Next question.
The four the Minister mentioned have only a fraction of the market. The other two, with three-quarters, outside the country, represent the big share.
Chair. We shall put you out on grass, like your own scheme.
Is Deputy McQuillan not right in what he says about the importation of raw materials by the other companies?