asked the Minister for Agriculture if, in view of the uneconomic price of home-made butter he will consider subsidising milk produced on islands which cannot avail of creamery facilities.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Subsidising of Island-produced Milk.
7.
The question of providing special assistance for milk producers on islands has been considered on a number of occasions. Where possible, arrangements were made for the Dairy Disposal Company to provide cream-separating stations on the islands even though the actual or potential milk supplies were below the level required for economic operation of the stations. In other instances where the milk supplies were far too low, the Dairy Disposal Company offered to help in the organisation of a milk cartage system on the mainland to the nearest creamery and to contribute towards its cost if the islanders themselves were prepared to transport their milk co-operatively to a convenient point on the mainland but the milk producers did not avail themselves of the offer. This offer is, of course, still open.
It appears from the Minister's reply that he is not conversant with the position obtaining in these islands. Is he aware that the creamery facilities which are available elsewhere are not available in these islands and that the islanders gain no benefit whatsoever from the subsidy which the Minister mentioned in this House some time ago as being allowed to the dairying industry, that is, a subsidy of more than £6 million. In view of the fact that in the case of Clear Island, which is nine miles from the mainland, it is impossible for the local milk producers to send their milk to the mainland, surely the only answer is to give them a special subsidy which would not cost very much?
I am aware that the Dairy Disposal Company erected a cream separating station in Bere Island in 1940 and although the prospects of securing an adequate supply to justify the erection of a similar station on Whiddy Island was very doubtful, they also erected a separating station there. It was hoped that the erection of the second station on Whiddy Island might prove to be an encouragement to the islanders to increase cow numbers and thereby increase the volume of milk available. Unfortunately, these hopes were not realised. In the case of the other islands, that is, Hare island and Sherkin island, the supply of milk available there would not justify their erecting stations in these centres. The offer was made by the company that if the people who are producing milk on these islands would cooperatively transfer the milk to the mainland, the company would introduce a subsidised cartage system to the nearest separating station. The company have indicated not only their knowledge of the problems there but their willingness to be as helpful as one could reasonably expect them to be.
Is the Minister aware that the Dairy Disposal Company recommended that the best way to deal with the milk produced in the islands is to give these people a subsidy, that it would be the most economic way of helping them, far more economic than making creamery facilities available to them? Surely that recommendation is there in the Minister's file if he wishes to look it up?
I do not know what the thoughts of the Dairy Disposal Company may have been in that regard but my thoughts are that not more than half the milk produced by the cow population of the country, not to talk about these islands, is handled in creameries. I do not see how such a system as he suggests could be worked and I do not know how it could be confined to the islanders, even if it were workable.
Surely the Minister is aware that if creamery facilities are not availed of in any part of the country, it is because people do not want them. They are making more money from their present system of farming and do not wish to go into dairy farming.
I am not really aware that is their attitude but the facts are there.
Surely the Minister will agree that a good case has been made by these islanders who, by virtue of the location of their holdings, cannot avail of creamery facilities and who are no burden whatsoever on the Exchequer so far as the subsidy towards the dairying industry is concerned? They are entitled to some special consideration by virtue of their being separated from the mainland by the Atlantic Ocean and by reason of the disadvantages under which they are labouring. The recommendation of the Dairy Disposal Company should be implemented, that is, to give them a subsidy on their butter production.
I am satisfied the Dairy Disposal Company have approached the question of the islanders and the milk produced on these islands in a very generous and helpful way. As I say, the offer made to these people still stands and I cannot see why it should not be possible to operate a scheme such as has been suggested, on the understanding that the transport will be subsidised by the company.
Will the Minister say how that scheme could be operated on Cape Clear, nine miles from the mainland?
The people who suggested it must have a fair idea how it could be operated if a serious effort were made.
The Minister must be also aware that the suggestion made by the Dairy Disposal Company was a subsidy, not creamery facilities. We shall have this another day.