I feel constrained to take up the time of the House in view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply given to me yesterday by the Minister for Agriculture in answer to my question on the development of the poultry industry.
As you are aware, Sir, it was generally agreed by all that until recent years the poultry industry was very important in rural Ireland and, indeed, a very profitable industry for many of our people, particularly small farmers, cottiers, and others who engaged in it. This industry also gave a good deal of self-employment to many of our women folk. As one who was very conversant with the poultry industry in west Cork, I can vouch for the fact that in a big number of cases the income from the poultry industry to small farmers and others would be from 25 per cent to 30 per cent of their total gross income.
Unfortunately, the industry declined and, despite various agitations by agricultural bodies, and particularly committees of agriculture, and others interested in the poultry industry, no headway was made. We got the excuse from this Government in particular, and from the Minister's predecessor, that there was no export market, and no outlet for our poultry or poultry products, and consequently there was little to be done about it so far as the State was concerned. That continued year after year. In his Estimate presented to the House on 11th June, the then Minister for Agriculture, Deputy Smith, dismissed this industry with a few remarks. He referred to the type of people in whom I am interested, the traditional poultry producers throughout the country, and said:
There is, unfortunately, no sign of any distinct improvement in the conditions which for many years now have made it difficult to develop the eggs and poultry industries.
The then Minister said that unfortunately there was no improvement and, as a result of that statement, and other statements by Government spokesmen, the people who had held on, even though the industry was uneconomic having regard to the prices prevailing, in the hope that they would get back on their feet sometime, naturally more or less said to themselves: "This industry is gone. There is little use in holding on because we have not an economic price in any line in the industry."
When the Minister made his first statement on agriculture to the House —a comprehensive survey of our agricultural industry—and omitted to mention the poultry industry, we took it for granted that he was following the lines of his predecessor, that there was nothing to be added to that statement, and that he had more or less affirmed the belief of his predecessor that the poultry industry was dead, and there was little use wasting time talking about it.
On 24th November I was seeking information as to why he omitted any mention of this industry and, by way of interruption, the Minister said: "I do very well out of hens myself." That stunned me, and stunned many people throughout the country, because there are very few people—and I know many people from one end to the other of the country—who can say as the Minister said on 24th November: "I do very well out of hens myself." He said it with a kind of a sneer and a jeer as much as to say: "Everyone could do just as well as I am doing if they adopted my methods."
At that time the Minister told us about his actual profits. He told us he had got 2,000 hens on a farm in Raheny and made £874 from them. He also told us he was not selling the eggs produced by those 2,000 hens to any private concern, that he had no particular market, and that he had not a hatchery farm. He implied quite definitely that he was selling eggs in the same way as any ordinary producer would sell them.
