asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the amount of wheat taken in by the Irish millers to date; and the amount of such wheat which has been passed as millable.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Wheat Deliveries.
53.
As the reply is in the form of a tabular statement I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to circulate it with the Official Report.
Following is the statement:—
|
Total Intake (a) |
Millable |
Potentially Millable |
Unmillable |
|
tons |
tons |
tons |
tons |
|
150,350 |
91,650 |
30,000 |
28,700 |
(a) The figures shown are the estimated quantities taken into the flour mills up to 30th October, 1965.
Surely there are only two figures?
No, there are four.
Then I think the Minister might give them to us.
The total intake is about 150,000 tons. Of that, 91,000 tons are regarded as millable, 30,000 tons as potentially millable and about 28,000 tons as unmillable.
Will the 30,000 tons of potentially millable wheat be accepted as millable?
I think the important thing from the Deputy's point of view is that this Government have decided to pay for all potentially millable wheat this year at the millable price.
Is the Minister not incorrect? The Government are not paying any subsidy on wheat this year.
I said the Government have decided——
To pay. The Minister is quite incorrect.
This is a matter of semantics.
It is an incorrect statement by the Minister. We must tell him when he is wrong. The Government are not producing a red shilling because they have not got it.
I think what I did say—and if I did not say it, I meant to say it—is that this Government have decided the wheat should be paid for.
The attitude of the millers is changing a little.
The important thing is that, by our action, the farmer is being paid full millable wheat prices for this potentially millable wheat.
What about the 28,000 tons of unmillable wheat? Does the Minister intend to produce a subsidy to help the farmers who have suffered this serious loss?
I have also ensured that this year the farmer will receive a substantially increased price for unmillable wheat.
The Minister is again incorrect and knows nothing whatever about the problem.
Now you have put him in bad humour.
The price to be paid for unmillable wheat is determined by the price An Bórd Gráin decide they will pay for dried wheat from 1st January onwards. In fixing that price, I have ensured that the farmer will get a substantial increase for his unmillable wheat this year as compared with last year.
I wish to inform the Minister he is again incorrect. His action in bringing Bórd Gráin into this, good though it may be, did not increase the price of unmillable wheat.
It did so.
The Minister may say so but I am telling him he is wrong.