I move:
That Dáil Éireann condemns the manner in which the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries last January misled the farmers about future prospects for cattle and sheep and calls on the Government to take urgent steps to protect those engaged in the livestock industry from the immediate disaster that faces them as a result of the serious drop in cattle and sheep prices which has occurred at the same time as the farmers are being asked to pay increased rates and find their credit restricted.
This motion standing in my name and that of other Fine Gael Deputies is tabled for the same reason as the farmers all over Ireland, even from the most distant parts of West Cork, have started marching to Dublin, to emphasise their extraordinary difficulties and to protest in the strongest possible way at the Government's failure to realise these difficulties and to recognise the hopeless state of farm incomes in the present year.
The Minister for Agriculture fails completely to appreciate that many farmers are facing disaster because of the complete collapse of cattle and sheep prices. This collapse has hit all farmers but, of course, the smaller farmer is feeling it by far the worst, and small farmers are to be found all over Ireland. The West and South-West perhaps have been worst hit because the traditional income of the farmers there depended on the rearing of young cattle until they were one or two years old, when they were sold, and also on the rearing of sheep on the hill and mountain areas.
We all know, unfortunately, what has happened. I am familiar with the position in this part of the country. I have spent many hours in cattle marts looking at the prices being offered and the prices, in many cases, having to be accepted because people must sell. I have gone to the West of Ireland, too, to investigate the position there on the spot and I have been appalled at the prices people have had to take. It is well known that cattle prices have dropped anything from £10 to £20 per head since this time last year. I have seen calves that this time last year would be selling at £15 and £20 a head selling freely at cattle marts at £5 each. That is a very serious situation. It is a serious situation for the dairy man because it represents a reduction of 6d per gallon in his milk, but more serious still for the small farmer of the West of Ireland or whatever he may be.
Let me give an example of the extreme hardship that exists. I came across one case in the West of Ireland where both a man and his wife were out trying to sell 10 young store cattle. They were Aberdeen Angus Shorthorn cross from one and a half to two years old, and the woman said: "We have got to sell today whatever happens. This is the third time we have had them out and this is the worst price we have yet been offered but we have got to sell," and she added: "Our children are going back to school." I did not catch the point immediately. I said: "I suppose you have a large family." I discovered there were nine in family, that the two eldest were at secondary school and the third at vocational school. It was quite obvious in that case that the most pressing need was clothes for the children, and school fees, and of course, the rates are coming due. Her pride and decency would not allow her to say any more. These are, in my opinion, sturdy and decent people. They do not mind hard work, even hardship, if their reward enables them to rear their family and give them a reasonable education, but they are being denied that at present.
It has been shown conclusively that there are many people who are trying to get a living from the land today earning as little as £5 per week. As long as these conditions exist the Minister has an obligation to take all the necessary steps to overcome them. I do not believe these steps have yet been taken. We are only playing at the problem and little or nothing has been done so far for these small farmers. We have a few trials in the West of Ireland on a pilot farm scale, but it does not spell relief for the majority of those people. I do not think they are going to continue to accept the position. They have seen that the way to get the position improved is by kicking up a row and that the people who make most noise get most.
This motion draws attention to the manner in which the Minister misled the farming community last January in relation to future prices and prospects for cattle and sheep. Not only did the Minister make those statements in January but he repeated them in May. It is very difficult to understand, with the information that should be at the Minister's disposal, why he himself appeared to be so misled, if he was not making political capital out of the situation at the time. It was reasonable to expect that these difficulties would arise, and the Government Party largely precipitated the crisis we have today. Cattle numbers were artificially increased through the heavy subsidy. We know the response there was to that subsidy, that it brought results and that these results were proudly boasted of on many occasions by the Minister and the members of the Government Party.
It is something to be proud of to be able to increase cattle numbers as they have been increased, but there was no preparation made to dispose of these extra cattle. There was no effort made to set up a proper marketing organisation. We on this side of the House and the farming organisations outside the House have been badgering the Minister and the Department on the necessity for setting up a meat marketing organisation and for setting up a proper promotional board for the selling of live cattle wherever we can sell them, let it be in England; let it be on the Continent.
At the present time, there are rumours abroad. Yesterday, the Minister was apparently in a very happy mood. I hope he has something worthwhile to tell the House this evening. We all will be glad to hear that outlets have been found. If outlets have been found now, it is fair to ask why it was necessary to wait so long to make this effort and why were so many poor farmers throughout the country compelled to sell their young cattle at give-away prices awaiting this effort.
There is a rumour abroad that we now have an outlet for approximately 2,000 cattle in East Germany which are to be slaughtered in West Germany. If the Minister has an announcement of that kind to make I should like that he would announce the price and, perhaps, the subsidy that will be provided by the Irish Government to enable the sale of these cattle to take place.
This morning's paper carries a news item to the effect that we are selling 10,000 cattle to Egypt and that some of the cattle have been shipped already. Everybody will be anxious to hear how much money this sale has put or will put into the pockets of the small producer. Are dealing men to go into the markets in the West of Ireland and elsewhere and buy this limited number of cattle that perhaps we have an outlet for at the lowest price at which they can get them? Will there be nobody competing against them at realistic prices? What is the element of profit for the exporter? Is all this money finding its way into the pockets of exporters and dealers? How much of it is going back to the farmer? My opinion and the opinion of many other persons is that the headage subsidy that is already being paid is not finding its way back to the farmer. I have asked the Minister to try to find a way in which it will find its way back to the farmer. The Minister gave the impression that he was anxious to do that but so far there has been no indication that a scheme is to be brought into operation.
Having regard to the blue card system that is in operation in respect of cattle and the arrangement whereby every beast is ear-tagged, it is difficult to understand why the headage subsidy for fat cattle could not be paid from person to person when a blue card was surrendered until, eventually, it was returned at the port. It would seem not to be beyond the ability and wisdom of the Department of Agriculture to devise a scheme whereby the subsidy would go back direct to the farmer.
It is difficult to see how the small farmer who is not producing fat cattle is to be looked after. Unless there is some competition in the market in which the small farmer has to sell his cattle, or unless the Minister can take over all the Land Commission land that is available and stock that land and all the institutional farms available to the Department with that cattle, thus creating opposition to the dealers and exporters, this scheme will spell no relief for the small farmers in the West of Ireland.
In my view, the position will deteriorate now that we are coming to the end of the grass season. Cattle fed on the 11 months system will be pouring on to the market and unless sizable outlets are found immediately, there will be chaos and many farmers will go down and will not come up for a long time.
The important thing here is to pinpoint, not so much how the crisis has arisen, but how relief is to be provided. It is not easy to remedy matters when a crisis has developed. There are certain things that can be done. It is imperative that the headage subsidy paid at present should be continued until next March, perhaps to the end of next March, or that a guaranteed price for fat cattle during the spring months should be named now, in advance. In addition, the banks, the Agricultural Credit Corporation and the rate collectors should be called on and credit should be made freely available from whatever source it can be provided to enable farmers to keep their cattle or to enable the unfortunate persons who have lost heavily on their stocks and who have had to sell to get into cattle again.
The important thing is to recognise that there is a real crisis. I feel that that fact has not yet borne itself in on the Minister. It is fantastic that as late as last May the Minister, when outlining the benefits that would accrue from the Trade Agreement, should have stated at Volume 222, column 1503, of the Official Report, that there was provided:
...a solid foundation on which the profitable expansion of cattle and sheep production can be based, and livestock producers can expand output in the confident knowledge that adequate export outlets and satisfactory market prices will be available.
In the next column, he said:
...the international outlook for beef points to an assured outlet for all the cattle we can produce.
An assured outlet is not of very much use to any country unless the prices are economic. Unfortunately, we have neither a secure outlet not a sound foundation. The serious aspect of this is that the farmers have found that immediately they increase production of any commodity the price decreases and they are back in slump conditions. It would take a tremendous effort to restore confidence as far as the farmers are concerned so that they would continue to produce cattle in the numbers we all feel desirable if farming is to be. as profitable as we would like it to be. If they are to be convinced that it is a good thing for them to produce cattle there will have to be some guarantee that this type of thing will not recur and that the Minister will not let them down when anything goes wrong.
The attitude of the Minister is that he refuses to meet the representatives of the people who are in difficulty. He refuses to allow their point of view to be put before the people on Telefís Éireann. I do not think that such an attitude will help in the solution of our problem. In the unfortunate circumstances in which the farmers now find themselves the least that they expect from the Minister who represents them is that he would meet them and discuss the difficulties. I think he should apologise for his own failure and should accept from the farmers any recommendations they may have to make as to the best possible ways and means of overcoming the difficulty and restoring confidence.
There are many ways of dealing with this problem. None of them is easy. The important thing to remember is that it is the weakest of our farming people who are worst hit here. The Minister's efforts should be directed towards finding a way of getting anything in the nature of subsidies or assistance channelled back down to that unfortunate farmer whose circumstances compel him to sell. The bills of the grocer, the rate collector and all the other bills due by someone rearing a family are waiting. He must sell, whatever the price. Undoubtedly the feeder will suffer heavy losses in the present year. But he will recover. If he loses this year, he will restock at giveaway prices. Usually his credit position is better than that of the small farmer.
The Minister gave an assurance here at Question Time yesterday that he would see that any small farmer needing credit would get it from the Agricultural Credit Corporation and that that would cover 95 per cent of the farmers. I hope he is right in that. I hope the credit will come as fast as it should come in order to save these people. No words of mine or of any other Deputy could over-emphasise the difficulties the farmers are going through at present.