asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries when he will announce the grain prices for the present year.
32.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Pig and Grain Prices.
31.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he intends to increase the guaranteed price of pigs, barley and wheat; and, if so, when.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose taking Questions Nos. 31 and 32 together.
The prices for wheat and barley for 1968 are being announced today. These prices are the same as in 1967.
As regards the guaranteed minimum prices for pigs, I am at present examining various aspects of the pigs position, including prices, and will announce my conclusions in due course.
Can the Minister say why he proposes not to increase the price of barley in view of the increased costs of imported feeding stuffs due to devaluation, and can he also say in relation to the price of wheat for the same reason why he proposes to have no increase, even though the overheads and costs of production are increasing all the time?
Surely the first thing is for the Deputy to make a case for an increase rather than to ask the Minister to state why he does not give an increase?
The case is automatically made: increased costs of production and increased costs for the purchase of feeding stuffs from abroad.
Is the Minister aware that last year we imported £24 million worth of cereals and feeding stuffs which could have been grown in this country if the Minister gave a remunerative price to the producers? Why does the Minister not give them a good price for wheat and encourage the producers at home to produce barley, oats and other feeding stuffs?
We could revert to the Fine Gael policy of growing no grain.
When Deputy Dillon was in office 20 years ago——
He would not be found dead in a field of wheat.
I should like to ask the Minister is he not aware that the growing of feeding barley was introduced substantially into this country just 20 years ago when the Ymer variety was first introduced? The price of feeding stuffs has gone up in the past month by over £3 a ton and, in view of that fact, does the Minister not realise that unless urgent steps are taken to raise the minimum price for pigs, people will go out of pig production? I invite the Minister to ask his colleague, the Minister for Transport and Power, whether it is not true that in County Monaghan a great many people are getting out of pigs on account of the increased price of feeding stuffs which does not arise from any increase in the domestic price of barley but which has been sanctioned by the Minister for Industry and Commerce at the request of the compound feeding manufacturers on the grounds of increased cost of imports.
Can the Minister say why the price of grain cannot be announced until the middle of February? What is the sense in the Department exhorting farmers to do early ploughing before Christmas when they are not told what the price will be until the middle of February?
In reply to Deputy Dillon's sensible observation, I should like to say that this matter of the minimum price of pigs is being dealt with at the moment. We are aware of the impact of these increased prices, brought about mainly by devaluation and the impact this, in turn, has on pig production. We are fully alive to this and we will be making changes in that direction in the very near future.
Question No. 33.
Will the Minister answer my question? I asked only two supplementary questions on two questions.
It is not for the Deputy to direct the Chair as to how many supplementaries may be asked.
I asked only two supplementaries, one on each question.
If the Minister wishes to answer——
Why can the price not be announced until the middle of February?
Why did the Deputy drop the other question?
Which?
Did the Deputy think it was not so good?
Which was that? I asked no other question.
The Deputy said he asked two.
One was on the previous question and the Minister answered it. The Minister has no answer.