asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he is aware that the very high cost of meals, etc., is a handicap to increased pig production in the western counties; and if he will take the necessary steps to remedy this situation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Pig Production.
23.
I am not aware that the situation is as suggested by the Deputy. My information is that there is keen competition between feed manufacturers throughout the country, including the western counties, and that this is reflected in the price levels of pig rations, relative to the prices of ingredients and manufacturing costs. Deliveries of feed barley to the western counties are, of course, subsidised by An Bord Gráin.
Does the Minister not appreciate that there is a particular problem in the west of Ireland with regard to feeding stuffs for pigs? Resolutions have been passed on numerous occasions about this matter by the Mayo County Committee of Agriculture on which his party have a majority. May I ask him if he is now prepared to take the necessary steps to see that pig feeding stuffs are made available to our people so that they can produce pigs economically?
As I said in my reply, there is no evidence whatever to suggest that the price of pig meal is in any disproportion in the western counties to the rest of the country. I would say that the increases which have undoubtedly come as a result of the better prices being paid for barley on the one hand and the increased wages for workers in the provender industry on the other, are more than compensated for by the recent increases in pig prices that have taken place.
Do I take it that the Minister completely disagrees with prominent members of his own party on the Mayo Committee of Agriculture and with me in this regard? It is well known that pig feeding is much more expensive in the west than in any other part of the country.
This is not so. If Deputy O'Hara would inquire from the leading provender firms in the west of Ireland what their current prices are and then find out the current price in the rest of the country he will discover that what I say is correct, that there has been no disproportionate increase in the price of pig feeding in the western counties at all in recent times.
While there may not have been a disproportionate increase, would the Minister not agree that the inclusion of barley, to which he referred, and which is subsidised in freight in pig meal is only about 50 per cent and all the other ingredients have got to be brought by lorry or some other means to the west at great expense and this does, while there may not have been a disproportionate increase, indicate a higher price for pig meal in the west than anywhere else?
I cannot go into the technicalities of the proportion of high starch ingredients in pig fattening meal. I know it varies considerably. I also know that the protein content, a large quantity of which is home produced, has to be brought by the provender miller for blending purposes. All these are constant in the manufacture of provender and do not in any way bear out the case made by Deputy O'Hara, which, as I understand it, is that there has been a disproportionate increase in the price of pig fattening meal in the western counties. This simply is not so.
The higher price of pig meal is constant.