asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will advise dairy co-operative societies to pay for milk in accordance with its protein content rather than its butter fat content.
12.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Milk Price.
11.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he proposes to take any action on the proposals made by the head of the Dairy Chemistry Department of the National Dairy Research Centre to the effect that dairy farmers should no longer be paid for milk on a flat rate for butter fat but should be paid for its protein content.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 12 together.
If the dairy industry generally wishes to change the present system of paying for milk on a butter fat basis so as to enable constituents other than butter fat to be taken into account, I would have no objection. In the absence of a demand from the industry for such a change, however, amendment of the relevent existing order would not seem warranted.
Will the Minister agree that the emphasis on the protein content of butter, which would come about as a result of changing the system, might be to the advantage of the butter industry which finds itself on the wrong end of the propaganda war with non-butter fats?
I said in my reply to the Deputy that if the demand comes from the industry, we will raise no objection, but such a demand has not come.
Would the Minister agree that it would not necessarily mean a reduction in the price paid for butter?
I just do not know and I do not think the Deputy would necessarily know.
It depends on the basis on which the protein content was reckoned and paid for. There is no need for a lesser price to be paid.
Would the Minister not agree that if we have an eminent person such as the head of the Dairy Research Department in Moore Park stating that it would be in the interest of the dairying industry to go over to either protein testing or protein and butter fat testing, his Department should give a lead in the matter?
No. I have to wait for the industry and there is no demand from the industry. I am concerned about the people engaged in the industry and supplying the raw materials for it.
Deputy Lemass.
Does it not boil down to basic economics——
I have called Deputy Lemass.
Surely the National Dairy Research Centre must have some significance in the formulation of policy in the Department? Does the Minister accept that they have that responsibility?
What the research people are doing is researching for the dairying industry and they give the dairying industry as such the results of their researches. If they are prepared to use them and make a demand of me to enable them to use them, fair enough, I am with them, but they have not done so.
The Minister must be aware of the world shortage of proteins——
This matter has been adequately discussed and we must pass on to the next question.
If it is only a matter of adopting the basic economic system the Minister should encourage it.
I am not so concerned with the world position as I am with the producers in this country.
Surely if the Minister is concerned with them he will be concerned with the world position?