I move:
That Dáil Éireann deplores the serious decline in farm income which has been aggravated by the enormous increases in farming costs.
I am moving this motion on behalf of my party, Fianna Fáil. It is a very serious motion and provides the House with an opportunity of discussing the many serious problems those involved in farming have to face today. It is hoped that as a result of this discussion the great lack of confidence existing in so many sectors of agriculture will be set aside, that those lacking confidence will be given confidence and those faced with seemingly insurmountable problems will be given the courage to meet these problems and deal with them effectively. I hope that nothing but good will emanate from this short discussion which we in Fianna Fáil are forcing on the Government by this motion in Private Members' time.
One must ask oneself whether the Government believe that there has been a serious decline in farm income and that it has been greatly aggravated by the enormous increases in farming costs. If the Government agree that such is the case they must naturally also agree that a public debate of this nature can be of immense help to all involved. I believe this three-hour debate will serve its purpose and I suggest that if the Government are serious in their intentions the many elected representatives on all sides of the House who feel they ahve a contribution to make on agriculture under existing circumstances, should have the opportunity of making it and that the adjourned debate on the Estimate for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries begun last November should be resumed.
I should like it to be clearly understood that this discussion is not a voluntary one so far as the Labour-Fine Gael Government are concerned. It appears we are to be denied a voluntary debate on agriculture until the adjourned debate on the Estimate is resumed. I am sure this motion will be regarded by the public at large as one deserving more than three hours. Certainly, people are already beginning to ask why the Government are refusing to have an agricultural discussion in Dáil Éireann.
In the recent debate on the energy crisis motion—tabled by Fianna Fáil but amended by Labour and Fine Gael to suit themselves by giving them the right to move it—many people wondered why nobody on the Government side spoke on agriculture. Many wondered why the Taoiseach himself did not take part in such a serious debate or, in his absence, why the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries did not become involved. That motion was certainly looked upon before and after the discussion as the joke of the year but, unfortunately, it was a very sick joke. It was regarded by the farming community particularly with great suspicion, as just another Coalition gimmick and was further evidence to many of the ostrich-like position of the Government, hiding their heads in the sand hoping everything will right itself in time.
It was very noticeable that in that recent debate all the speakers from the Labour and Fine Gael benches were from Dublin except the Minister for Transport and Power, who is from Cork city. This adds further to the genuine belief of many that there is no real feeling of sympathy or understanding for the farming family in the present Coalition Government and that it is an urban minded, trade union dominated Administration. Many believe the Government are totally unaware that 80 per cent of our farmers are engaged in a grinding struggle to win a livelihood from small farms which are barely economic. Many believe that Labour and Fine Gael are not dedicating themselves to fighting the case of the Irish small farmer in the EEC councils or anywhere else.
One can discuss the fall in farmers' income under two headings. There is the rising cost of necessary farm inputs such as feedingstuff, fertilisers, agro-chemicals like sprays, insecticides, herbicides, fuel and oil, agricultural machinery and spares and packaged materials and farm buildings. As well as the exorbitant price of these inputs there is the greater concern of guaranteeing adequate supplies of them. If the manner in which the Government have handled the shortage of oil in recent times is any guide, God help the farmers if other inputs are placed on the same scarce footing. Because of the vast increases in farm production costs, especially of purchased or bought in feed, the continued expansion of Irish agriculture is in jeopardy. One must look at the reduced returns from the market as well as the more expensive inputs. One has reduced returns on the outputs or products. This is particularly true in regard to cattle and pigs. The price of Irish bacon on the UK market was recently reduced by £50 per ton. At present the Irish farmer is in a vicious circle of increased costs and reduced returns.
We are in a time of tremendous world uncertainty in regard to food production and supplies and it therefore behoves Irish agriculture to take every precaution to maintain growth. This will entail guaranteeing supplies of essential inputs, facilitating necessary farming investment, processing into a diversified product range and obtaining markets for products at most remunerative prices. The increases in farming costs have given rise to extreme dissatisfaction and grave worry. There has been an alarming and unprecedented increase in the cost of essential farm inputs in recent months and while this development is related to across-the-board inflation in national economies it has been compounded as we know by international shortages in essential agricultural inputs, especially animal feedingstuffs and the energy crisis resulting in reduced availability of oil-dependent fertilisers.
We have had frightening and staggering increases in the fertiliser area, up to 40 per cent on compound fertilisers starting right now. The price of the 16 per cent superphosphate is up by 80 to 100 per cent. I see that Nítrigin Éireann have been given permission to increase the price of the nitrogenous CAN by 26 per cent and ammonia by 33 per cent. When the Minister is contributing to this debate I should be grateful, as many Deputies would be, if he would let us know what he and the Government did about the stockpiling which many allege took place before the increased prices were announced.
I think it is fair to say that the Minister and the Government are on record as denying that any stockpiling took place. Now, I gather there is an about-turn on their part and they say they are having an investigation or inquiry into the allegations being made. In that context I am sure the Minister will agree that the method of selling fertilisers calls for very serious examination right now if he is at all perturbed by charges of stockpiling until prices were increased. Sales of fertilisers are continuing on the basis that the price to be charged will be that ruling on the date of delivery.
The Government allowed the decontrolling of the prices of animal feeds. This resulted in sharp increases in the price of compounds by some manufacturers. One of the biggest manufacturers, whom everybody knows, is charging twice as much as some of the other co-ops. This has resulted in consternation in the market. What are the Government doing about this situation? What are they doing about maize which is currently costing about £70 a ton from the silo? What did this maize cost before going into the silo? Is the Minister satisfied that a fair margin of profit was made in this instance? What is the Minister doing about the merchants and middlemen who are at present selling beet pulp at £80 a ton, the same beet pulp which they bought for around £18 a ton? What has the Minister to say about the margin of profit which is being made here? What has the Minister done about the identification necessary to distinguish between fertilisers manufactured from raw materials not subject to price increases and those which are? The manufacturers when asked said there were technical difficulties involved in their factories. Does the Minister know what these technical difficulties are? If he does, will he please let us know?
The Minister is on record as saying, according to The Irish Times dated 2nd February, that the Irish fertiliser industry would help farmers by absorbing as much of the cost increases caused by the oil crisis as the industry could bear in the present circumstances. What is he doing about that? Is he doing anything about cheap imports, either by waiving import duties, issuing duty free licences or giving a special fertiliser subsidy to cushion the farmer against higher costs? In terms of advising farmers not to cut down in nitrogen application it is noteworthy to note that the State-owned Nitrigin Éireann were allowed a 26 per cent increase in their fertiliser CAN.
People are very anxious to know what will be done about the increased cost in feedingstuffs and the deleterious effects on pig and poultry production where 80 per cent of the cost is due to feeding. Those directly involved, especially those small farmers who have in the past depended on the income from their efforts at pig and poultry production to see them through, want to know what their future will be. The question to be asked and answered now is: what are the Government doing or what can they do to protect our pig and poultry industries? In 1973 these industries contributed to the national economic out-turn. Any adverse effect on these two closely associated industries is of major national significance.
According to statistics recently released, the first ominous signs of a serious decline in pig production can be seen. The number of pigs received at bacon factories shows a drop of 217,903 or almost 10 per cent of the 2,196,526 pigs sent to the bacon factories since 1972. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of sows slaughtered in our bacon factories in recent times. The number of sows slaughtered in the latter part of January was more than double those slaughtered at the same time last year. This is positive proof that the recent large increases in the cost of feedingstuffs are beginning to have their effect. What will the trend be for the remainder of 1974? What steps will be taken by the Government to prevent the pig and poultry industries from being wiped out completely? The man who wants to know most, as I have already said, is the small farmer who is dependent on his income from these industries.
It is interesting to note that the Minister recently admitted, as a result of many questions in the House from members of my party, that a difficult situation for our pig industry has developed over recent weeks. This was due, on the one hand, to the rise in the feed prices and, on the other, to the downward fluctuations in pig meat prices on our main export market. Commenting on what the Minister said, that this difficult situation for our pig industry has developed over recent weeks, I feel that he is being less than honest with us if he expects us to believe that this crisis has only now developed.
I have been reliably informed by my sources, who might not be as in touch with the day-to-day situation as the Minister's sources should be, that the number of fat sows being slaughtered at present is in the region of 3,300 per week, whereas under normal circumstances there would be between 1,000 and 1,200 sows slaughtered per week. Up to 50 per cent of the sows being slaughtered at McCairns pig factory in Monaghan are heavy in pig and even live bonhams have been born. I was told by a person who is involved in pig production that at the present cost of feedingstuffs, a farmer is losing £4.90 or £5 per pig between birth and slaughter.
In a recent statement the Minister said that the present high prices for feed were worldwide and pig producers in Northern Ireland and Britain had been similarly affected. He also said that fluctuation in pig prices were to be expected in the freer trade conditions obtaining in the European Economic Community. The price rise of £13 per ton adds about £3.50 to the cost of producing a bacon pig. Irish bacon is now £650 a ton at Smithfield but before Christmas it was in the region of £680. When dealing with the fluctuations in pig prices the Minister said such fluctuations also occurred last year but that on the whole that year was a profitable one for pig producers. He said also that in those circumstances it was important for pig producers to stay in the business and refrain from selling off more sows to factories as some appeared to have been doing. He also said that it should be accepted that periods of reduced profitability must be balanced against these when profits were good.
I accept that 1973 was a good year for those involved in pig and poultry production. I have been reliably told that the profits made for 1973 were hardly enough to cover the losses sustained in the month of January, 1974. The Minister says it is important that pig producers should stay in the business but the smaller farmer involved in pig production has no chance whatsoever of being able to stay in the business and he is already, if not gone out of the business completely, certainly on the way out. Is the Minister aware that as late as this week we had pig producers in it at a big level saying that they had no option but to stay in the business and their only reason for doing so was a salvage operation for them, an effort to try to salvage as much as possible out of their investment to date.
If the Minister, as he says, wants us to believe that the recent sales of sows are partly due to current good demand and prices for sows for special markets and for processing, and that they do not necessarily indicate any significant movement out of pig production, then I would like the Minister to enlarge on this statement considerably. I would like the Minister to give us his comprehensive views as to the percentage of sows being sold to factories for the reasons he states as against the percentage of sows sold to factories, many of them very heavy in young, for the reasons I state.
I know I am right because the present price of sows is £15 to £16 per cwt, whereas in January, 1973, fat sows were £15 to £17 per cwt and despite the fact that we have had such staggering increases in feeding stuffs I cannot understand why the Minister says that people are selling sows partly due to the current good demand in prices for them. This is not so. Farmers are now getting out of pigs and also out of poultry.
It costs about 7½ cwt to produce a bacon pig of 190 lbs liveweight and the present cost of feedstuffs alone is more than what the finished bacon is worth. In normal conditions a pig farmer would be losing £5 per head and if the only advice the Minister can give to farmers is to hang on, to stay in pigs and stick together, it is pretty poor advice to people who cannot possibly carry on in pigs. Unless bacon prices rise or feeding prices fall there will be no export of bacon in a few month's time.
I am convinced that the decontrol of foodstuff prices was a disaster. At the time two or three months ago there was a demand for an increase of £13 per ton and members of our farming organisations thought, we are told by the Minister, that if decontrol were introduced competition would keep the increase to about £5 per ton but the facts are that practically all the private companies took all the full £13 per ton rise. Indeed, if one wants to read the recent report of the Occasional Paper No. 11, on the animal feedstuffs industry in Ireland, one will see that the first three or four pages show that a rise was necessary on only two out of four counts and that the rise should have been about £6 per ton and not the £13 per ton which took place. The co-operatives as we know, took only between £5 and £8 per ton. According to the first four pages of this report, pig rations varied by as much as £20 to £25 per ton between different parts of the country.
As we are talking about different parts of the country, I should like the Minister to give us an explanation as to why County Louth has the dearest charges of all. At present I cannot get my hands on an up-to-date price list of foods but I know that dried barley from the silos is £65 per ton and that pig rations vary from £70 to £90 per ton, but the co-ops are from £70 to £75 per ton and the best of the private men are about £85 per ton. If these price ranges are the result of decontrol, it is obvious that this action taken by the Government was nothing other than panic action which has resulted in chaos in the industry, chaos from which it will take a supreme effort to recover. We will have many who will not be able to stay in the business until things begin to brighten up again.
The one output sector where falling prices have eroded farmer confidence is that of cattle. We know that cattle prices have reverted to their normal seasonal low of last winter and that this period of low prices has been greatly aggravated by a scarcity of feedingstuffs due to two reasons. The first reason is the inflated costs of compound feeds and the second is the very poor quality of hay because of the wet summer, something which I do not blame on the Minister.
