asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries whether the pig population is now only 60 per cent of what it was before entry to the EEC, despite the predictions of expanded production; whether under EEC regulations pig producers who do not grow 35 per cent of their barley requirements on their own land are ineligible for grants; and whether, in view of this, he has devised any ways by which the livelihoods of Irish pig producers, especially the smaller producers, might be sustained as well as business and employment in the bacon factories.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Pig Production.
22.
As regards the first part of the question, there was in fact an increase of 2.8 per cent in pig numbers in December, 1973, as compared with December, 1972.
As regards the second and third parts of the question, the EEC regulation regarding grant aid towards capital investment by pig producers requires that the farm be deemed capable of producing that proportion of the feed requirements of the pig enterprise, not that 35 per cent of their barely requirements is actually grown on the land.
My question refers to the smaller pig producers in the west and the north-west. The Minister is well aware that in the main pig producing areas it is a great hardship to ask producers to comply with that regulation.
The intention behind this is not to be aiding what would be regarded as industrialised pig production where there is no need for a farm at all. It is to ensure that the man who is getting the aid is a farmer.
Would the Minister answer what is contained in Deputy Flanagan's question—what is the population now, not last December?
We cannot have a pig census every day of the week.
It is five months out of date.
Would the Minister not agree there has been a dramatic decline in the last two months?
The answer to Deputy Brennan is that the slaughterings do not indicate that. Deliveries of pigs to bacon factories in the first 17 weeks of 1974 were 662,910 as compared with 656,966 last year. In other words, more pigs were delivered to factories in the first 17 weeks of this year.
Is the Minister trying to tell the House that the number of pigs in the country in May, 1974, is as high as what it was in December last?
I am trying to give the House——
Misleading information.
——the facts. I am not accustomed to stonewalling.
Will the Minister say whether the pig population is as high today as it was in December last?
I can only be guided by what is happening.
The Minister is deliberately trying to mislead the House and the public.
May I ask the Minister finally whether he is satisfied and happy as to the source of his Department's statistics.
It is the same method of collecting statistics that was in existence in the time of the previous Government.
But is was more up to date then and it was not presented in a misleading fashion.
I might be permitted to put some information before the Minister and to ask the Minister's opinion on it. Would the Minister agree that the increased slaughterings could be brought about by people disposing of their young sows and breeding stock? Would he examine this possibility, because there is every likelihood that the pig will have to be preserved before it becomes extinct?
I have given statistics of sow slaughterings to the House on a couple of occasions.