asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the advantages of the green £ and its monetary worth to the Irish farming community for the remainder of 1974.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - The Green £.
28.
The adoption of a new representative rate for the Irish £ for the purposes of the common agricultural policy will benefit farm income and increase our export earnings as it has significantly improved our agricultural support prices here and appreciably reduced the monetary taxes against our agricultural exports. The benefit to farm income for the remainder of this year is likely to be in the region of £10 million.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the operation of the green £ means, in effect, over the next 12 months an increased income of £10 to £15 for small farmers in the west?
I am aware it will mean about £39.5 million or £40 million. That is the factual position.
If I understand him correctly, the Parliamentary Secretary said the value of the green £ this year to farmers was approximately £10 million. Is that correct?
Yes, for the remainder of the year.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say how much it would have been worth if it had been obtained when the Government were first asked to do so?
The position is we have lost little or nothing so far as the green £ is concerned. The Government made their decision at the appropriate time and at the same time as Britain got a similar concession. As I indicated already, we have gained £10 million for the remainder of this year and we have not lost anything.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary explain what he means by saying we have lost little or nothing by not applying before we did?
I shall do so. MCAs were very low up to April due to the operation of the provision in the regulations that the amount of an MCA in the case of a depreciated currency cannot exceed the charge against imports from third countries. Therefore, reducing the representative rate would have brought little saving in MCAs. The Deputy will see I am giving him all the information available——
I admit it makes a change.
It is more than he obliged me with—it did not suit him that time.
At the same time, it could have led to the situation where, with the Irish rate reduced, and the UK rate as was then almost certain unchanged, the subsidy limited to the amount of the third countries import charge paid on our exports to the UK would be less than the increase in the intervention price. Thus, disposal to intervention could have been made far more attractive than sales to the UK and this would have placed an intolerable burden on the intervention system. Reducing the representative rate, therefore, would have been a self-defeating exercise in the case of cattle and beef at that time.
I presume we may take it from what the Parliamentary Secretary has said that he is describing the situation as he sees it in relation to cattle and beef only and up to April. He has not referred to the situation, for instance, with regard to milk and dairy products, nor has he referred to the situation with regard to any products after April.
For the reason given the changes would not be very much. The Deputy knows more about monetary matters than I do and I am sure he will be able to make some calculations and find that the answers I have given are correct. We must take note of what the eight other members of the Community do. So far as the Minister is concerned, he is deserving of our thanks and those of the Irish farmers for his achievements.
It is nine months too late.
I am calling Question No. 29.
29.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he is aware that the price of small cattle and canning cows has fallen since the introduction of the green £; and if he will state the benefits, if any, that will accrue to people who have to sell these cattle this winter.
While it would be unrealistic to expect that the recent change in the representative rate for the Irish £ would in itself have solved the serious difficulties in the cattle industry arising from the depressed export market for beef, the change has, nevertheless, provided substantial help for the industry through reducing the monetary charges on our exports and raising the price at which beef is bought into intervention. In addition, as already announced, special assistance by way of subsidised loans and free feed vouchers is being provided for farmers holding young cattle.
The Minister has not answered the question. The question is not concerned with the price of beef; it refers to the price of canning cows and calves since the introduction of the green £. Things have got much worse.
Canning cows do not qualify for intervention.
Neither do the calves. I have been putting forward the case of the owners for the last 12 months.
I share the anxiety of the Deputy regarding this question——
Nothing is being done about the matter.
The Parliamentary Secretary has referred to two schemes in relation to free feed vouchers and subsidised loans. These will not alleviate the hardship caused to the many farmers producing young and store cattle.
I am quite satisfied——
That there will be an increase in their incomes?
I am satisfied it will help.
The loan for six months will merely keep these animals alive—they will not be saleable in six months. How will the farmer repay the loans?
What was asked for was help to tide people over the winter period until next April or May. That is being done. The State is paying 8 per cent of the interest rate on the loans and it is an exceptional help towards that objective.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary state how many farmers will benefit from these loans? Is he aware that many farmers are not in a position to pay back loans they already have, that they are having them deferred for 12 months and, consequently, will not be in a position to take advantage of the 8 per cent subsidy?
All applications will be considered by the appropriate body, the ACC and, according to my information, they will be considered sympathetically. The Deputy finds pleasure in talking about poor, impoverished farmers and depression. All these matters were explained today, as they were explained last week——
I find no pleasure in talking about the situation.
The people on the opposite benches have been responsible in some sectors of agriculture for the air of depression.
The Government are blaming everybody but themselves.
It was oil last week and it is Fianna Fáil this week. The Government do not know or care about the farmers.
I am calling Question No. 30.