I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
When I assumed office as Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries in 1973, one of the matters awaiting resolution was the re-organisation of the agricultural advisory service. It was a subject of which I think I can claim to have some modest experience and in which I have always had a very considerable interest. I found that submissions had been received from every possible organisation and group that could conceivably be associated with the topic. As might be expected, the recommendations put forward were wide-ranging and covered the whole spectrum of possible solutions. If there was any common factor among the many suggestions submitted, it was the advisory service needed to be reorganised.
In concurring with this sentiment, I have no wish to belittle the services which the committees of agriculture and their members have given in the past and, indeed, continue to provide; nor is it my intention to decry the contribution to agricultural development of the many committed men and women who constitute our present advisory service, or their predecessors over the past 70-odd years. It was clear, however, that the increasing demands on its facilities had revealed a number of weaknesses in the existing structure of the service, arising from divided control, lack of overall leadership and direction, unsatisfactory career structure, excessive movement of staff and the absence of specialist and support services, among other things.
With the increasing urgency for the most efficient techniques in agricultural production, processing and marketing which our recent accession to the European Economic Community imposed and the realisation of the contribution the advisory service would make in this direction, it seemed to me imperative that rather than seek any further views I should concern myself with the formulation of proposals to remedy the defects in the existing system, which I have already outlined, and endeavour to provide a structure that would, as well, be of the utmost benefit to farmers and the agricultural industry. I was anxious to have a system which would bring together in one organisation the different services that are working for the benefit of agriculture and in a manner that would promote good working relations between them. It seemed desirable that the farm and other rural organisations be involved so that they would have an effective say in the activities of the new organisation. I had to bear in mind also my responsibility to the Government and the Oireachtas regarding the overall policy that might be followed by whatever structure would eventually be established.
I am convinced that, as the existing advisory, education and research services have a common objective, it is necessary to group these together in one unit and to provide a common direction to ensure the necessary co-ordination and co-operation between them. I look forward to a situation where the existing network of agricultural colleges, research stations and farm training centres will have the greatest possible influence on farming in the surrounding areas. Training courses at educational institutions will provide young farmers with the knowledge and skills which already exist; the advisory service will continue to keep the knowledge of practising farmers up to date and the task of the research arm will be to generate new knowledge as well as to provide answers to problems arising within the industry.
These aims, objectives and proposals were set out in the White Paper which was laid before this House in April, 1975, and the measure now before you is intended to give legislative effect to Government policy as outlined in that document.
The explanatory memorandum circulated to Deputies gives particulars of the provisions of the Bill and, except for the more important proposals, I do not intend to go into them in very great detail. I should like to emphasise however that, as indicated in the memorandum, the Bill was prepared following consideration of submissions from farmers' organisations, the council of An Foras Talúntais, the National Science Council, the Irish Veterinary Association and the Association of State-aided Agricultural Colleges as well as from the trade unions and staff associations representing the interests of staff affected by the White Paper proposals. These submissions were in the majority of cases followed by discussions with representatives of the organisations concerned.
The two most important elements of section 2 relate to the respective definitions of "agriculture" and "research". "Agriculture" as defined in the Bill represents an expansion of the definition in the existing statutes to cover the widest spectrum of agricultural activities and includes such items an animal nutrition, farm management, agricultural economics and marketing, together with the processing of agricultural products, which did not appear in the previous legislation. Plant breeding has been specifically included in the definition of "research" so as to enable the authority to perform a function which has hitherto not been exercised by An Foras Talúntais. It has been necessary, however, to exclude from the definition the testing and grading of animals and products regarding which the Minister has a statutory or regulatory responsibility.
The transfer to the authority of the different functions in relation to education, agricultural advice and research, as provided for in sections 11 to 18, are in accordance with the directions in the White Paper; but it will be observed that in the exercise of the activities concerned, the authority are obliged to make themselves aware of similar facilities being provided by kindred institutions to avoid overlapping in these spheres and the authority must co-operate with these institutions on a mutual basis as opportunity offers. The advisory functions of the authority are, as will be noted from section 15, specifically orientated towards the individual farmer, and this obligation is further strengthened under section 30, which deals with the powers and duties of the board of the authority. The board are required to lay special emphasis on ensuring that the services provided by the authority have the greatest possible effect on agricultural productivity at local level. The research functions set out at section 17 correspond with those at present carried out by An Foras Talúntais, with the addition of responsibility for basic veterinary research. Section 20 provides for the closer integration within the authority of the schemes of aid to farmers, referred to in the White Paper, if this is considered desirable.
The activities of the authority as I am sure Deputies will appreciate, are most diverse, if not diffuse and it seemed to me, therefore, necessary that it should have on its board the benefit of advice and experience of people engaged in or concerned with as many as possible of these diverse functions, without, at the same time seriously reducing the board's effectiveness because of too large a membership. The board of 24 members as proposed in section 25 seems to me to be a reasonable compromise between these possibly competing objectives and it will also be observed that provision is made in the Second Schedule for a considerable measure of continuity as between one board and the next. In accordance with the provisions of the White Paper, the Board will be composed of members nominated by the General Council of Committees of Agriculture together with members representatives of agricultural and rural organisations, the staff of the authority, the universities, the State-aided schools and such other agricultural interests as may be prescribed in a statutory order, which will provide machinery for selection and nomination of board members.
The new authority will be an integrated national service and will be constituted as an executive agency of the Minister on the broad lines visualised in the Devlin Report. It is necessary, therefore, that a minimum of control should be exercised over its activities by the Minister and this is provided for in sections 32 and 44. Under section 32 the board is required to prepare in respect of each financial year a programme of its projected activities and, under section 44 it is required to prepare annually an estimate of its expenditure and receipts. The programme and estimate will be subject to the approval of the Minister, and the board may not engage, without the Minister's consent, in activities other than those appearing in the programme, or incur expenditure in excess of that appearing in the approved budget. Apart from these restrictions, the authority is free to operate within the entire ambit of its statutory functions.
The committees of agriculture will, as indicated in Part IV of the Bill, no longer have responsibility for the local advisory and educational functions, but they are empowered to prepare an annual advisory and educational programme for their counties. These programmes must be considered by the board and account taken of them by the board in preparing its annual programme of activities to be submitted for the approval of the Minister. The committees will, in addition, have the important watch-dog function mentioned in Section 36, not only in relation to the board's activities, but in relation to centrally administered agricultural schemes also. Section 43 provides for the recognition of the General Council of Committees of Agriculture referred to in paragraph 3.3 of the White Paper, and, under section 42, it is indicated that, in future, not more than half the members of the committees will be county councillors; the remaining members will be nominated by voluntary rural organisations active in the county, the organisations and their representatives to be determined by the Minister under a statutory order.
The revenue of the authority will be derived from State grants, contributions from the county rate, the proceeds of certain investments at present in the hands of the Agricultural Institute, fees for services undertaken on behalf of persons or bodies availing of the authority's research and kindred services, from donations and contributions by farming organisations, agricultural co-operative societies, and so on and from the proceeds of sales of stock and and institutions. The State endowment will be in two parts, namely, an annual capital grant of such amount as may be determined by the Minister with the approval of the Minister for Finance and an annual grant towards current expenses which shall not in real terms be less than the total amount provided for the activities concerned in the financial year immediately preceding the establishment of the authority.
In order to make satisfactory arrangements for appropriate contributions from the county rates in respect of the local advisory and educational functions being transferred to the authority, it has been necessary to alter the present system. Hitherto, the amount of the rates contribution for agricultural services in each county was entirely within the discretion of the county council concerned. In future, however, each committee of agriculture will be required to furnish each year to the Minister proposals in respect of its expenditure on the services being retained by it and, having considered these, the Minister will issue a certificate authorising the committee to demand from its council a sum which will include provision for the committee's expenditure on its retained services and also in respect of the estimated cost to the authority of providing in the county the advisory and educational services which were formerly made available by the committee. The council is obliged to pay the full amount of the demand to the committee and the committee in its turn must remit to the authority the certified estimated cost of the advisory and educational services in the county. The income accuring to the authority under the annual local contributions from committees of agriculture may, under section 47, be used only in support of the advisory and educational services formerly provided by the committees. Section 50 extends to the authority powers to borrow for the purpose of the administration and operation of its functions. This facility is not available to the Agricultural Institute; Part VI of the Bill deals with the transfer of property and staff to the authority.
The entire property in the hands of the committees of agriculture and An Foras Talúntais will be transferred to the authority on the commencement of section 53.
By far the most valuable portion of the property to be transferred from the committees will be the agricultural education centres and office premises provided by them since they became corporate bodies in 1958. The cost of providing these facilities was met in roughly equal proportions from State grants and local rates contributions. Although I am advised that there is no strict legal obligation on me in this respect, I consider it only equitable that the local bodies should be compensated for the contributions they have made towards the expense of providing these facilities. It is, accordingly, proposed under section 58 to pay compensation in respect of half the net value of the assets of the committees to be transferred to the authority and this will be done on the basis of a direct payment to the committees proportionate to their expenditure on their retained services in the year prior to integration, the balance to be covered by an appropriate increase in the annual State grant to the authority and a corresponding reduction in the demand from the committees on the county councils concerned. This arrangement will serve, to some slight degree, towards a reduction in local rates.
It will be recalled that, on the establishment of An Foras Talúntais in 1958, a generous subvention was made by the United States authorities out of grant counterpart funds to support the activities of the institute and to assist it in acquiring lands and premises and other facilities of a capital nature. These moneys constituted the capital and endownment funds of the institute. At present, the capital fund is nearly exhausted, but the endownment fund of £1 million is still intact. An agreement has very recently been reached with the United States Government terminating the obtained agreement and concurring in proposals from the Irish Government as to the disposal of the residual funds. It has, accordingly, been decided, as set out in section 54 of the Bill, to transfer the moneys in the endownment fund and any unexpended balance in the capital fund of the authority which may be utilised for such capital purposes in relation to any of the functions of the new authority as may be approved by the Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Finance. I should like to place on record on my own behalf and on behalf of my colleagues in the Government, our satisfaction with and appreciation of the generosity and co-operation of the United States authorities in this regard.
Section 53 sets out the properties of the Minister to be transferred to the authority. As you will note from the explanatory memorandum, the line followed is to transfer lands and premises where more than 50 per cent of the work concerns research, education or agricultural advice and, therefore, only the agricultural schools at Athenry, Clonakilty, Ballyhaise and Kildalton will become the absolute property of the authority. The Minister's interest in the cereal station at Ballinacurra, County Cork, will also be transferred under this arrangement, but the Minister will retain such property or premises at these locations as are required by him for such activities as do not come within the province of the authority. The Minister may, however, under section 60 transfer by statutory order not only these retained properties, but any other property, in course of time that he considers should be made over to the authority.
Paragraph 2.2 of the White Paper states that the staff of the authority will comprise the existing staffs of the committees of agriculture, An Foras Talúntais and the relevant staff of the Department of Agriculture together with such personnel as may subsequently be recruited. Provision for this is made in section 65 which proposes that the entire staff of the committees and of An Foras will be transferred on the commencement of the relevant section, together with such members of the staff of the Department of Agriculture as may be designated by the Minister. Every member of the transferred staff will carry with him such rights as he now possesses in relation to remuneration and conditions of service and will be subject to such obligations as apply to him in his existing service.
Similar provisions are made under section 66 in relation to superannuation. The superannuation provisions prescribe that credit will be given for previous pensionable service, whether under local authorities, or the State and in the case of officers of committees of agriculture their rights under the local government superannuation code to the addition, in certain circumstances, of years to pensionable service have been preserved. In response to representations from a number of staff associations, section 69 has been inserted to provide an appeal procedure for any member of the transferred staff who may consider he has a grievance in relation to his conditions of service or to superannuation on his transfer to the new authority.
It should be understood, in regard to the staff and superannuation provisions of the Bill, that, as indicated in sections 34 and 35, a united and co-ordinated system of grading, remuneration, control and conditions of service and pension for the entire staff of the authority is eventually envisaged and that the specific arrangements in this connection set out in sections 65 to 69 are intended to deal with contingencies arising in the interval between the transfer of staff to the authority and the approval of the staff and superannuation schemes referred to in sections 34 and 35.
As the establishment of the authority will result in the transfer of existing services to unified control, no expenditure of any magnitude is foreseen. The proposal in section 59 to pay compensation in respect of property transferred from the committees of agriculture will, however, involve some additional State expenditure but it is not estimated to appreciably exceed £100,000 in all.
In coming to a close, I should like to acknowledge my indebtedness to the many organisations which have made submissions and offered advice leading to the formulation of the White Paper and the consequent legislation now before you and I would hope that they would find some reflection of their ideas in these documents.
The publication of the White Paper and this Bill represents in my view a very significant milestone in the development of services for farmers and the agricultural industry. The proposals outlined in the Bill offer, to my mind, the best means of providing the kind of service which the farming community and the agricultural industry require and which can be provided for them and I look forward to securing from all concerned the enthusiastic support and co-operation which will ensure that the measures now proposed will greatly benefit farmers and the agricultural industry as a whole. I commend the Bill to the House.