andMr. Browne asked the Minister for Agriculture the extent to which compound fertiliser use has dropped since 1973 and the proportion of total home-manufactured compound used in each year since 1972.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fertiliser Usage.
47.
Fertiliser statistics are kept on the basis of fertiliser usage years which are from 1st July to 30th June of the following year. The usage of compound fertiliser in 1975-76 showed a 9 per cent decrease on 1973-74 but a 24 per cent increase on 1974-75. The percentage of home-manufactured compounds in 1973-74 was 88 per cent of total consumption, in 1974-75 79 per cent, and in 1975-76 82 per cent.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the Irish compounders and the employees in the fertiliser industry here are very worried about the amount of foreign compounder fertilisers being imported, which has caused redundancies and is likely to cause more? Is he further aware that the Minister issued to committees of agriculture a warning about the high urea content in some of the imported fertilisers which is damaging to cereals and to crops?
The position in 1974-75 was that the home manufactured product captured 79 per cent of the market and this was increased to 82 per cent in 1975-76 so the tendency is that Irish manufacturers are increasing their share of the market.
The current position in 1976-77 is that the matter has become very serious, so serious that it has come to the Parliamentary Secretary's notice because a number of——
Questions, please.
——employers have been lobbying Deputies for the past couple of months.
We have not figures for 1976-77.
The remaining questions will appear on tomorrow's Order Paper.