The Private Notice Question which I put down today was to ask the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he would make a statement about the imminent closure of the mushroom factories in Carbury, County Kildare, and the measures he proposes to take to save the 350 jobs in this vital industry. I wish to thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I apologise to the Ceann Comhairle for any nasty remarks which I may have made in my endeavours to have this problem aired and I ask you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, to convey my withdrawal of those remarks to him.
For the past 28 years a good mushroom industry has grown and expanded in the Carbury area, Drummin Growers, Midland Growers and other sister firms started originally in an empty Bord na Móna camp. The industry gives employment to about 350 persons. Many of these jobs are female labour and are particularly important in a disadvantaged area of Kildare. Not alone does it include the Carbury area but also a very sizeable hinterland for miles around. In an area where job opportunities are few, where there is no hope of expansion in Bord na Móna and the ESB and where eventually turf supplies will run out, these two major employers will fold up. The serious impact of the impending closure of the mushroom factories cannot be over-estimated.
This area has seen the closure of Ceca, a French factory which makes carbon from turf, because of increasing costs. It has seen the closure of Robertstown Hotel and the dimming of the vision of the late Reverend Fr. P. J. Murphy to restore the waning glories of the Grand Canal. If the Government had their way, they would have seen the closure two years ago of the Allenwood peat fired electricity generating station, a decision which involved the use of Polish coal or Australian steam coal to make electricity rather than Irish turf which is still available in the area.
Some years ago Bord na Móna treated us to the premier of a local film which showed the evolution of Bord na Móna from the time of the great forests in the central plain through the first turf development board and down to the huge machines which are working on the bog today. That film was called Inné agus Inniú. It was a proud history. I want to ensure that there will be an amárach for this area too when Bord na Móna and the ESB have gone their ways.
Since 23 January this year the Carbury mushroom industry has been in receivership. In keeping with their previous record of good employment the factory was kept at full production. There was continuity of work and more particularly and importantly continuity of supply on the UK market. The receiver did not close it down. His aim was to keep it going and to try to sell it as a going concern. That has not been easy for the past four months. They have been losing money and they consider, rightly so, that the position is now unsustainable. They have come to the end of the road. It looks as if, by the end of May, we will also see the end of Carbury mushrooms. Measures have been taken already to wind down the operation and the production cycle will be broken. The biggest difficulty is the glut of mushrooms on the British market. That has led to a sharp drop in prices. The price of 60p per lb. is probably only a breakeven price for fresh mushrooms. The average price is 40p per lb. Prices as low as 27p per lb. have been mentioned for some grades. Even modern, up to date, recently built, family run, tightly knit units are going to the wall.
Some modern whiz kids will say that Drummin Growers are old-fashioned, that the system of trays which they use is archaic, that the modern system of satellites and small units growing in bags and supplying to one particular centre is the best. We must give credit where credit is due. This firm were a pioneer in the field of mushroom growing and they made a success of it for 28 years. If it is now necessary for them to modernise and to revamp, I would like to know what semi-State body or State grants are available to them to make themselves viable.
I listened to the Minister for Finance today at Question Time giving a dissertation on subsidisation and State aid. He explained that it would be wrong to give help in an area where it is likely to reduce employment in a similar industry down the road. I wonder did this type of thinking surface to any great extent when the new mushroom factories were mushrooming all over the country to put Carbury out of business and cause a glut on the market. It raised the price which suits no one only the British consumer. Even in the popular television programme of "Glenroe" we saw Biddy and Miley in the mushroom act.
In my schooldays the Irish word for mushroom was fás an aon óiche, the growth of one night. It might be uncomfortably appropriate for some of these Johnnie-come-lately outfits which we now have. I wonder if there was a degree of State subsidisation available to them which has been denied to the Carbury factory. This company have a cash flow problem. What attempts have been made to assist them? The area is obviously as disadvantaged as any other area in the country and deserves assistance. It may well be that a mushroom processing industry incorporated in the system would lessen the dependence on the fresh mushroom market. This might be the very scheme to tilt the balance in their favour. I hope this aspect has been and will continue to be examined.
I would like to stress to the Minister the need to be positive. We have 8 per cent of the British fresh mushroom market at present. The situation is not at saturation point despite what some pundits migh say. We could capture 10 per cent of the market and solve our difficulties. What is vital now is to give every assistance to the industry to hold their share of the market, to maintain continuity of supply and to be in a proper position to move ahead when times improve. I ask the Minister not to let this industry be another sad statistic in the litany of factory failures. There is a good employer there. There are no employer-labour-shop steward problems. There is an anxiety to provide continuity of employment. There is a willingness among the workforce to work. Surely there is an onus on the State agencies to match that willingness.
Traditionally summer time is a bad time for selling mushrooms. Demand falls off and there are losses. Usually the demand in winter time makes up for this and the books are balanced. I want the Minister to do something to bridge that gap. There is a trend of opinion that Dutch mushrooms are being dumped on the British market at much less than the cost of production. There are those who will say that with their in-built, cheap energy subsidisation the Dutch can afford to do this until they cut out the opposition and have a monopoly of the trade in mushrooms just as they have cornered the tomato industry.
We can ask ourselves why is it that the gas line which Fianna Fáil brought so swiftly from Cork to Dublin did not become extended in spurs to provide a cheap energy source for our own horticultural and glasshouse industries and particularly the mushroom industry. That is the problem which Deputy Connolly and I wished to raise today by Private Notice Question. It includes the real world where people live and work, rear their families and try to pay their way. They want to see a life for themselves other than life on the dole. They might see the debate on divorce today as an indication of how difficult it is to have their problem aired. As I mentioned before, they can see this House as divorced from reality and that their public representatives are not really in a position to represent them. These simple country people faced with a destitute future with the closure of the industry believe that their lives are irretrievably broken down. We, as public representatives, are concerned on their behalf and I hope the Government and their agencies and all the facilities they have at their command will help this industry and the jobs depending on it.
