asked the Minister for Agriculture the plans he has to encourage Irish farmers to grow flax as an alternative cash crop, in view of the increasing demand for this.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Flax Production.
3.
In reply to a question on 9 April information was given on flax trials which were organised by my Department last year. With the encouragement of the Department commercial interests have undertaken further trials for 1986 and are examining the feasibility of setting up milling and processing facilities here. Technical information and advice on flax growing is available to farmers from An Foras Talúntais and ACOT. Also, a production aid for flax is paid by the EC.
Would the Minister agree that in the past few years world changes in market prices have made it economically viable for farmers to engage in flax production? Has the Minister evolved any policy for encouraging farmers to get engaged in flax growing?
Yes, but it is a case of making haste slowly. At the turn of the century and between 1940-45 a great deal of flax was grown in the southern region but we have not grown flax since and technology has changed completely. We grew flax in very small plots in 1985 when we had very bad weather but they turned out reasonably well. This year we have put in 150 acres. The yield will be processed and on the basis of those findings we will be in a position to say whether we will proceed with flax production as a commercial operation in 1987.
(Limerick West): The Minister may be aware that I commended him on his efforts in this area. Would he not agree that he should find alternative farming products which are under restriction in the EC? Has he consulted organisations like AFT, ACOT and the farming organisations about alternative farming enterprises, including flax?
I thank the Deputy for his comments. We are in constant touch with ACOT and in particular with AFT in Carlow. Last year was not the best year to experiment with new crops and oil seed rape took a bit of a hammering with bad weather and gales. This was a bit discouraging but the crops with promise, apart from flax seem to be oil seed rape and protein beans and peas.
This question deals with flax.
Would the Minister agree that the commercial returns on flax growing depend on the quality of the product? It has long been established that the west Cork area produces the best quality flax. Would the Minister tell us if there was any particular reason for having the pilot project in the east Cork area, other than the fact that he represents it?
Not really. I got the idea when I was acting Minister in Brussels. I saw the EC were paying £100 an acre and while I am not very good at French, I noted that this money was available. As a result a few people planted plots of one-sixth of an acre. We chose that particular area because we were very fortunate in getting wonderful encouragement from the chairman of Sunbeam Wolsey. He said the company had an ideal plant in Midleton and if a commercial operation got off the ground he would make that plant available and would participate in the activity.
In the event of commercial production of flax, the acreage in east Cork would be very limited and I can assure the Deputy that if we venture into greater things we will be in his area scouring for acreage.
Notwithstanding the fact that flax is very interesting, I do not propose to let anybody fall into the flax hole, or to get into it myself.
Is it not a fact that trials were carried out on light soil in east Cork? Traditionally heavy clay soil is more suitable for flax growing. Did the Minister not think it advisable to have a trial plot in each ACOT region rather than concentrating on one area? Did he just pick this one area because a commercial company said they would spend money? I hold that a traditional flax growing area, like my own constituency, should have been given the opportunity to get involved in this experiment, even though we do not have the same type of backers.
I expect that if it is commercially viable, flax production will take place all over the country. With regard to soil and soil types, my information is that flax can be grown successfully in a wide range of soils. If the interest in flax growing is renewed in the Deputy's constituency, I am sure these people will be facilitated.
I do not want to get into this battle between east and west Cork. I am sure the Ceann Comhairle will agree that Cavan too is an eminently suitable place to grow flax. I want to take up the Minister when he said that we must make haste slowly. I am sure he will agree that this is a case where one cannot make haste slowly because market prices change so rapidly. We must act rapidly. That is the problem with the Department of Agriculture; they are making haste far too slowly in every area. What type of assistance in the form of grants is being given to encourage farmers to engage in flax growing? I agree with Deputy Noonan that diversification in farming is essential. Can the Minister tell the House how slowly he is making haste and if he can speed the matter up?
I am being very prudent. I do not want to land farmers into something that will not succeed. In the old days the growing of flax was a fairly straightforward operation involving pending and a number of other things. Modern growing of flax is totally different. It involves dew retting, chemical retting and a number of things that I will not go into here. We must proceed with caution to make sure that at the end of the day the operation is successful.