asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the total amount of food in intervention stocks in Ireland at 31 October, 1987.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Food In Intervention Stocks.
10.
There were 108,000 tonnes of beef, 100,000 tonnes of butter, 2,250 tonnes of skim milk powder and 26,100 tonnes of barley in intervention stocks in Ireland on 31 October 1987.
What was the value of those stocks and what is the cost of storing them?
The breakdown is: beef, £316 million; butter £406.2 million; skim milk powder, £3.1 million and feed barley, £3.7 million making a total of £729 million.
I thank the Minister for the information. I ask your latitude, Sir, on this since there is a world famine though I do not blame the Minister or his Government for that. Is the Minister aware that there is a movement called "move the mountain" which is trying to move this food to famine stricken parts of the world? Will he give the House an undertaking that he will do everything possible to assist this movement?
I share the Deputy's concern. It is one of the matters in which producer nations like us and the EC collectively have a major responsibility to address. For that reason I have proposed to my colleagues in the EC Council of Agriculture Ministers that we address the problems of the world market while maintaining a level of adequate price for our producers, at the same time ensuring adequate supplies for the countries in need. I can tell the Deputy, whose concern I share, that we are reducing in many areas, for instance in skim milk powder of which we have hardly any intervention stocks at all now, that we are supplying areas of need in a balanced way to meet their needs while at the same time maintaining reasonable prices for ourselves. The Deputy's question is well based and I will continue to pursue it.
How do present stocks in intervention compare with what they were last year? What is the rate of stock going into intervention now vis-á-vis last year and the year before?
I need further information on that. Generally our reliance on intervention is lessening.
By what percentage?
I do not have the figures but it is being reduced. As I have indicated, we have very little skim milk powder in intervention. In general, the trend is that the volume is less than it was. If I had been asked that question I would have had the figure. It varies from month to month but it is less than it was.
(Interruptions.)
Stocks in intervention are less this year than last year.
In view of the reducing stocks in intervention which look like virtually disappearing next year and the savings thereby offered in terms of storage and cold storage, could the Minister see his way to diverting the savings back to the producers in view of the fact that they will be cut 10 per cent in their gross income in the next two years?
We are having an extension of this question. It is essentially a statistical question.
A Cheann Comhairle——
I was going to call Deputy Jim O'Keeffe. I will come back to you, Deputy.
There is no evidence whatever for what Deputy McCoy has said about a cut in gross income of 10 per cent.
No, in gross output.
Even that. I thought the Deputy said gross income.
Does the Minister think he has any credibility in pleading at EC or any other levels along the lines of the "move the mountain" people pleading the cause of the Ethiopians' hunger, in the light of the enormous cutbacks imposed by his Government on the development co-operation programme?
I do not know whether the Deputy is serious. Not only have I credibility but I can judge that by the reactions of my colleagues. What my colleague the Minister of State with special responsibility for food has been underlining indicates the Government's priorities. We have made a specific, determined commitment to reduce our reliance on intervention. We are succeding in maximum diversification and added value in the areas such as the Minister indicated, dairy processing, cheeses, all of that. If that does not earn credibility, which I assure the Deputy we have, nothing will. We are into market diversification in a unique way and we are going to maintain that thrust.
The Minister missed the point——
I thank the Minister for the details he has given but he did not tell me the cost per annum of storing the intervention——
I did.
I did not catch it if he did. Secondly, will he be good enough to keep me informed of the outcome of his efforts with regard to moving the mountain? I will be interested to be kept up to date on that.
I will, certainly. I have not got the storage costs and, believe me, that is not an attempt on my part to evade the question. The Deputy did not ask me that in the question. If he communicates with me privately I will be glad to let him have the cost of the storage. It was not in the question.
I propose to go on to the next question now.