This Bill is framed to control the production and manufacture of tobacco within the country from the time the seed is imported or produced until the tobacco is released from the manufacturers' premises. Tobacco is a very important item from the revenue point of view as well as from the agricultural and industrial point of view. If any Senator examines the returns of revenue for the last five or six years, he will find that tobacco is one of the most constant sources of revenue we have. Its consumption has, I think, increased somewhat, but it has never varied to any great extent. Therefore, from the revenue point of view we have to be very careful in dealing with tobacco. Apart from that, it is also very important from the agricultural point of view. We are equally anxious from that point of view that the consumption of tobacco should remain at its present level. In order to maintain the consumption of tobacco, it is important that we should not rush suddenly into the growing of Irish tobacco. Some people, if presented immediately with an Irish-grown cigarette or an Irish tobacco mixture for a pipe might, on account of the very sudden change, stop smoking altogether. We have to try to avoid that. We must, therefore, grow a certain quantity of tobacco and mix it with the present tobacco, gradually increasing our output from year to year, and gradually increasing the mixture of Irish tobacco, so that the smoker may, without knowing it, become a smoker of Irish tobacco in the end. That is the plan that has been adopted. We import about 10,000,000 lbs. of tobacco a year, and if our growers are paid about 1/3 per lb., it will mean £625,000 a year added to the income of agriculturists.
The Bill does not follow exactly on the lines with which I shall deal with it now. I am taking the tobacco from the seed up to the manufacturing stage, and dealing with it in that way because it may be easier to follow the provisions of the Bill in that form. No person will be allowed to import or produce seed without a permit from the Minister for Agriculture. In giving that permit, the Minister may attach any conditions he wishes to attach, and, in that way, we hope to get grown what we think the more suitable varieties of tobacco. In the case of a new crop like this, some people like to try what they believe to be better varieties than we have. Then they try seed from these varieties, with the result that two or three varieties in one field get crossed, and we would have hundreds of different varieties of tobacco, if we allowed that sort of thing to go on. The result would make matters difficult for the manufacturers, because the manufacturer must, so far as possible, get the same variety from year to year—the variety he wants. As I said, we control the seed in the first instance. Then, nobody will be allowed to import plants without a permit from the Minister for Agriculture. Up to this, the Revenue Commissioners issued that permit, but the Revenue Commissioners had only revenue considerations in view, and allowed in the plants provided they were quite satisfied that the revenue was safeguarded. We want to go a little further than that. We want to see that the plants brought in are of a variety which we approve. This licensing of the import of plants will, therefore, be in the hands of the Minister for Agriculture in future. The person applying for a licence to grow tobacco will apply before the 31st December, and these applications will go to the Revenue Commissioners. The Revenue Commissioners will strike out the names of those against whom they have any objection. The objections will be set out in Regulations which will be issued when this Bill becomes an Act, so that they will have to be real objections. If, for instance, the person applying was guilty of an offence against the Revenue Regulations in the past, the Revenue Commissioners may refuse to grant a licence. For other stated reasons they may also refuse. It is probable that they would not allow a farmer to grow tobacco within half-a-mile or a quarter-of-a-mile of an existing factory. The reasons, however, will be set out in Regulations. The Revenue Commissioners will then send a complete list of applications to the Minister for Agriculture, and he will issue or not issue, as he thinks fit. At the beginning of the season—before the 31st December—the Minister for Agriculture, in consultation with the Minister for Finance, will make an Order stating the maximum area that will be allowed to come under tobacco during the coming year. He will also, in the same Order, state the minimum area and the maximum area permitted to each person.
This year, for instance, we made a regulation that no person would be allowed to grow more than two acres and that no person would be allowed to grow less than half an acre. We departed from that minimum amount in the case of experimental plots. That order having been made, applications are considered by the Minister for Agriculture, having in view the maximum area that he allowed; also, of course, the growers who were there last year, and the question as to whether they were satisfactory or not. If there is any extra acreage to be allotted he has to take various things into consideration. We have, for instance, this year a number of experimental plots in the Gaeltacht and in the Congested Districts—in West Kerry, Mayo and Galway and, I think, only two or three in the County Donegal. If these are a success we would naturally be inclined to give an increasing acreage to those congested districts because, for the small farmer who can only till, say, half an acre, tobacco is a very suitable crop. He cannot take any great advantage of our scheme for the growing of wheat, nor indeed can he take any great advantage of our scheme for the growing of beet or of those other crops that we are encouraging, but the growing of tobacco would be most suitable for those small farmers.
The licence that is given to the grower entitles him to sow seed and to plant the plants from that seed, or to buy plants from another grower for the area allotted. It also entitles him to cure the tobacco on his own premises if the premises have been approved by the Revenue Commissioners. A curer's licence may also be granted in other cases; that is in addition to the curers' licences which are granted to growers. There may be cases, for instance, where a number of growers combine together, as they do sometimes, to build a special barn for the curing of tobacco. There would be a licence granted in that case for the curing of the tobacco grown by those particular growers.
The rehandling is the next process. A farmer usually does the curing in his own barn, or perhaps it is done co-operatively—nine or ten farmers joining together—or, in some few cases, the tobacco is cured by a proprietor who has a suitable building. Such a person as the proprietor of a nursery might have a suitable building for the curing of tobacco. The tobacco is then sent to a rehandling station. The rehandler is licensed in the same way as the grower is licensed. That is to say, the rehandler applies to the Revenue Commissioners. If they have anything against the applicant from the revenue point of view, they may refuse to recommend his application. If they do not refuse the application it is sent to the Minister for Agriculture, and he either grants a licence or refuses a licence as he thinks necessary, taking into account the number of growers in the district and other considerations. The rehandler, having obtained his licence receives the tobacco from the growers. I should say that early in the year the growers notify the Minister for Agriculture of the name of the rehandler that they are going to send their tobacco to. They also notify the rehandler. In case any rehandler is offered more tobacco than he can deal with, arrangements are made for transferring some of the tobacco to another rehandling station.
When the rehandler receives the tobacco it is graded and valued by an officer appointed by the Minister for Agriculture. It is valued in a provisional way, as it were. Tobacco belonging to a particular grower comes into the re-handling station. The officer appointed by the Minister for Agriculture—he does not actually, of course, grade each man's tobacco— supervises it. He tells the rehandler that tobacco of one particular type is Grade I, that tobacco of another type is Grade II and that more of it is Grade III, and so on. The rehandler then grades on that basis. He takes a note of the amount of tobacco belonging to each grade from a particular grower. After that it goes into the rehandling process. When all the tobacco is rehandled it is graded and put into convenient bales. These bales are then valued by an officer appointed by the Minister for Agriculture. A catalogue is made out of each rehandler, the amount of tobacco he has in each grade, and the price. The catalogues of the rehandlers, when they come in, are sent to the Minister for Industry and Commerce, who takes up the business at that stage. The tobacco is valued on the basis of the price of imported tobacco. In other words, if the tobacco coming in is lower in price this year than last year, then the home-grown tobacco is naturally valued a little lower than it was last year. The officer who is doing this job is supposed to value the tobacco, bearing in mind the price of imported tobacco. When the catalogues go to the Minister for Industry and Commerce he calls the manufacturers together. He divides the tobacco amongst them on the basis of their output of the previous year. They then mix the home-grown tobacco with imported tobacco, and the resulting mixture, whether it is cigarette or pipe tobacco, is sold to the consumer.
Perhaps I should say something with regard to the payment to the growers. The rehandler will be paid under two heads by the manufacturers. He is paid a basic price: that is what the tobacco is really worth as compared with the price of imported tobacco. He will also be paid a rebate which will be announced from year to year in the Budget. The amount received by way of rebate is, of course, a flat amount on each lb. of tobacco, whatever the value of the tobacco may be. Whether it is first grade, second grade or third grade, or whatever grade it may be, the rebate is the same all round. Out of the rebate he first deducts the re-handling charge. This year the rebate will be 10d. and the rehandling charge will be 5d. The rebate is fixed by the Minister for Finance in his Budget, and the rehandling charge is fixed by order by the Minister for Agriculture. He deducts, as I have said, the re-handling charge from the rebate, and pays the remainder to the growers, the distribution being according to the grade of the tobacco as prescribed by the Minister for Agriculture. Grade I, for instance, may have a value put on it of 1/- per lb.; that is comparing it to the price of imported tobacco. In that case he may get 7d. a lb. out of the rebate, whereas in the case of Grade IV, the lowest grade of tobacco, he may only get 3d. a lb., that being its value as compared to the price of imported tobacco, and 2d. perhaps out of the rebate. According to the grade of the tobacco, therefore, the grower is paid in both instances.
From the time the tobacco leaves the grower to go to the rehandler or to the manufacturers, the usual credit is given, but it is a long time before the grower gets all his money. It is well into the following spring after the tobacco has been sent in that he gets his money. Naturally Senators will say that growers cannot afford to remain out of their money all that time. Last year rehandlers who got tobacco from growers got an advance from bankers in order to give growers an instalment. Where the tobacco has been sold since the growers have got the remainder that was due to them, but where it is not sold yet, they have not got what was due. I presume the same arrangement will be made this year. There is no reason why it should not be. There will be much better security in future because there is a guaranteed market now. Manufacturers must take the tobacco and there is no reason why rehandlers should not get an advance from bankers on the tobacco that is taken in and be able to give advances to growers. Manufacturers will be compelled to blend. They will also have to use the tobacco received within 12 months, unless an extension of time is given by the Minister for Industry and Commerce. They will not be permitted to export home grown tobacco, or any mixture of it. There is a clause in the Bill dealing with experimental manufacturers, a few of whom grow and manufacture their own tobacco. If the Bill were applied, as I have outlined, to these small manufacturers, they would find it impossible to carry on, because they turn out 100 per cent. Irish tobacco and would have to charge as much for their tobacco as ordinary manufacturers charge. They would then be selling in competition with imported tobacco, at the same price. Up to the present the only means of carrying on these experimental manufacturers of home grown tobacco had was that they were able to sell tobacco much cheaper than imported tobacco. We have to give them an opportunity of doing that to the same extent for the future. It is provided that in giving special licences to any persons who manufactured and grew any tobacco during 1933 that they will get a larger rebate than that allowed to ordinary manufacturers.
There was some confusion with regard to advisory councils. It is provided that the Minister for Industry and Commerce may set up an advisory council of manufacturers to advise him on the distribution of home-grown tobacco. In the Dáil and by various resolutions received from outside it was suggested that the growers would not be represented on that council. The Minister for Agriculture is entitled under the Agricultural Act of 1931 to set up an advisory council for any purpose that he thinks fit. In all probability the Minister for Agriculture will set up an advisory council under the Tobacco Bill, and in that case the three interests would have to be represented —the growers, the manufacturers, and the owners of rehandling premises.
