I agree, but he made a promise in black and white that he would give 82/6d. In any case, we know that the farmers lost a large amount. Over £700,000 was taken from them then and now they are getting back in return only a mere pittance, something like £420,000. What the farmers asked for was a fair deal and a reasonable return for their labour. They did not get a fair chance last year, but were badly let down by the Government. The Government held them up to ransom. They blundered very badly on the wheat problem. Their handling of it this year shows how quickly, irrespective of political morals, they can change tune when in Government, as soon as the instrument of their accession to power has turned against them. I have quoted the promises by members of the Government, by the Minister for Finance and Deputy Corry. What a change has come over them since they came into office, after all their specific promises and after all the attacks they made on the inter-Party Government for reducing the price of wheat by 12/6d. a barrel in 1954.
It would have been much better if Fianna Fáil had admitted the truth then, that there was a glut of wheat in 1954 and that no Government could deal with it more satisfactorily, as our agricultural policy had become lopsided, since we were importing oats and barley from Turkey, Iran, Iraq and elsewhere. If Fianna Fáil had admitted that the Government of the day were right in the action they took, they would not have a glut of wheat on their hands such as they had last year. They encouraged the farmers to grow wheat and then threw them to the wolves.
On 12th September, 1958, the Minister discovered that a new sort of wheat was being grown in Ireland. He labelled it "millable but unsuitable". This was to be put aside as animal feeding, but it was to be included in the price structure which would determine what the flour millers paid for wheat. The price to be paid for this "millable but unsuitable wheat" was left to the flour millers within the ambit of the Wheat Order. So drastically were the screening deductions implemented that the Minister had to crawl back on 18th September with his tail between his legs and make an arrangement that, in respect of wheat of 26 per cent. moisture and under, the screening deduction would not reduce the price to anything lower than a net 57/9d., with levy deducted. That price was exactly 24/9d. less than that expected by the wheat farmers from Fianna Fáil, as a result of the specific promises made before the election, that if Fianna Fáil were returned to power, they would increase the price of wheat to 82/6d.
We know that the Minister made a statement on 14th November, 1958 and I quote it:—
The Government have decided, that in view of the losses suffered by wheat growers this year, a substantial portion of the amount by which the cost of wheat for milling in 1958-59 falls below the cost for the past year, should be used for the benefit of the growers.
When that announcement was made, the farmers thought they would get something reasonable in return. We know that they did not get even what they were entitled to, that is, the £700,000 which was collected from them in levies. The levy was to come into operation only if we had a surplus of wheat. There was no surplus last year. Despite that, the Minister gave back only a little more than half of the levy which had been collected from the unfortunate farmers themselves. This was altogether wrong. The Government should come to the aid of the people who had lost £7 million and tried to help them even in some small way, because the Government can spend £5 million on jet planes, can give relief to professional boxing, to greyhound racing and to those paying income tax. It is only right that they should have the same consideration for the unfortunate wheat gowers, people who have done a good job. The wheat growers stood between the people of Ireland and hunger and want during the war. They answered the call when the call was made. There is no denying that the farmers have been in the front line of trenches in every war, national, social and economic, in this country, and when they were hit so hard as they were last year with the bad harvest, they were entitled to better consideration from the Minister and the Government, especially in view of the specific promises made to them. The promises Fianna Fáil made to these people lulled the farmers into growing more wheat than many of them intended to grow. The present policy of the Government is a continuation of their previous policy, to make the farmers paupers, hewers of wood and drawers of water.
We know that last year when the cost of living increased—it is at an all time record now of 146 points—every other section of the community got relief. Every wage earner got an increase, the civil servants, the local officials, the Garda and the Army got their increase of 10/- a week and in the case of national teachers up to £1 a week. Those people were entitled to that; but the farmers, who are expected to pay increased rates and, in the case of the wheat growers, lost all, instead of getting any increase, were not compensated and did not even get back from the Government what was deducted from them. They were not even given back their own £700,000 taken off in the levy on wheat. They are getting back only £420,000.
Many of the tillage farmers go in for mixed farming, and besides the loss from their wheat are getting 6/- less for their barley than they got three years ago, and for their grade A pigs 5/- a cwt. less. That is very unfair. While that continues, it is no wonder that we have wholesale emigration, that the people are closing their doors and emigrating.
What annoyed the small farmers more than anything else was the fact that the Minister advertised that this wheat which was sold to Irish farmers at £26 a ton was, according to the answer given to a question in the Dáil, sold in England to the British farmer at £18 a ton. That wheat went to John Bull, whom we were not to feed at one time, but were to whip, left, right and centre. We were told that we would starve John Bull. The Irish farmer was giving that advantage to the British farmer, with whom he was trying to compete, and that wheat was grown with the blood, sweat and toil of the Irish farmer. Why were the unfortunate people who grew this wheat and had lost all not given a chance at least to get back some of their losses? Wheat was sold here at £26 a ton, then reduced to £23 a ton, but John Bull, the British farmer, could get it at £18 a ton. In my opinion, that is a very foolish policy. It would have been much better if the Minister had sold to our own farmers, the people who produced it and lost heavily on it, at £18 a ton, to give them a chance of feeding it to pigs, poultry, cattle or anything else, so that at least they would have some little chance of getting back some of their losses.
As I have said, now that the Government have got into power on the backs of the tillage farmers and wheat growers, they have deserted them. We all know that due to their promises before the last election, they gained seven seats in the wheat growing area, but the Government have deserted the farmers and are now trying to court what in the past they called the ranchers and the graziers. We all know that consistency can be an overrated virtue in politics, but when the 30 year's old agricultural policy of a political Party is completely reversed overnight, we are entitled to ask what is wrong in the Fianna Fáil Party. There is no denying that this has occurred. If anyone looks up the recent White Paper issued by the Government called a Programme for Economic Expansion and looks at page 12, paragraph 17, he will find the following sentence: "Climatic and market influences combine to make grass the most important feature of Irish agriculture and future agricultural expansion will depend mainly on a dynamic policy of grass land development. Grass is the raw material of our principal export trade, beef, and cattle, of milk production and of sheep and lamb production".
That sentence could well have come from the lips of the late Deputy Hogan, Minister for Agriculture in the first Cumann na nGaedheal Government. It could have come from the lips of Deputy James Dillon, who was also a Minister for Agriculture. It is an astonishing utterance issued without any explanation from the Government who decried the growing of grass and the production of cattle and for a long number of years wanted to have all our land under tillage. We were told at one time by the Minister for Agriculture that he would fill ten fields of inspectors and make the old cods tuck down their ditches and tuck their tractors into them. We got 502,000 tons of wheat in this country—a record—in 1957 under an inter-Party Government without any compulsion. That was because the farmers had faith in that Government and knew that the Government and Minister of that day would see that the farmers got justice, that they got a fair price and that the millers would give them a fair field.
