The wording of my question is: The need for the Minister for Agriculture and Food in view of the serious plight of Irish potato growers, to press for an EC policy to protect the industry. The Minister has been trying hard to bring order to the potato industry and I thank him for his commitment to the industry. The fault does not lie with the Minister or with the chief executive officer and the special adviser, Mr. Sean O'Shea. The Minister has tried to bring the potato industry under control and to develop it but he has not been successful.
With the establishment of An Bord Glas the Minister made provision for the development of the potato industry and the seed potato industry. The industry is in a sad state and this was admitted in the Horticulture Development brochure issued some time ago. The Chairman of An Bord Glas recognised that. Following an examination of the report which An Bord Glas furnished, the board noted with concern the considerable steady decline in the Irish seed potato acreage and production. The area of seed potato certified which averaged 6,000 hectares in 1960 was down to 4,000 hectares in 1970 and 3,500 hectares in 1980. It is estimated that the number of hectares has been under 3,000 since 1989. The direction taken by the Department in looking after a few producers is misguided.
I have hands-on experience of the potato industry. I come from a county where the economy and income of many small holdings depends on the production and sale of potatoes. How will the economy be put in a good healthy state when we are importing a large tonnage of potatoes? Our climate and soil are ideal for growing potatoes. We are disease-free and can produce good quality seed and ware potatoes.
There has been very good support for grading potatoes and for forming cooperatives. However, the efforts being made at the moment to support grower groups will never succeed. The farming organisations have failed to put forward sensible policies to the Minister and An Bord Glas. What alarms me is a proposal by the IFA to advise the Minister to establish the growing of potatoes on a quota basis. This would devastate the industry. If the Minister for Agriculture and Food adopted the recommendation of the IFA and introduced a quota system, it would be very short-sighted. The quota system in Ireland does not present a happy picture. There is no quota system in Europe for war potatoes. How could we embark on a quota system when our borders and frontiers are open to imports? It would be the death-knell of the industry here.
I call on the Minister to give a clear indication that he will not under any circumstances embark on a quota system for growing potatoes in this country. A quota system might be helpful to the few people who are already doing well. Unfortunately the industry will not survive and progress if the Department and the Minister only look after a few people. Recently, the Minister announced extensive support for growing potatoes and for buildings to house potatoes especially in disadvantaged areas. That applies to my county. The Minister should look at the value of funding grower groups because they have not worked. I have watched the potato industry for a long time and watched the North County Dublin growers form a co-op. One must ask why that co-op failed. The answer is quite simple: there has never been a successful co-operative growers group.
Recently in Donegal, outside the town of Raphoe one producer has been successfully established with EC aid. In reality that is not a co-operative and it is not a producers group. That is a one-man effort and it does not reflect progress in the industry. The Minister should recognise that the best and most effective contribution he can make is to help individuals, first, with proper grading facilities and, secondly, with proper storage facilities.
Those of us who have a feeling for the industry and who would dearly love to see it survive went to Holland to look at the Dutch storage facilities. They have cooling systems which maintain potatoes up to the month of July. Potatoes are imported here in June and July that have been properly stored while our growers have no such facilities. They cannot compete and, therefore, cannot survive much longer. The Minister's intentions and those of his Department are quite good. It is right and proper to ask for a change in direction at this time. The funding and support that is available should be channelled to individual growers. There should not be any question of a quota. That would not be entertained by the mass of people who have commitments and intend staying in the industry.
On small holdings the potato was the traditional crop. A number of senior people in the EC have paid tribute to the small family farm in Ireland. I am not one to make gloomy predictions but the small tillage farm will find it nearly impossible to sustain any members of the family who work on it. The individual must be helped. The Minister comes from a farming background and that is his strength. He knows what tillage is about. That is important.
We should press the EC to establish a potato policy but that will be difficult because the Dutch, Belgians, French and others who are successful and have the industry on a firm footing will oppose any such policy. I cannot see the Dutch being too anxious to support such a proposal. Since all other forms of agriculture and horticulture are controlled and supported by the EC, I cannot see how the potato industry and potato growers will be excluded.
I urge the Minister to continue to look for a potato policy even though it might be a hard uphill fight. That is basically what I want to say. I want to be brief and not repetitious.
I welcome the Minister's efforts and the encouragement he has been given. Support should be available to individual growers to provide proper storage and grading facilities. There are many potato inspectors, some from the Department of Agriculture and Food and some from An Bord Glas, who have a wealth of knowledge but they are nearly redundant at the moment because the industry has failed. I call on the Minister to take the potato industry by the scruff of the neck and save it. If he does not do so, then we are in serious danger of losing what was a traditional industry.
I ask the Minister to respond positively and not to allow the IFA to persuade him to adopt a quota system, and I say that as a fully paid up member of the IFA. That would be the death knell to the industry. I confidently hope the Minister will not respond to that request.