There is an improvement. The Minister for Finance has agreed to alter that offer, to the extent of putting up £2 for every £1. The original proposal was to put up £1 for each £1, and to set aside £100,000. It is now agreed that where necessary the contribution of the State will be £2 for each £1 within the limit of the £100,000. In my opinion that proposal will meet the situation as far as the State can meet it. It would be impossible to deal with the situation in any other way. It would be impossible to deal with it by way of loan. The Minister for Finance has taken into account that special considerations apply to this particular problem. He has indicated the position to the Dáil of this particular problem, as compared with the problem that faces every class of society day by day, year in, year out. We are making an attempt to meet this problem in the poorer areas, and in the counties that I indicated, by this new proposal, that the State will put up £2 against every £1 deposited in a society, where it is found necessary. Where we could get societies constituted on the old basis of £1 for £1, the original offer, to give a loan for three years, stands so that you have the position now that within the limit of £100,000 societies will be constituted on the basis of £2 to every £1 deposited locally. These deposits will be met by the State free of interest for three years. That ought to enable the hardships that are in existence in the really poorer areas to be met. I have no doubt myself that even in the poorest areas this will meet the situation if we get the co-operation of the people themselves.
The best test of that is that it is really in the poorer areas societies have been constituted already. We have a society in Donegal doing well. It is not fully constituted yet but deposits are coming in. We made arrangements to set up that society on the basis of £1 for £1 in a very poor area of Donegal. Arrangements have practically been made also for a few societies in Leitrim. I have no doubt from the reports that I have received in regard to these societies that we could arrange for setting up a few more there on the basis of £1 for £1. These are two very poor counties. I speak more particularly of the poor areas, and it is conclusive evidence that where you have the co-operation of the people you can do business on these lines. It is evidence that cannot be ignored, that cannot be explained away, and it is a complete answer to the case put up by Clare, North Kerry and other areas where you have much better land, bigger holdings, and where the people are better off, that you cannot do business, or constitute the societies even on a basis of £2 for £1. It can and has been done in the poorest areas.
With regard to the fluke epidemic, as I said on a previous occasion, the Department of Agriculture are preparing certain pamphlets setting out their advice as to the best way of meeting the epidemic, so far as it actually requires to be met. That pamphlet has been put out of date by the last three weeks' weather and will have to be changed. The weather during the last three weeks has made all the difference, and if it continues for any length of time, there is very little likelihood of a recurrence of fluke this year or next year. As a result, factors that were in operation in, say, the month of May, when we had extremely wet weather, have changed. The good and the dry weather of the last month has done not only as much, but far and away more than anything that might be done by any advice or action on our part to prevent a recurrence of fluke. If this weather continues for another month there is very little likelihood of any recurrence of fluke. At the same time this particular pamphlet, with certain modifications, will be issued immediately in the event of a change in the weather.
Farmers are being advised now in the event of any unlikely contingency to treat their low-lying land with a solution of copper-sulphate, which will cost six or seven shillings per statute acre. They are getting certain advice how to administer medicine to animals in low condition and likely to be infected still with fluke. The medicine in question is available in very large quantities, and we are in a position to supply what would meet any contingency. In the unlikely contingency of such a change in the weather that the epidemic of fluke might occur again, it can be met by treatment of the animals and treatment of the land. With regard to treatment of the animals, the medicine will be available in every chemists' shop in the Saorstát, and not only in particular shops here in Dublin, from which supplies were given out already, but in every chemists' shop. It will be extremely cheap. I forget the exact cost but I think about twopence or threepence per sheep. It can be administered by the farmer himself or by a veterinary surgeon, and it is not likely to result in any complications, especially as the ewes have yeaned. On the other side, there is the treatment of low-lying lands which a farmer may have. The small farmer, not having a tremendous amount of land, is not likely to have such an area of low-lying land that the cost of six or seven shillings per statute acre will deter him from adopting this treatment, if it is necessary. The necessity, in my opinion, would only arise if we get rainy warm weather for a long time. There is not very much likelihood of any outbreak this year. If there is it can be met in the way suggested.
I might mention that arrangements are being made for some time by the Department of Agriculture, not exactly in connection with the point we are dealing, but the Department has been in touch with the Professor of tropical medicines in University College, London. I think he will do some research work in the matter here which has not been done up to the present in any country. As I said, I am satisfied that the provision made ought to meet the case. I will not go so far as to say it will altogether meet the case, but it will do so so far as the poorer areas are concerned. These are the only areas we can deal with. We cannot deal with cases where fairly well-off people have lost stock. We can only deal with the poorer areas where you cannot afford to apply to the particular cases what you would apply to a shopkeeper or to a case of bankruptcy where it is a person's own business. As far as these areas are concerned, this proposal ought to meet the case and will, in a great many cases, meet it.
If it does not, I am not prepared to ask the Minister for Finance to do anything further. It is a generous offer, but it is generosity in the right direction. It is not only dealing with the particular problem which we have to deal with at the moment, the problem of fluke epidemic, but it is really development and reproductive work, for we are encouraging societies which would be useful not only in meeting this problem, but useful as regards the day by day business of the poorer areas, and probably it would be more useful than the hundreds of thousands of pounds spent every year for relief work in those areas.