I move:
"Go ndeontar suim bhreise ná raghaidh thar £11,450 chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1931, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an Aire Tailte agus Iascaigh agus Seirbhísí áirithe atá fé riara na hOifige sin, maraon le hIldeontaisí i gCabhair.
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £11,450 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1931, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Lands and Fisheries, and of certain Services administered by that Office, including Sundry Grants-in-Aid."
The form of this Estimate makes it somewhat difficult to follow. The Vote is for a net sum of £11,450. The first item is for a sum of £3,300, a grant-in-aid for the new Sea Fisheries Association to put it at once in funds. This grant relates to the period up to the 31st March next only. The Association was registered on the 20th November, 1930, and it has already begun to function. Particulars of the sum of £3,300 will be found in page 2 of the Estimate. The first item is £1,800 for the expenses of the formation and administration of the Association, including the salaries of the manager, secretary and other staff, the cost of premises, stationary, printing, and so on. The directors themselves are acting voluntarily, and no expense will be incurred in that way, except mere out-of-pocket expenses of those who have to come from a distance to attend meetings of the directors.
The second item is a sum of £1,000 for allowances for boats and gear, and the third an item of £500 for development. The directors have already made a survey of all branches of the industry. because, as Deputies who are interested will know, sea fisheries comprise, in fact, about half a dozen entirely different industries, and they have begun to move in more than one direction. As to the manner in which they propose to deal with different aspects of the industry, I will be in a better position to go into that on presenting the Estimates for the Department for the coming year. There remains, in addition to this sea fisheries grant-in-aid, a sum of £8,150. Of this about £4,000 is required in connection with cottage industries and the other £4,000 in connection with the sub-heads relating to kelp and carrigeen moss. The sum required in connection with the cottage industries represents the expenses of accumulating at the central depot in Beggar's Bush a number of pieces of hand-woven tweed so as to enable prompt and regular supplies to be made to the trade. Deputies are probably aware that a certain number of travellers have been appointed by the Department. These carry patterns of all the materials which are stocked, and it is necessary to keep in stock at least one piece of each pattern. In fact, there is at the moment at the central depot a stock of tweeds of the value of about £6,000.
Apart from this consideration, the expansion of the industry has been somewhat slower than was anticipated when the original Estimate was introduced 18 months ago. In the tweeds, for instance, weavers came in at the outset more slowly than was anticipated. I am glad to say they are now coming in greater numbers. Six months ago there were only about 20 weavers, whereas at the moment we have 70 weavers working and in training. There are four training centres in Donegal and another one is to be opened. There is a centre also at Carrowroe in Connemara, one at Ballydavid in Kerry, and one is about to be opened at Tourmakeady in Co. Mayo. In machine-knitting the difficulties of organisation have been greater than was anticipated. It has been found necessary to bring up nearly all the manageresses of these industries to Dublin for a course of instruction. It is desired to bring the standard of workmanship up to a certain high level which will enable the products to be given the trade mark of the depôt. This reorganisation and the taking away of the instructresses has limited the output for the time being. The abandonment of the old standards and the realisation of the new has not been a very easy task. We have achieved a new standard in a good proportion of the materials and garments turned out, and hope soon to realise it in the case of the others.
The original Estimate for kelp and carrigeen was a token vote of £10 for the purpose of obtaining the approval of the House for certain steps which it was proposed to take. In the case of carrigeen the sum required is £300. This represents portion of the sums paid for the gathering and grading of about ten tons of carrigeen which have been specially cured and graded and which are now in hand for the purpose of sale in packets as food. That was specially good carrigeen. Most of the carrigeen moss was sold for industrial purposes. It was sold for something like £16 per ton, as against the £8 per ton that was generally paid formerly. The carrigeen that is in hand will, it is estimated, fill about 100,000 boxes. It is hoped to have it on the market during the middle of next month. The receipts from it will not appear in this financial year.
In the case of kelp there are certain lots around on isolated portions of the coast which have been bought and paid for, but which are not being collected because of the difficulties of shipment. These will be gathered with the coming season's weed and shipped with it. The total amount is about 200 tons, and the value about £1,200. In connection with the operations of last season it was necessary to buy weighing machines, 25,000 boxes, metal labels, chemical outfits, and other stores, costing about £1,700. It would not be fair to charge this against one season's operations. It represents capital expenditure on equipment which will last over a number of years. There was a loss on the operations last season due to several causes. For instance, there were cases of kelp which for various reasons was of very poor quality. During the war the kelp was bought principally for its potash content rather than its iodine content. Some of that weed is of very poor quality from the point of view of iodine content.
This year the persons accustomed to gathering that weed in the past acted in good faith and gathered it thinking that it had the value now that it formerly had. We intend to stop the use of that weed altogether. In other cases the weed was not stacked and saved in the best manner or was not burned in the best way. We had to decide whether we were going to refuse to take this kelp, or whether we were going to pay a very small price for it. We decided, especially in the cases which I have been speaking of, where the kelp was gathered from the wrong weed, that as those who had gathered it acted in good faith we would pay them roughly £4 or £5 a ton for the kelp. In most cases the price paid was £4 a ton. In some instances this kelp that I am speaking of was taken elsewhere and purchased at very good prices, indeed at prices very much beyond its actual value. The state of things that prevailed last year for the first time in the history of the industry produced a very abnormal condition that I should say is unlikely to recur. The better the kelp and the higher the prices the Department was able to pay, the more satisfactory was the financial result.
Tory Island was the brightest spot in the whole business. This is a place where the kelp produced in the past has been of rather poor quality, but the kelp makers there paid the closest attention to the advice given to them by the Department. For this result I think a great deal of credit is due to the priest who was stationed there at the time, Father Gallagher. The average price paid for the kelp on the Island was £9 16s. 10d. a ton. The highest price paid was £14 a ton. From the point of view of the kelp-makers and of the Department the transactions carried out there were very satisfactory indeed. I do not wish the figures I have given to be taken as anything like the average price that one might expect in the future, because the kelp on Tory Island was made from the sea rods gathered during the winter. These made kelp of the highest quality.
There was no May weed washed up in Tory last season owing to the absence of storms. As Deputies will remember, last May was probably one of the finest months we had during the year. From the point of view of the kelp gatherer, storms in May are welcome. But last year we had storms and a lot of bad weather in August and September—at a wrong time from the point of view of the kelp gatherer.
Six Irish-speaking instructors, who are practical kelp makers, have been appointed. These instructors are working under an Irish-speaking organiser. At the moment they are taking a laboratory course as well as practical instruction. The position, therefore, is that next year every place around the coast will have an opportunity of conducting kelp-gathering and burning on the lines carried out in Tory last season. There are other reasons why the expenses last year were larger than will normally be the case. One is that it was rather late in the year when we decided to go on with the undertaking. The question was whether we should go on with it last year or wait and make all the necessary preparations by way of providing stores and so on; that is to say, to postpone the thing for a year in order that proper preparations might be made, or to tackle the thing last year and see what could possibly be done in the absence of these facilities.
For instance, we purchased weighing machines and got chemists. At any rate we decided to go on last year, and that is the reason why the cost is a bit heavier. We decided that whatever disadvantages there might be in proceeding without the very best facilities at every point that that would be outweighed by the experience gained in tackling the problem. The bad weather also involved us in additional cost by way of shipment. It was a long time before we were enabled to charter a Saorstát boat at any reasonable freight. Eventually we had to go to the Clyde for a steamer, and in the case of certain small consignments we were forced to use a couple of the Department's motor boats which were not engaged in fishing at the time. These boats were not entirely adapted for this particular job, and at any rate that is not an economic way of shipping the weed. In future seasons there will be more time to make arrangements in regard to all these matters. In some places, owing to the absence of storage, we had to stack the kelp and cover it with tarpaulin pending shipment. That does not help to improve the quality of the kelp. In future we hope to be able to make more satisfactory arrangements for storage.
Taking the result of last season as a whole, and the information which I have with regard to the kelp handled by the Department, and other information that I have in regard to kelp sold elsewhere, it is estimated that the total output was increased by about 40 per cent., while the total sum received by the kelp-makers was increased by about 80 per cent., or an additional sum between £12,000 and £13,000. In the figures which formed the basis of the total estimate I had budgeted for a much larger increase in the total output. I expected to have an output of 5,000 tons. The actual output, due to the fact that the May weed was not washed up, was 3,500 tons. That was about 40 per cent. of an increase on the previous year.
Moreover, I budgeted on the fact that the whole of the kelp output would be handled by the Department. That did not turn out to be the case. Some buyers did not see fit to make purchases through the Department, but preferred to buy direct from the kelp-makers. I am glad to say, however, that the prices which they paid were in most cases much in excess of the prices they paid in former years. The proportion of the total amount of kelp handled by the Department was, I think, something over two-thirds of the whole output. I would like to make it clear that the Department is not a buyer of kelp. The Department is merely acting as agent for the kelp-makers. There is no question, therefore, of substituting a new monopoly for a monopoly that formerly existed. The Department wishes to encourage every buyer who is willing to pay a fair price. All the former buyers were invited to meet us last year, to discuss the future arrangements in the interests of everyone concerned. One of the principal buyers did so, and we entered into mutually satisfactory arrangements, which resulted in his making a larger purchase of kelp than in the previous year. The other buyers did not come into the scheme.
The object of the whole scheme is to ensure a fair price and a market to absorb a much greater output of kelp. It will be remembered that these were the great difficulties of kelp makers in former years. They never knew if they would get purchasers. The matter was carefully considered, and the conclusion we came to was that there was only one way in which it could be satisfactorily dealt with. It is the way we have adopted. I think it is one to which the House has given its full support. It has been suggested that people are being put out of business owing to the action of the Department. So far as this country is concerned people are not being put out of business but they are actually being put into business by the Department. More kelp makers are coming in. We have one iodine factory established in Galway, and there is no reason why anyone should go out of business. Anyone who wishes to buy kelp we shall be glad to receive, and we have no doubt that the results will be as satisfactory to the buyers as to the kelp burners. The only interest we wish to serve is the interest of the kelp makers.
A good deal of research is proceeding in the Galway iodine factory which, I anticipate, will result in further improvements in the quality of the kelp. There is research in the way of a better method of burning and in the general handling of the weed. Some of the results already obtained are of a striking nature, and if they work out in actual commercial practice as they have done in the laboratory one may expect very great things indeed from the industry.