At what price? I would like to know what the flour scheme is costing this country. The Minister for Industry and Commerce stated that when the Cumann na nGaedheal Government went out of office only 1,500,000 sacks of flour were being milled in the country, and he went on to say that the output now was 2,500,000 sacks. A merchant in Macroom told me that he could buy foreign flour at 3/6 a sack cheaper than the home manufactured flour. A simple calculation shows that 3/6 a sack on 2,500,000 sacks of flour amounts, roughly, to £437,000. Deputy Brennan asked a question as to how many hands were employed in the flour-milling industry here, and I put a question to the Minister as to what the cost was, but the Minister evaded replying. Everybody who has read the Report of the Tariff Commission knows that if all the flour millers of the country were engaged in the production of these 2,500,000 sacks of flour the calculation was made that employment would only be given to 153 extra hands. Making the liberal allowance of £4 a week each for these 153 extra hands there is an expenditure of about £600 a week or £30,000 a year, so that if we deduct this sum of £30,000 from the £437,000 we find that the policy of the Government, so far as the milling industry is concerned, is costing this country £407,000 a year. Yet in the face of these figures we are told that wheat growing is a paying proposition. If it is why did not Deputy Kelly of Meath accept the generous offer I made to him last October? I offered him 15 acres of tillage land situate about 15 miles from the City of Dublin in order that he might avail of it to educate the people in that area how to grow wheat at a profit. The Deputy did not accept my offer, and he did not accept it because, as I said at the time, wheat growing experts have found that the growing of wheat is not a paying proposition.
With regard to the feeding of pigs, Deputy Corry made a comparison between the prices here and in Scotland for wheat and barley. He said: "look at the prices we are paying as a result of the Government's policy and legislation." I asked him who paid it except the farmers in the poorest parts of the country. The Government themselves admit that the ten per cent. addition to the mixture resulted in an increase of about 10/- a ton to the cost of meal. Now there is to be a further increase to 15 per cent., which will mean that the farmers of the country will have to pay 15/- a ton more for their meal. It is no wonder, as Deputy Kent said, that the hens are going on strike because the feeding they are getting is not strong enough. Farmers have told me that their pigs come out in the middle of the night crying because of the hunger. I have always maintained that it is not fair to tax the people in the poorer parts of the country to help those who can well afford to provide feeding themselves. I think it would be a much better policy for the Minister to give a subsidy of so much per ton so that the people in the areas who have to buy feeding stuffs could obtain homegrown cereals at a reduced price and mix them themselves. People would then know what they were getting, but at present they do not.
When this admixture scheme was under consideration before the Tariff Commission, an expert witness, giving evidence, said that it was impossible to detect adulteration in the mixture. For that reason I object to the present system. If the Government feel that people who produce grain should be helped, then they should do that in a different way to that in which it is being done and be honest about it. Fianna Fáil Deputies, in the course of their speeches, have told us about the great depression there is all over the world. When they occupied these benches and when we made that statement they laughed at us, and said that it was the Cumann na nGaedheal Government that was responsible for all the depression. We are getting a good deal of dictation now from the experts on the Government benches as to how we should run our farms. We are told a lot about the wisdom of a tillage policy. I have some experience of feeding. I put in seven cows to feed and a fortnight afterwards I was offered £51 for them. I fed them for another eight weeks and at the end of that time I was very glad to get £50 for them. I leave it to members of this House who know what it costs to feed cows to estimate the loss that I sustained.
The most unfortunate thing about the whole policy of the present Government is that it is driving people out of production. In Cork this year the quantity of feeding stuffs sold was only half what was sold two years ago. I am not a politician. I said in this House before that it made no difference to the people of this country what party occupied the Government benches if the country were prosperous. That is my policy. There has been a good deal of talk about dividing up land. I have seen some land that was divided up, but so far as I could observe there has not been much change made in the working of it, because most of it is still being used for grazing. If the Government want to go in for dividing up land, then surely they ought to take steps to provide a market for what is produced and we have not that market at the present time due to their policy. My policy always was to increase production on the land but our position to-day is that we have no market in which to sell our produce. Before the last two General Elections we were told by the Fianna Fáil Party that the markets would be got. We were to get a market in Germany, but to-day our cows are going to Germany because they are cheaper than old horses. I always heard it said that it was a foolish thing for a man to give up on job until he was sure of walking into another. That saying has great application so far as the policy of the present Government is concerned. They should have taken care to try and preserve the markets we had until the other markets that they talked about were procured. The Minister said a few days ago that we had circulated the report that they were going to reduce the number of cattle in the country. We never said that but they said it themselves: that they were going to put people instead of bullocks on the land. They have admitted now that the more land they divide the more cattle the country can produce, but what is the good of producing anything when you have no market to sell in?
There are people in my area producing cattle and a very poor part of the country it is to produce cattle. At the present time, every one of these cattle from two year olds upwards has to bear a tax of £6 which, if you wish, less the bounty, is reduced to about £4 15s. Some time ago a cattle dealer was buying cattle from a man in this district. He caught one of the beasts by the head to look at its teeth. The man from whom he was buying them asked what was that for. He replied: "You can ask President de Valera. He can tell you all about it." I think it is up to the Minister now to give us some idea of the future policy of the Government with regard to agriculture in this country. Nobody would be more pleased than I if he were able to say that the agricultural position in the country was satisfactory. We want a market for our agricultural produce and we want to encourage production amongst the people. If you build up the agricultural industry in this country you can build up your other industries side by side with it.
