I think we are entitled to comment on the take-it-or-leave-it attitude of the Minister in introducing this Estimate. He did not make any attempt to elaborate or explain any of the items from A to G. For instance, in respect of B—bounties on fishery products—we learned more from Deputy O'Neill in his few remarks just now than we did from anything that came from the Minister. If the Minister had taken some pains to give an explanation of some of the items, it might have helped us, and I should like to join with Deputy Brennan in asking the Minister for some explanation of A—bounties and subsidies on export of industrial products. What were the products? What amount of them was exported? Where were they exported to? In relation to the final item, the bounty for experimental and trial consignments to external markets, we are entitled to ask for some explanation even in respect of last year's expenditure. How and where was the sum of £49,000 expended last year on trial consignments? Were they successful consignments; was any good trade established, and was this money, on the whole, well spent? If it has been, we ought to have got beyond the point of trial consignments now, and there ought to be a regular system of exportation to some place or other. If that is so, the Minister ought to explain it. If he has been able to establish, through this expenditure, any fairly successful market with any promise of permanence, there might be something to say for the expenditure, and we ought to have arrived at the stage when, if there is any successful exportation of agricultural produce to any market outside Britain, it should pass out of Ministerial hands and be a matter for the general public to deal with. If we have been successful in establishing a market to any extent in some foreign country, it would be desirable, in the interests of agriculture, that we should have competition amongst the exporters, and it might be useful in the farmers' interest. I should like the Minister to give us some further explanation of that item.
One does not like to weary the House on the general question of subsidies, as there was reference to it in the Budget debate and in other debates. As regards the bounty on calf-skins—the one item of which we had any explanation—the Minister quoted the parallel case of some foreign countries where they had succeeded in balancing the dairy end and the cattle end, and where they consume the stock without exporting any. I should like to know if it is the intention of the Minister to bring that condition of affairs about here. Is the Minister hoping to lead up to such a set of circumstances in this country that we would have no export of cattle? If that is the Minister's intention, the House is entitled to be informed of it.
Otherwise, there does not seem to be any good reason for the increase this year in the bounty on calf skins. It is well known that there is a shortage of cattle of mature age here. It is evident in the Dublin and other markets that there is a shortage of these cattle, due to a great extent to the destruction of our young calves in the last three or four years. I do not think that can be reasonably disputed—that there is a shortage of cattle beyond the yearling age. That is borne out by the difficulty which dealers and exporters find in procuring sufficient aged stock, conditioned and unconditioned. Those who are familiar with the country know that a great many of the farms are not stocked to the full and that even if, by some miracle, money could be produced to enable the farmer to buy stock at present prices, the competition would be so keen in the limited market that the price would rise beyond the capacity of the farmers. I am talking about the ordinary store cattle. There are not sufficient cattle to stock the lands. If we could afford to keep the stock we need, we would be a long way short of what we are entitled to export and of the amount for which there is a market in contiguous countries.
The Minister has increased the bounty on calf skins from £60,000 to £80,000, implying that the number of calves to be slaughtered, for one reason or another, is this year to be increased. The Minister pointed out that part of this bounty was by way of commiserate allowance to farmers whose calves had died. That is all to the good, but he might put the amount down in another way and in a clearer form than that in which it appears on the Estimate. That does not account for the bulk of the sum asked for. It seems clear that the Minister is still attempting to induce farmers to slaughter additional calves and thus further deplete the already depleted stocks in the country. As the Minister refrained from giving us any explanation of the items in this Estimate, it is difficult for Deputies to engage in serious debate upon it, unless we adopt the principle of opposing the items of the Estimate en bloc. I hope, when the Minister is replying, he will give us more information than he did when bringing the Vote before the House.