This Estimate contains what is for all practical purposes provision for £500,000 to be utilised for the payment of subsidies on production, the export of dairy products and for allowances for storage of butter for the winter. I have listened to the Minister, but find it hard to understand where this sum of money has been spent. At the moment we seem to have practically run out of butter. I suppose that, in some parts of the country, there is a surplus of butter. The Minister told us that certain wholesalers did not avail of the advice given to them last year to put enough butter in storage to meet the needs of their customers.
There ought to be some consideration for the economic changes that are taking place in the country. It seems, anomalous to be making provision for bread and butter subsidies after three years of blockade. For years we have levied import duties on commodities, nominally for the protection of home manufactures, but really in many instances for revenue purposes. We are now faced with the loss of that income. In some instances we taxed the raw materials for housing our people with grave results on the costs. As most of these houses were for the working classes, and were paid for by the rest of the community, it seems as if in some cases we were increasing the costs and afterwards charging it to capital account. However, in face of some of the other aspects of this situation, that is a small matter.
It looks as if, with the cessation of supplies to this country, we are faced with a complete reversal of the economic structure and that the agricultural community will now have to produce 100 per cent. of our food requirements. When one considers the population density of Eire compared with the population density of countries such as France or Belgium, surely it is not unreasonable to think that we ought to be able to raise all the food we want for ourselves? This ought to be the time for a review of the agricultural subsidies. We are faced with a deficit in the Budget of £7,000,000, and probably next year it may be £10,000,000 or £12,000,000. The Government ought to take a more realistic view of our financial position. Why should we export butter at a loss? At the present time the most serious problem is the shortage of wheat. We have a surplus of potatoes, but, in reply to a question a few days ago, the Minister for Supplies said that some people were experimenting with the installation of machinery for making potato flour. Surely in the last resort we will come down to putting potatoes into the bread. Are we coming to a time when people will be starving in the towns and the farmers will be unable to sell their potatoes?
When the Minister for Finance was introducing the Vote on Account he used words something like these: "We have not been unreasonable or ungenerous to agriculture. I collected some figures to show exactly what agriculture was getting: Department of Agriculture, £666,000; agricultural subsidies, £500,000; relief of rates on land, £1,187,000; reduction in annuities to farmers, £2,200,000; farmers' share of flour and bread subsidy, £503,000; farm improvement schemes, £250,000; seed and lime distribution, £70,000; improvement of estates, £250,000; dairying industry, £771,000; a total of over £7,000,000." The Minister also said that farmers will receive more than £6,000,000 for the 1942 wheat and beet crops as against £2,500,000 for these crops in the last year prior to the outbreak of the war.
I do not mean to suggest that you can balance a £7,000,000 shortage in the Budget by taking away £7,000,000 of subsidies to the farmers. But there is no doubt that a very profound change is taking place in the economy of this country. Perhaps it will not be visible for some few months. It may begin to show some signs in the Budget. But I should like to suggest to the Minister that the time has come when he can look on the rest of the community, apart from the farmers, as producing the major part of the taxes for running the country if you continue to provide the farmers with £7,000,000 in the shape of subsidies. I do not mean to suggest that he can cut that off from the farming community, but there will have to be some sort of adjustment of our economic structure due to changes brought about by the war. I suppose that having passed all the Estimates and the Government having listened to some criticisms, the Budget will then he produced and we will be told: "We have pared down the Estimates all we can and nobody brought forward any suggestions about any items that could be reduced. We cannot cut down our expenditure. We cannot effect any economies and really there is nothing to be done but to raise the extra £7,000,000 by taxation."
Now, I should like to take this opportunity of suggesting to the Minister and to the Government that they ought to take a more realistic view of the changed situation. I am afraid the time has gone by when we can present subsidies all round the country. We shall have to try to live within our income and the expenses of each service will have to be borne by those for whose benefit it is operated. The Minister can think over that suggestion. I do not suppose he can give any answer to it off-hand, but it appears to me that a very drastic change will have to be made this year in our ideas of subsidies.
