I asked a question yesterday about the way in which a certain payment of 2/6 per stone, which was forthcoming from the British Government to flax growers in this country, was being disposed of by the Irish Government, through whose hands, I believe, it passed on its way from the British Ministry of Supply to the producers of flax here. I am trying to-night to clear up an ambiguity, and I am trying to do that on behalf of the flax growers in the Country Monaghan and, at the request of Deputy T. J. O'Donovan, on behalf of the flax growers of West Cork.
What happened was this. Our Government, on behalf of the flax growers here, agreed to sell the whole crop to the British Ministry of Supply, and our Government got the best price they could for it. That price bore some relation, though it was not identical, to the price paid in Northern Ireland. During the season, the British Ministry of Supply increased the price paid in Northern Ireland by 1/6 per stone. However, before they decided to pay that increase, certain producers in Éire had already been paid for their flax and the British Government said they wished these producers, who had already been paid, to get the 1/6 as well as the other producers, and they invited the Irish Government to take over the 1/6 on behalf of the growers here and see that those who had already delivered flax would get the extra amount of money. So far as I know, that was done.
But then, in the following year, a new price was fixed for flax, and I understand that that new price for flax included a bonus of 2/6 per stone on all flax purchased and sold to the British Ministry of Supply. That was to say, that the British Ministry of Supply would pay direct to the grower a basic price for flax and that then there would be paid to the Irish Department of Agriculture, for distribution amongst the growers, a bonus of 2/6 a stone on all the flax delivered, over and above the basic price. Growers in this country believe that they were given only 1/6 of that 2/6, that 1/- was retained by the Government, and that the Government used that 1/- to finance the Flax Development Board in Éire, which had been set up by the Government for the purpose of assisting interested parties to erect flax dams, scutching mills and other equipment for the finishing of flax; that is to say, the separation of the flax from the tow and the preparation of the crop for export as flax, yarn and tow.
The beneficiaries of grants made by the Flax Development Board are largely persons who want to set up scutch mills in the immediate vicinity of districts where flax growing is carried on, on a large scale, notably in Cork. But the people who set up these scutch mills do not set them up out of love for the farmers; they do not set them up in order to accommodate the farmers; they set them up because they believe they are going to make a profit out of them. Some of the scutch mills were erected by very wealthy North of Ireland flax companies, who wanted to get the flax in those areas, and who knew they could make a good thing out of the scutching.
Deputies not familiar with the flax-growing areas may not be aware that the practice has grown up in this country of scutch millers retaining the tow. In the old days the scutch miller returned both flax and tow to the grower, because in those days the tow was not worth very much; some growers would not bother to bring it away. Inasmuch as some of them got out of the habit of bringing tow away, ultimately the practice spread of the scutch miller keeping the tow. During this war it has been discovered that tow is very valuable for some particular purpose for which the British require it. Indeed, some people now say the tow is nearly as valuable as the flax.
The gentlemen who set up the scutch mills do not do so because they have any love for the flax growers; they do it because they know that apart from the value of the flax, the residuary tow is something they can sell at a very handsome profit. The growers say: "If these gentlemen want to set up scutch mills, why should we be levied upon in order to provide grants to defray 50 per cent. of their expenditure in erecting scutch mills, out of which they will make a fine profit?" I cannot but say that the growers have a just complaint, if this be true.
Now, during the last general election campaign this allegation was made to me. I understood the Minister's difficulties in making this agreement with the British Government, and I did not want to start a hare, even during an election in which it might be advantageous to me in County Monaghan, if the statement had no foundation. I put the case before the Department. I asked was there any truth in the allegation that the British Government gave 2/6 and the Irish Government passed on only 1/6 of that amount to the growers. I was assured, on the Minister's authority, that there was no foundation for it. I went back to Monaghan and said: "You cannot proceed along these lines. There is no use in spreading a rumour amongst the flax growers, which is calculated to deter them from growing the crop, when the rumour is not true"—and I had the Minister's word for it that it was not true. Judge my astonishment after the election when the Minister came to speak on the Estimate and when he told us that the allegation was substantially true. When he was winding up the debate, Deputy O'Donovan and I raised this question with him across the floor of the House, and I then understood him to say, quite clearly, that our allegation was substantially true, that of the bonus of 2/6 he was retaining 1/-, that it was going to the Flax Development Board, and was being used for the purpose of subsidising the erection of the scutch mills. Fearing I misunderstood him, I put down a Parliamentary Question and you may imagine my astonishment when I heard, in reply to that question, a denial that there was any truth in the allegation—exactly the same information as I got when I made the inquiry during the general election campaign.
I do not know where I am, and those representing the flax-growing constituencies do not know where they are. We want, if the Minister will be good enough to give it now, a clear statement of the facts, and if it be true that he is keeping back from the flax growers 1/- out of every 2/6 per stone bonus that the British Government are giving to them. We want to know on what grounds can he justify subsidising wealthy firms erecting scutch mills here for their own advantage out of the proceeds of the price of flax. The people who grow flax here are not grabbing or selfish or unreasonable.
Deputies who are familiar with the process will realise that flax is one of the most laborious crops one can grow, and one of the severest on the land. It has to be pulled by hand. We have only one or two flax-pulling machines in the country. You cannot cut flax. You have to pull it and you have to ret it. Most farmers who have not lived beside a retting dam do not realise what that means. It is as if you killed a horse in your back yard and left it there until the slow process of decomposition set in. That is all part of the necessary operations to get the flax ready for the laboratories to work.
Furthermore, it is true that our farmers are getting the same price per stone for flax that the flax growers in Northern Ireland are getting, but the British Ministry of Supply in Northern Ireland gives the farmers who grow flax there, in addition to the price they are being paid for it, a subsidy of £10 per acre. Therefore, the farmers up there are getting a very much better price than our farmers. The flax growers here quite realise that the Minister for Agriculture cannot control the price. He can only try to get the best price he can. What they do complain of is that, when he has made his bargain and got the best price that he can for the farmers—producers in this country—he should retain 1/- of it and give it to people who are well able to finance their own business. That is the burden of our complaint. I would be glad if the Minister would first clarify the position, and then indicate to me, if he can, that whatever has been the practice in the past, if he wants to finance the Flax Development Board, he will do it from some other fund and not out of the price paid to those who produce the flax. If it is to be the national policy to pay those fellows who erect scutch mills, let the Minister do that by getting the money from the Exchequer. I think that will not be necessary because they will do it themselves if they believe they are going to make money out of it, and if they do not think that they are going to make money they will not touch it.
If, however, the Minister wants to provide that inducement, let him do it out of the general taxation of the country. It is not fair to do it out of the labour of those who are producing the crop. The growing of flax is of great advantage to the country and to our general economy, and, therefore, the people who produce it should not be specially penalised simply because those who handle it want to make a little more money than they have been making hitherto.
