asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state whether he is aware that the population of Dunquin parish, County Kerry, who are largely dependent on agriculture for their subsistence, are severely handicapped by the absence of creamery facilities; and whether he will take steps to see that travelling creamery facilities are provided to connect the milk supplies of the area with the neighbouring creamery.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Creamery Facilities for Dunquin (County Kerry).
The Dunquin district is served by the separating stations at Ballyferriter and Ventry. The number of suppliers who are not in a position to avail of either of these stations is too small to warrant the provision of an extra separating station or a travelling creamery.
Will the Minister say how many persons would be necessary to avail of these facilities in the Dunquin area before the service could be provided?
So far as the estimates for my Department go, there are only 12 farmers who find it difficult to deliver their milk at Ballyferriter and Ventry. If a station were established at Dunquin the number who supply Ballyferriter and Ventry would go to Dunquin, with the result that there would be three stations, two of them uneconomic.
Has the Minister seen the list of the people in the Dunquin area anxious to have a service there? Has he recently investigated the situation?
I have seen a report on it.
Has the Minister recently investigated the situation?
Yes, quite recently.
How far from Ventry and Ballyferriter are the suppliers in the Dunquin parish?
The farthest away in Dunquin would be five or six miles.
That is a considerable distance for a small area where they have not any great transport capacity either in the way of asses or horses.
It is admittedly a long distance for a supplier with a small amount of milk, but I do not see any way out of it. The effect would be, perhaps, three uneconomic stations.
Has the Minister taken into consideration that Dunquin is a small, compact area where the Irish language is entirely the language of the people, where the people are entirely dependent on agriculture for their subsistence, and that difficulties of this kind tend to reduce the number of the population there, and will he consider balancing any expenditure in respect of the third separating station against the desirability of helping to maintain the people in a small, concentrated Irish-speaking district, in one of the few places in Kerry where the language exists?
Will the Minister consider the desirability of sending a lorry through the district to collect the milk each day—send a lorry from the Dingle creamery and collect at Dunquin?
That is the position at present—a travelling creamery goes around that area. The difficulty about the travelling creamery is that in order to be economic it must have about three stops. To do this would mean an additional travelling creamery.
Why not bring the milk on a lorry to the travelling creamery?
I may say that this matter is being continuously investigated.