asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that there is a surplus of apples and crab-apples in the County Tipperary; that the jam and cider factories have arranged their supplies for the season and are unable to use this surplus; and whether, in order to prevent the waste of this fruit, he will arrange a market for its export.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Apple Surplus.
I am aware that there has been a fairly heavy crop of apples, including crab-apples, this season in County Tipperary and that substantial quantities of apples suitable for manufacturing purposes only have been taken up for cider and jam manufacture. An export market may be found for a proportion of the surplus of apples suitable for manufacturing purposes.
Is the Minister aware that 700 tons of crab-apples are rotting in County Tipperary which made from £8 to £24 per ton—an average of £12 per ton—within the past six years, and is he also aware that not a bottle or glass of cider was to be had in any public-house in Dublin or through the country for three months of the summer, and that on every third farm in Tipperary apples are rotting in the orchards? Every third farmer's place in Tipperary is a Garden of Eden at present.
I am not in any way preventing a market being found for these apples and I am quite prepared to issue export permits.
About two months ago I applied for a licence for a shipper in Tipperary but I failed to get the licence for him. It is a shame that these apples should be rotting there.
I should like to know who was the shipper who was refused a licence.
I have the correspondence here.