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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 27 Feb 1947

Vol. 104 No. 11

Adjournment Debate—Oil Supplies for Tractors.

To-day I addressed a Private Notice Question to the Minister for Industry and Commerce in the following terms:—

"To ask the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that supplies of fuel oil for tractors have in recent weeks been negligible and that permits for tractor vaporising oil supplies have accumulated at supply depôts where no supplies are at present available, and in view of the paramount importance in this abnormally late season of having ample fuel supplies with farmers in time for favourable weather conditions he will state what steps he proposes to take to ensure that all tractors can operate a full 100 per cent. when weather permits."

By the Minister's attitude to that question, I am afraid he has no appreciation of the seriousness and urgency of this problem. The present conditions through which the country has passed in recent weeks have completely immobilised tractors everywhere. There are very considerable arrears of work. As a matter of fact, little or no winter ploughing has been carried out. I am particularly anxious to ensure that, when the weather clears, ample supplies of tractor fuel will be available. I do not think the Minister appreciates the urgency of this problem. Carlow is probably the biggest tractor depôt in the country and there are permits there accumulating to the extent of over 20,000 gallons of fuel for tractor purposes. I am quite satisfied that the existing services at the disposal of the companies will not be anything like sufficient to meet the immediate requirements of the farmers.

After this very long spell, we can hope for an early rise in the weather. If an early rise does not occur, the situation will be disastrous, as the question of immediate ploughing and cultivation for the wheat crop is a matter of weeks. In fact, when the weather clears every tractor in the country will have to work long hours every day and possibly in some cases work in the night-time as well. Does the Minister appreciate how disastrous the situation will be if a number of tractors are left standing idle in the near future? There is an extraordinary amount of leeway in work to be made up on land all over the country and I feel that the Minister agrees with me that it is most desirable that that work should not be delayed or hampered because of lack of fuel supplies. It struck me that, in order to ensure that tractors will go full steam ahead, fuel supplies should be available not merely at depôts but should be got out now, against the weather clearing, to every farmer who owns a tractor.

I know from information I have got that the problem is not confined to the particular depôt I am talking about, Carlow, but that it exists generally all over the country. The Minister's attention was drawn to this question of kerosene several times since last Christmas and on one or two occasions I reminded him by way of supplementary questions that the problem of T.V.O. supplies was accumulating. I am telling him now that, so far as Carlow is concerned, that problem is accumulating to the extent of 25,000 gallons in the matter of permits that are there since before Christmas. That means that, if the weather clears next week, there will be many farmers not in a position to operate their machinery and in view of the very abnormal and unprecedented weather conditions we are passing through and the urgency of the whole matter. I have felt it my duty to bring the Minister's attention to this problem.

I can only apologise for the short notice. I was not in a position to give any longer notice and I felt the matter could not be postponed until the Dáil meet again—I understand we may not meet next week. I am sorry I was not able to give longer notice so that the Minister might look into the matter, but he can take my assurance that the problem is an urgent one and that, in the interest of the cereal crop for next year, the matter requires his very early attention.

I agree with Deputy Hughes that the position is one of great urgency. The depôts should be stocked with adequate supplies of oil to meet the requirements of the farming community. The Minister will agree that most tractors, when they start, will work more than 16 hours a day and that they will use from 20 to 25 gallons a day. Recently, in my area, which is supplied from Cork, the supplies of kerosene were very limited. I asked the distributor in charge of the lorry what the cause was and he said that the supplies were not in Cork. That is a serious state of affairs. Reports coming through from the particular area covered by that driver show that the supplies of kerosene were very limited and were not able to meet the requirements of owners of tractors prior to the bad weather. Now is the time to see that adequate stocks are laid in for the heavy pressure in spring work which will begin shortly.

Deputies can be assured that I fully appreciate the importance of getting kerosene supplies distributed to the local depôts. I undertake to keep the maximum pressure upon the oil companies to handle this problem. I want Deputies, however, to understand what the problem is. We will have more kerosene to distribute this year than ever since the beginning of the war. The oil companies in this country had a system of distribution which was based on the utilisation of a number of depôts at various ports, which were supplied by small tankers. Apparently they kept in the country only road-rail transport equipment sufficient to supply the inland depôts on the basis of runs to and from these seaport depôts.

During the war, of course, all the petroleum products which were imported came into Dublin. They came in large tankers which only the Dublin port could accommodate, and were distributed from Dublin by means of the road and rail cars as they arrived. During the war years we were getting such small quantities of paraffin, fuel oil and petrol that these rail and road cars were sufficient to maintain the distribution, even though distribution had to be effected from one centre, namely, Dublin, instead of from a number of centres as before the war. With the big increase in the quantities of burning oil, vaporising oil and petrol now arriving the equipment available to the oil companies is no longer adequate to maintain proper distribution so long as that distribution has to be done from Dublin. It is clear, therefore, that there are two possible solutions of the difficulty. One is to get an adequate amount of small tanker tonnage to keep the depôts at Sligo, Foynes, Cork, Waterford and the other places full, and the other is to increase the facilities for internal transportation. The oil companies have, in fact, succeeded in getting a small tanker which is being used to replenish some of the coastal depôts, and placed orders for new rail tank cars in Great Britain. Since they found some difficulties in getting these orders accepted, I made special representations to the British Government, and the British Government has given the necessary priorities. As a result, the tank cars were made available and adapted for use on the Irish railways. I think it was last Monday week that the oil companies were informed that the tank cars were being despatched. The next information they got about them was that the railway lines in England were blocked by snow, and that in consequence delivery was being delayed. They have not arrived yet. I think it is a fair criticism of the oil companies to say that they should have foreseen these difficulties and should have been more energetic in getting small tanker tonnage, or else have placed orders for rail tank car equipment at an earlier date. However, blaming the oil companies is not going to get us anywhere. We have got to try to get supplies distributed with the equipment that is available. That is going to involve some problem of priorities.

I am afraid they will not be able to do it.

At the moment we are considering with the oil companies whether we cannot establish some system of priorities which will give the prospect of getting kerosene supplies distributed quickly. We cannot go too far in that direction, obviously, because if petrol supplies were allowed to run short there would be an equally acute transport problem in many areas. While it might conceivably be possible to confine petrol deliveries to lorries engaged on essential services, it could not be done quickly because there is a large number of licensed petrol retailers throughout the country all of whose tanks are normally kept full. The problem of supervision would be an almost impossible one. If the oil companies could get additional tankers for the coast-wise distribution it would be the quickest solution. It may be that the rail tank cars will come to-morrow. They are actually en route, and their arrival here is delayed only by weather conditions. They are already adapted for service on the Irish railways. Of course, the railways are another problem. To turn around the tank cars is obviously going to be a much more difficult task now than when we had a good railway service in operation. As Deputies know, goods trains are running only on three days in the week and there are no passenger trains. The abnormal circumstances to which Deputy Hughes has referred and which make this an urgent matter are, of course, also complicating the whole problem. All that I can say to the Dáil is that this matter is being continuously discussed with the oil companies. A further conference is to be held in my Department to-morrow. The purpose of it is to deal with the special urgency of this problem—the delivery of kerosene supplies—and to see if it will be possible to work on a limited system of priorities which will enable the distribution depôts down the country to be kept going.

There are 25,000 gallons required in Carlow within a few days. The matter is, therefore, a very urgent one. I think that with a view to bringing temporary relief, the Army should be called in and that tanks should be collected from the Army or from any place where they can be got and utilised for supplying the depôts. What I am afraid of is that these 25,000 gallons will not be delivered in Carlow in time.

I do not think it would be practicable to use Army lorries for the distribution of kerosene. The Army has only one or two tank lorries and they are of small capacity. Rather large tanks are required for the purpose.

If we could solve the problem by taking tanks off the rail trucks, it should be done.

Several complaints have been made to me with regard to the purchase of new tankers or even second-hand ones. There is a good deal of delay in getting them. If the forms are not filled up correctly delays are caused, sometimes as long as a fortnight or three weeks. I think that, if a form is not properly filled up, the Department should make some arrangement whereby a person would be allowed to get a tanker to carry one on over a period.

Unless there is some reason to suspect the bona fides of an applicant, the Department will make an ad hoc temporary arrangement of that kind.

I tried myself to get a new tanker, but it appears that when filling up the application form I did not specify the Road Act within which the application came. That caused delay.

Would not a telephone message have fixed that up for you?

The telephone wires were broken down at the time.

The Dáil adjourned at 10.30 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 28th February, 1947.

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