I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £15,690 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1947, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Agriculture, and of certain Services administered by that Office, including sundry Grants-in-Aid.
This Supplementary Estimate is made up of four items. As the House is aware, the Government have increased the grants to University Colleges and as the grants to the University covering the Faculty of General Agriculture and the Faculty of Dairy Science were borne on this Vote, I am making provision in this Supplementary Estimate for the proportionate amount due to the Establishment on foot of that decision for a seven months' period. The amount is £11,030, divided between University College, Dublin, £7,255, and University College, Cork, £3,775, subject to any stipulations that I may decide or feel obliged to attach to this grant.
The next item is one of £860 which is provided to meet the expenses incurred by the county committees of agriculture as a result of the harvest scheme. An arrangement was made at the time between the Department of Industry and Commerce and my Department for the supply of tea and sugar to voluntary workers and secretaries of committees of agriculture were notified of the amounts of these commodities that would be made available to them and they were instructed to order these supplies from whatever trader they had selected. That arrangement, as Deputies are aware, was carried out and this is to recoup the committees for the expenses incurred under that head.
The next item is one of £3,200 which is intended to make it possible to dispose of the amount of Progress wheat which we are importing this year. In reply to a Parliamentary Question, I explained that we were able to import more Progress wheat from Sweden. The price at which it was available to us was somewhere in the neighbourhood of, I think, £5 per barrel and, as the House is aware, the fixed price of pedigree seed produced in this country was 96/-. It was thought desirable that Progress wheat so imported should be made available on similar terms and this Estimate is to enable us to sell this wheat at the same price. The other item is one of £30,500 which is caused by the increases in remuneration to members of the staff of my Department.