I asked the Minister for Agriculture to-day to state:—
"(i) The quota of bacon authorised by the Pigs and Bacon Commission to be supplied by curers to their customers during the current month, and,
(ii) the quotas similarly authorised for each of the preceding months since 30th November, 1947."
The reply was in the following terms:—
"The authorised quota for the current month is 30 per cent. of the monthly average supplies in the year ended 31st March, 1941."
The quota for the current month is 30 per cent. and that is a figure which, I think, we must note.
"The monthly quotas authorised since 30th November, 1947, were: December, 1947, to February, 1948, 40 per cent.; March to May, 1948, 33? per cent...."
For the current month, let me remind the House again the quota is 30 per cent of the basic supply, a decline of 10 per cent. on the figure from March to May, 1948, and no less than 30 per cent. on the quota fixed for each of the months from December, 1947, to February, 1948. The Minister, who has launched a campaign to put more bacon on the breakfast table, certainly found something to explain, or to try to explain, away in these figures, and, of course, the Minister for Agriculture set himself the task. He proceeded to exculpate himself by adding an addendum to the information which was strictly relevant only by way of apology for his failure to improve the supply of bacon on our breakfast tables. He went on to say:—
The decision to fix the current quota was taken while the deplorable situation in the pork and bacon trade bequeathed to the Government by our predecessors was being tackled and it was then impossible to foresee the remarkable degree of success which was to attend the efforts of the officers of my Department, the Pigs and Bacon Commission and the Garda Síochána, but if this should be maintained it is intended substantially to increase the quota next month.
The first issue which that statement raises is as to when the quota for the current month was fixed and by whom it is fixed. The plain implication here, of course, is that it is fixed by the Government, and it was perhaps borne out in the evasive reply which the Minister gave to the supplementary question I addressed to him, in which he said that the quotas given by the previous Government were not filled and the current quota of 30 per cent. was substantially greater than the alleged 33? to 40 per cent. stipulated in the years gone by. I say that, on that reply to my supplementary question, the issue is raised at once as to by whom the bacon quotas are fixed. The Minister in his supplementary reply wishes the public to infer that the quotas are fixed by the Government as a whole, or, if not by the Government as a whole, by the Minister for Agriculture, who is a member of that Government. Unless things have changed and he has overriden the statute, the Minister knows as well as I that the quotas are fixed by the Pigs and Bacon Commission and that they are determined by the commission upon information furnished to them from various sources, which they have at their disposal. It was not the Government, therefore, which fixed this quota in the years gone by. It was the Pigs and Bacon Commission, unless, as I have said, the Minister has overridden the statute and interfered with the exercise of their statutory functions.
The next question that arises is as to when the quotas are fixed. We are now in the second week of June and I understand the quota for July has not yet been fixed. I must assume, therefore, and I am justified in firmly believing, that the quota for June was not fixed until the latter half of May, just as the quota for May was not fixed until the latter half of April, and the quota for April was not fixed until the latter half of March. The principal quotas for which the present Minister must accept the degree of responsibility which the statute imposes upon him, to the extent to which he may be said to be responsible for the operations of the Pigs and Bacon Commission, are those for the period from March to May of 1948 when they were fixed at 33? per cent. For the current month, let me repeat, the quota is 30 per cent., representing a reduction upon the monthly quotas fixed for the period March to May, 1948.
Let me turn now to the reply the Minister gave to my supplementary question and recall its terms to the House again:—
"The quotas given by the previous Government were not filled and the current quota of 30 per cent. was substantially greater than the alleged 33? to 40 per cent. stipulated in the years gone by."
I assume that the Minister's statement refers equally to the monthly quotas fixed for the period March to May, 1948, and those fixed for the period December, 1947, to February, 1948, so that if the Minister intends to stand on the terms of that supplementary reply, what he is telling the House is that he fixed these quotas for some reason or other at a higher figure than in fact he was justified in doing. Let me repeat—if the Minister intends to stand on the terms of his reply—I know, and he knows, that the Pigs and Bacon Commission are supposed to fix these quotas and to fix them on the basis of information which is furnished to them from, no doubt, reliable sources. Therefore, we see this: That the campaign which was ushered in with the banging of the big drum in those organs of the Press which support the present Government—the Hibernians beat the big drums as well as the Orangemen, make no mistake about that—this campaign which was ushered in with such a réclame on 15th April, has proven, so far as the consumers of bacon are concerned and so far as the condition of our breakfast tables is concerned, to be a dismal failure. In fact, the supply of bacon to the general public has touched a lower level than ever recorded in history.
Let me say something about this campaign and some of the after effects of it. The campaign opened on the 15th April with a statement in the newspapers, but particularly in the Irish Independent under the caption “The Minister for Agriculture announces a drive against black market bacon.” Then there followed a very graphic description of the steps which the Minister proposed to take in order to ensure that the black market in bacon would be ended and that there would be a more plentiful supply of that commodity for the general public. Reading the Minister's own statement of the details of the campaign which he proposed to wage against the black marketeers recalls to my mind a famous episode in the history of our neighbours when a certain Cabinet Minister marshalled all the forces of the Crown in order to apprehend two wrong-doers. I know of nothing more apt to apply to the measures which the Minister for Agriculture visualised than a quatrain from the well-known “Ballad of Sydney Street”:—
"The gallant chief sent this dispatch out:
I find pork butchers in arms arrayed,
So send us on all the other polis
Likewise, the army and the fire brigade."
With all the panoply of war, therefore, the Minister sailed into action against the alleged black marketeers.