Very well, if that is the line he is taking. The Minister extracted 12/10 a cwt. from the sugar company for every cwt. of that sugar. In plain words, he raided the funds of the sugar company, and for the sugar for jam-making and harvesting he took £144,000. He stated that he was prepared to give me information as to the amount of sugar purchased by the Condensed Milk Company, which hit the farmers in two ways. The Condensed Milk Company were charged 7½d. per lb. for the sugar, which meant that the farmer had to get a smaller price for his milk. Then the Minister came in and took the difference between 6¼d. and 7½d. per lb. and put it into the Exchequer. That was a double crack at the agricultural community who are sending milk to the Condensed Milk Company. I have not been given in these figures the amount of sugar sold to jam manufacturers, sweet manufacturers, and others. I am certain, however, that the total collected by the Minister from the sugar company must have been in or around £500,000. I asked him under what authority from this House he had collected this money. He had no authority whatever.
That is the condition of affairs under which we had to face the sugar company this year and endeavour to get from them the 14/6 increase in agricultural wages put on since the last contract, which amounts to 9/6 per ton on beet, the 5/- in the £ extra charged on our rates and probably 10/- in the £ more that will come, owing to the activities of various Ministers during the past five or six months. With all that burden we are faced with a blank wall, an empty cupboard and an order from the Minister that you cannot increase the price of sugar, or you will increase the cost of living on those poor fellows who got the £500,000 some time ago to help them to carry on with the increased cost of living. That is the position which between 60,000 and 70,000 farmers in the Beet Growers' Association have to face this year.
I do not know what is in the Minister's mind in regard to this matter. Knowing him for a number of years, I would be very slow to think that he would prefer to see our sugar produced by niggers abroad and brought in here in the shape of sugar cane, rather than to see the beet produced here by Irish farmers at a fair price, and an insurance and protection for this country in case of war or emergency. The people of this country were very glad to have four factories producing sugar during the last six or seven years, and the enormous amount of employment that beet growing gives. Now we are told that we must grow it at last year's price. We got so much money last year, according to the Government, that we can live on the fat until the good conditions and the new Government come back again to us. I hope it will not be too long.
Those are the conditions we are faced with, and I should like to know from the Minister his intentions with regard to this matter; what steps he is going to take to prevent the widespread unemployment that is going to ensue if we have only 20 or 25 per cent. of our beet contracts this year. It is a serious problem. The Minister has one of these factories in his constituency, and he knows the value of the employment given in this factory and the employment given by way of transport and everything else just as well as I do, and perhaps better. I would be very slow to think that the Minister would deliberately endanger this great industry. Any industry for which you get the raw material here from the land and which could produce sugar enough for our people right through the emergency is a great industry and a big industry. The people of County Meath are thanking God they have gone back again to grass. Stick to it and you are all right.
That is the reason why I raised this matter to-night on the Adjournment. I do not agree for one moment with any Government, whether it was the previous Government or any other Government. I question the right of any Government to step in and take money without the authority of this House. That has been done. Close on £500,000 was got out of the beet growers' pockets, the pockets of the unfortunate farmers. It is time that ended. At this moment agents are going around the country looking for beet contracts, asking people to grow it.
What is the Minister's attitude towards the beet industry? What is his attitude towards those factories? Does he want them worked with Irish beet or worked with cane sugar produced by the niggers? Does he realise that increased costings in labour alone would amount to 14/6 a week? That is the burden that has been placed on the farmers. They have also to bear increased rates to the amount of 4/- this year, and an extra 10/- will probably be imposed next March. As regards freight charges, we do not know what these will be next year. Under these conditions, does the Minister consider it fair and just that farmers should be asked to produce beet at last year's price? On the one hand, he will allow no increase in the price of sugar, and on the other hand he has left the cupboards bare.
These are the circumstances in which I face this problem. I face it as the representative of about 70,000 ordinary working farmers, the Minister's constituents as well as my own. I want to see fair play for them. I want fair play for every man working to produce beet, for that man has a horrible job, a nasty job, a job coming at the worst time of the year. Surely in a position like that we are entitled, if this industry is to carry on, at least to the cost of production?
There is another aspect to be considered. Something like 18 months ago we entered into an agreement with the sugar company as regards costings. They agreed with the Beet Growers' Association to give a fair price—the cost of production plus a fair profit. Unfortunately, we have from 350 to 400 farmers engaged in those costings and we will not know the result before the middle of next February. It will then be too late to fix a price. But the sugar company are definitely bound by that agreement and they cannot get behind it. When that claim is laid before the sugar company, as soon as the costings are found, then we are bound to get our price. But how can we get our price if we go to a bare cupboard and meet with a refusal to increase the price of sugar?
I am not approaching this in any bitter spirit. I appeal to the Minister not to wreck this industry, or allow it to be wrecked. This industry has one of its principal factories in the Minister's constituency. He knows what the result will be if there is a practical closing down of the signing of contracts and a reduction in the acreage—nobody knows it better. I am concerned with the factory in Mallow and the workers in Cork, Limerick, Wexford, Kerry and Waterford who supply beet to the Mallow factory. I know what the result will be if the Government persist in their attitude towards the industry.
The last idea in my head would be to take an unfair advantage of anybody. I am faced here with a grave problem; I am faced with the problem of four factories which have given employment to thousands during past years. You need not go abroad for your raw material. These are factories producing an essential commodity, and I hope the Minister will not stand up here and tell us that last year's price should be good enough. I am sure he is not going to do that. We have had an increased cost of production between one year and another. We are faced now with an increase of 9/6 in labour alone, with another 1/6 added to that for freight, and possibly a couple of shillings extra for increased freight charges when this man of all trades from England tells us what is wrong with our transport system.
When we come down to bedrock on this matter, we are faced with this attitude: "Take last year's price; you are not going to get any more." You will find there are only two outlets by which the increased price could be paid. The first is a rise in the price of sugar, and the second is the amount that went to the Exchequer through the increased charge on sugar to a lot of people, namely, the people who got sugar for jam, and the farmers who got sugar for harvesting. These people were charged 7½d. per lb. for the sugar. That 7½d. in the shape of 12s. 10d. a cwt. was taken out of the sugar company's fund by the Minister for Industry and Commerce.
