On to-day's Order Paper I had a question addressed to the Minister for Agriculture. The question was:—
"To ask the Minister for Agriculture if he will state (a) what arrangements he has made for the marketing of the 1949 potato crop, (b) the countries with which he has negotiated for the export of potatoes, (c) what quantities of (i) seed and (ii) ware potatoes, set out for each of the different varieties which will be required by each country, and (d) the price per ton, under each head, which will be paid to the growers."
The reply given by the Minister for Defence, Dr. O'Higgins, deputising for the Minister for Agriculture, was as follows:—
"The export of both seed and ware potatoes has been undertaken by the Irish Potato Marketing Association who are acting for the Irish Potato Marketing Company which is about to be incorporated. As negotiations for sale are at present in progress I am not in a position to give the information sought in the remaining parts of the question."
I submit that was an entirely unsatisfactory reply and I think it is fairly obvious that no attempt was made to give the information sought. Let us take now the second paragraph in this reply, which reads:—
"As negotiations for sale are at present in progress I am not in a position to give the information sought"
Let us refer back to February of this year and to a quotation from the Dáil Debates of 24th February, 1949, at column 547. On that date I asked the Minister for Agriculture:—
"If there will be a guaranteed price for this year's crop of seed potatoes, and if an unlimited market will be available."
The Minister replied:—
"This matter is at present under discussion, and I am not yet in a position to state what the price may be or for what quantity a market will be available."
The Minister stated that the matter was under discussion and he added:—
"I hope soon to be able to make an announcement on the subject."
That was in last February. To-day we find that negotiations for the same sale of the same potatoes are still in progress. Let us refer then to the debates of 6th April, 1949. On that occasion I also asked the Minister what the prospects were for the potato industry as a whole and what the prospects were for the sale and marketing of the 1949 crop. At column 2377 the Minister also replied on that occasion:—
"Negotiations are at present in progress regarding the export of seed potatoes of the 1949 crop but I am not yet in a position to make a definite statement in the matter."
In reply to a supplementary question on that date at column 2378 the Minister for Agriculture stated:—
"I can assure the Deputy that everything possible is being done to get a firm price which we can communicate to those who are concerned and who partake in the seed potato industry. I expect to have it very shortly."
That was in April. The previous question was in February. Both related to the sale and marketing of the 1949 potato crop. According to a reply given to-day, these negotiations are still in progress. If we wait a few months longer we shall be marketing both the 1949 crop and the 1950 crop together. In to-day's reply we had a reference to the Irish Potato Marketing Association acting for the Irish Potato Marketing Company.
In August of this year a prominent buyer, who has operated in County Donegal for many years, wrote to the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture asking for an export licence for the export of 2,000 tons of seed potatoes. These seed potatoes were to be paid for at the rate of £12 3s. 4d. per ton for the first grades and £10 13s. 0d. per ton for other grades. That was the price to be paid to the grower at his farm. The reply to that application for a licence in August last issued from the Department of Agriculture reads as follows:—
"I am directed by the Minister for Agriculture to refer to your letter of the 6th August and to state that he has arranged for the establishment of a non-profit-making company to handle and develop the export trade in potatoes.
It is intended that the company, which will be representative of the exporters, growers and the Department of Agriculture, shall handle all exports whether for Great Britain or the Continent.
As it is understood that the British Ministry of Food does not propose to purchase seed potatoes this season importers in Great Britain will no doubt make contact with their pre-war suppliers in this country."
That is exactly what did happen in the case of this buyer to whom I have referred. The buyers in Great Britain, whom it had been his custom to supply in pre-war years, got into touch with him early in the summer and asked him to make arrangements to export to them 2,000 tons of seed potatoes. He was not facilitated in that respect in any way by the Department of Agriculture. Further, in this letter the Department of Agriculture also stated:—
"Merchants may enter into negotiations with firms in Great Britain for the sale of seed potatoes, but pending the completion of legal formalities for the formation of the company the Irish Potato Marketing Association (Secretary, Mr. G. Finlay-Mulligan, 114 Grafton Street, Dublin) should be consulted before any sale is completed."
There was then a further letter addressed by this buyer, as instructed by the Department of Agriculture, to Mr. Mulligan, secretary of the Potato Marketing Association. He again asked for an export licence and facilities to export 2,000 tons of seed potatoes. That was in last September. The reply he received was as follows:—
"With reference to your inquiry of 6th inst. I should mention that after meeting our commitments with foreign countries there will be no Arran Banner or Up-to-Date available for export to England. As regards other varieties, the committee of the association and the Department of Agriculture are at present considering the best policy and means for disposal of the surplus seed remaining after meeting foreign commitments."
Apparently they had then entered into certain commitments. One would think that if they had entered into these commitments at that time that information could surely have been given to me in my question to-day. But that information was not given to me to-day and that is one of the reasons why I am raising the matter now on the Adjournment.
I would like to tell the House exactly what is happening to the surplus of seed potatoes in my county. At the present time seed potatoes are being sold and exported to Great Britain and the price to the growers is as yet unknown. The growers, remembering the glut and the bad price of last year's crop, are stampeding to sell their potatoes in case they might be left on their hands. While one might excuse the farmers in such circumstances rushing the sales of these potatoes, one cannot excuse the Department of Agriculture for encouraging this stampede by virtue of the fact that their inspectors are present at the shippers' stores checking in these potatoes, seeing that they are properly graded and sealing the sacks before they are put on the ship.
I have made considerable inquiries in this whole matter. So far as I can gather, the unknown price will not be more than £7 12s. 6d. per ton for these potatoes. The particular variety is Home Guard. In Northern Ireland the same variety is selling as seed for export to Great Britain at a price of £12 3s. 4d. per ton ex-farm. Who are the buyers who are buying these potatoes from the Northern Ireland farmers? Some of them are the very same people who contacted their agents in this country to get them the seed potatoes from Donegal and those buyers, in turn, were refused export licences by our Department of Agriculture and were later refused facilities by an Irish Potato Marketing Association. Those agents would have given, and are still prepared to give, £12 3s. 4d. for Home Guard Donegal seed which is now being sold at £7 12s. 6d. at the maximum as ware potatoes, and both sets of potatoes, ware and seed, of that variety, are going to the same market. How does it come about that the same potatoes, the same seed and the same varieties, are being sold on the same market at a difference of £4 10s. 0d., approximately, per ton to the grower? How can any Minister stand over his negligence—and it is negligence that has led to the state in which we find the potato market in our Twenty-Six Counties at the moment?
Referring again to this Potato Marketing Association, we were led to believe during the summer of this year, and possibly earlier—this record which I have of it is of early September— that the Potato Marketing Board was being set up as a non-profit-making company. On several occasions since, we have been told that this board was about to be set up. In the Irish Independent of 15th November last we find a heading: “Effort to Reduce Adverse Balance.” Under that heading, and in black type, is the following extract:—
"A potato marketing marketing board, promised by Mr. Dillon recently in the Dáil, will shortly be set up to seek for markets, especially for seed potatoes."
This board has not yet been set up, although it has been promised time and again. The only thing we have in its place is a Potato Marketing Association. This body, the Potato Marketing Association, have been the cause—on one occasion that I know of and possibly on other occasions—of refusing facilities to help our farmers to get the best price obtainable on the British market for seed potatoes.
I have here another query in respect of a firm in Liverpool—the firm of Messrs. J. Johnson and Sons, Liverpool—who wanted 1,000 tons of Home Guard at £12 3s. 4d. and 400 tons of King Edwards. They wrote, as they had been led to believe they could, to this Potato Marketing Association. I think it is approximately six weeks ago since they addressed a query about these 1,400 tons of potatoes. As yet, they have received no reply. That is what this Potato Marketing Association have done for us. We are wondering if this potato marketing board will ever come to light, and if and when it does, if it will be any improvement on the exhibition given by the Association to date. If it should follow the same lines of those taken by this Association, then I think it would be better for the potato growers, in my county at any rate, that there should be no board of any kind set up and that, as in former years prior to the emergency, the buyers and the agents should seek the markets and obtain them as they did then—and with much better results, I think, than these people have given us to date.
Another thing that strikes me as being very peculiar is that in the Twenty-Six Counties the estimated yield of seed potatoes for this year is approximately 60,000 tons. In the Six Counties, I am informed, the approximate yield this year is 160,000 tons. In the Six Counties at the moment there is no trouble whatsoever. The farmers there find no difficulty in any way in disposing of all this quantity of seed potatoes. Yet here in the Twenty-Six Counties, and with only 60,000 tons, we are already selling our seed potatoes as ware potatoes and at a ware potato price, and, I may say, at a bad ware potato price at that. Surely there is, therefore, something very far wrong with people in charge of this very important industry? I suggested to the Minister in February of last year that unless encouragement were given to our farmers and a price announced, and they were assured that a market was available, our acreage under potatoes would fall. The Minister, on the 24th February, I think, scoffed at the idea that any such effects would follow if he did not get a market and a price and announce them immediately. It is worth noting that, on the statistics available at the moment, we are short 40,000 acres approximately under potatoes this year as compared with last year. I would suggest that if this bungling of the seed potato market is allowed to continue this year, and considering the hardships suffered by the seed growers last year, you will find a much reduced acreage under seed potatoes in the coming year.
I would go so far as to say that, unless a very definite improvement is arranged in connection with the marketing of the seed potatoes, this very lucrative industry will eventually peter out. We must not forget that this is an industry which takes years to build up. If the stocks of the different varieties of seed potatoes are allowed to dwindle and disappear, and if we are to get back to the competitive market again it would take nothing short of ten years to build up the industry to the strength at which it is to-day. Therefore, this question of the seed potato market is much more serious than it actually appears. It is not just this year's crop—it is the whole seed potato industry that is at stake. Even now, at this late hour, I would ask those responsible—since negotiations according to themselves are still progressing—to make a public statement to the effect that these negotiations are still going on and that while they are going on and until they are concluded the seed potatoes should not be sent out of this country as ware potatoes and at a bad price. They are going out, and with the knowledge of the Department of Agriculture, and they are going out with the help of the inspectors of that Department at the shippers' stores. That is something over which the Minister has direct control. Despite the fact that things are in a bad condition at the moment and although, at the same time, many farmers have lost considerably already —after all that—if our negotiations were rushed through we could save some of those farmers from hardship and save this seed potato industry. I would again point out that the same potatoes, the Home Guard variety, are fetching £12 3s. 4d. per ton ex-farm in the Six Counties while they are being sold by the farmers in my county at a price which will not exceed £7 12s. 6d. Something is wrong there and I would ask the Minister that some action should be taken about it.
