I move:—
That in order to achieve a balanced economy for small-holders resident in Gaeltacht areas and with a view to implementing the Government's stated policy for taking all steps necessary for the revival of the Irish language, Dáil Éireann is of opinion that the Minister for Agriculture should fix a guaranteed economic price to be given in respect of the total output of tomatoes from Connemara and other Gaeltacht areas for this coming year.
The House will recall that a scheme was initiated in 1947 whereby grants and other facilities were made available in certain Gaeltacht areas, particularly in Connemara and Donegal, for promoting the development of the growing of tomatoes under glass. The scheme is a good one, in that it is an attempt to make available to people in the congested areas, where the holdings are uneconomic and where no other form of employment is available, facilities to enable them to produce a fruit or vegetable for which there is ready sale.
To a certain extent, the value of the scheme is impaired by reason of the low prices which tomato growers in those areas succeed in obtaining. I noted from time to time that a restriction on the import of foreign-grown tomatoes had been imposed in order to afford a greater degree of protection to our own growers. By reason, however, of the location of the tomato schemes in the Gaeltacht areas, in Connemara and in Donegal, it is difficult for the growers there to obtain economic prices in the Dublin markets. If my recollection is correct, last year and the year before the marketing of the tomatoes from Connemara was undertaken by a Dublin fruit merchant. I think it was an arrangement made by the Department. I am not criticising the Department for having made that arrangement—it was probably the only convenient arrangement that could be made—but it does illustrate the difficulties that confront the tomato growers in the Gaeltacht areas. In the Gaeltacht area of Donegal I think that the marketing was organised through some local merchant.
The proposal which I bring before the House in this motion is that the Government should guarantee an economic price to the tomato growers in these areas.
It would entail probably subsidising, to a certain degree, the growers in the Gaeltacht area. I know that the question of subsidising the production of food or other commodity in one area of the country as against another area is open to criticism but I think we have to be ready to meet that criticism if we are in earnest in our desire to maintain the Gaeltacht, if we are in earnest in making available facilities in those areas that will enable people to obtain a living and also if we are in earnest in our claim that we want to preserve and maintain the Irish Land Commission.
In Connemara I think that the scheme started in 1948 by having 63 houses. This was extended in 1949 and 1950 and the numbe of houses was increased to 95 houses. In Donegal the scheme started by having 80 houses in 1948 and this number was subsequently increased to 100 houses; therefore, the total number of tomato houses in those two areas is now something which is under 200—195, I think. There may have been some increase in 1951; I have not got the figures for 1951 but in or around 200, I think, may be taken as the total number of houses affected. The production per house is in the neighbourhood of 18 to 23 cwt. I mention this to indicate that the total amount of subsidy involved in the number of existing houses would be small.
The House will have some appreciation of the difficulties that concern the tomato growers in these areas by reference to the prices which were made available to them. Prices, I understand, in 1950 ranged between 4d. and, I think, 10d. a lb. I believe the average price in Connemara in 1950 was 7¼d. per lb. while the average price in Donegal in 1949 was 6d. per lb. and 7d. per lb. last year. These are the average prices and I understand that there is a much greater fluctuation in the prices actually during the season. It would, therefore, not be very costly to provide a subsidy, if needs be, in order to guarantee a minimum economic price to the tomato growers in these areas. The subsidy, if it amounts to a subsidy, could be raised by imposing a tax on foreign grown tomatoes to make up the necessary amount to defray the cost of the subsidy.