Have I time to speak on this motion? I believe there is only a limited time.
Private Members' Business. - Price of Milk—Motion (Resumed).
Debate resumed on the following motion:—
That, in view of the national importance of the dairying industry. Dáil Éireann is of opinion that the price of milk supplied to creameries should be increased to cover the increased cost of production. —(Deputy Wycherley.)
There are only ten minutes left.
I do not want ten minutes.
The mover of the motion will be entitled to ten minutes.
I require the ten minutes.
Deputy Wycherley to conclude.
I was rather surprised at the figures given by the Minister for Finance. I presume he believed what he said but as a practical farmer, who bought a farm 21 years ago and had to buy everything for it at the time, I know very well that not alone has everything increased in cost by three times since that period, but the price of practically everything has increased six, seven or eight times since 1938, when I first became the owner of my own land. The Minister for Finance said that in 1939 the price paid for milk was 6d. per gallon and to-day it is 1/6. He did not think that wages had increased threefold in that period, or that any industry was now getting three times the price it got in 1939 for its products. I am well acquainted with prices all down the years, because I had to do the buying and purchasing of everything for the farm and for the household as well.
Take wages, which are a very important factor, for a start. In 1939 the indoor wage for a farm worker was 12/- a week. To-day a farmer would be very lucky if he could get a workman at £4, which is seven times the cost in 1939. Rates in County Cork at that time were 10/- in the £; to-day they are 37/- in the £, and we shall be lucky if, in the coming year, we can hold them at 40/- which is four times what they were in 1938. Then there was the price of farm implements. Manure forks cost 2/6; to-day they are in the region of 20/- to 24/-, some eight times the cost. A hayfork was 2/6 and to-day it is 15/-, six times the price. Milk buckets were 2/6 and to-day they are £1, which is eight times the price. Machinery generally is four times the price. Clothes and boots are four times the price. I know it because, as I said, I had to do all the buying and selling.
The Minister also said that while he had every sympathy for the dairy farmer there were other aspects to be considered. He agreed that there was an undoubted increase in the cost of living, but it did not hit the farmer so much as the people in the towns. He did not think the farmers' costs had increased very much in the last few years. I think the figures I have given are sufficient proof that farming costs have increased out of all proportion to the income they are receiving at present. If they did receive 6d. a gallon in 1939 they would be entitled to 2/- a gallon to-day, because of the increased cost of production which is the general trend.
I know it would cost a tremendous amount of money for the Government to subsidise too much better from this country. The Minister has stated that it would cost £1,200,000 to give even an increase of one penny. Last year the Minister reduced the price of milk by one penny and where did that penny go since? The fact remains that every other section of the community received an increase since then in their allowance. To start with the civil servants got £1,000,000. This week the teachers are getting £400,000 —a 6 per cent. increase in their salaries. Local authority workers, clerical workers and road workers all got an increase from 6 per cent. to 10 per cent. to cover the increased cost of living. Now the Minister says that the increased cost of living does not lie so hard on the farmers.
I should like to point out that the increased cost is just as heavy on the farming community as it is on many other sections, especially in these times because young people will not stay on the land unless they are provided with as good clothes, as good boots and as reasonable a standard of living as their counterparts who go to the city or town. The time has come when the young people will not stay on the land to milk the cows unless they get a reasonable standard or a reasonable wage. It was very different 30 years ago when the farmer rarely say the City of Cork or the City of Dublin. Now the young men travel in cars and the cost of petrol, clothes, amusements, food and everything else is hitting the rural community, and the youth, just as severely as it is hitting people in the towns. They will not stay there unless they get more consideration than they are getting at present.
The money was found for other things and I know it can be found to give some inducement to the dairy farmer to maintain his herd. If he does not get it I know what will happen. I know that the young boys and girls will not stay in rural Ireland for the drudgery in dairy farming. They will leave the countryside and the country will be all the poorer because there will be nobody there to milk the cows. When this country becomes short of dairy cattle—which is the very foundation stone of the whole economy—we shall have a sorry table to tell in rural Ireland.
I could go on quoting Dr. Lucey and various men in high places who realise the necessity for doing something for dairy farming, but I have not the time at my disposal. However, I appeal to the Minister to reconsider the decision very carefully and seriously before the rot sets in too deeply. It has set in, in the reduction which has taken place in the amount of milk and butter which is being produced. That will be far more serious in future and I hope the Minister for Agriculture who is with us here to-day will see fit to make some statement on the matter, so that dairy farmers may go about their business and feel happy that they have some support.
Is the Deputy pressing the motion?
Yes
To a division?
Yes.
Question put.
The Dáil divided: Tá, 29; Níl, 69.
Tá
- Beirne, John.
- Belton, Jack.
- Blowick, Joseph.
- Carew, John.
- Coburn, George.
- Cosgrave, Liam.
- Esmonde, Anthony C.
- Everett, James.
- Fagan, Charles.
- Finucane, Patrick.
- Hughes, Joseph.
- Jones, Denis F.
- Kenny, Henry.
- Lindsay, Patrick.
- MacEoin, Seán.
- McMenamin, Daniel.
- Manley, Timothy.
- Mulcahy, Richard.
- Murphy, Michael P.
- Murphy, William.
- O'Donnell, Patrick.
- O'Higgins, Michael J.
- O'Reilly, Patrick.
- O'Sullivan, Denis J.
- Palmer, Patrick W.
- Rogers, Patrick J.
- Rooney, Eamonn.
- Sweetman, Gerard.
- Wycherley, Florence.
Níl
- Aiken, Frank.
- Bartley, Gerald.
- Blaney, Neal T.
- Boland, Gerald.
- Boland, Kevin.
- Booth, Lionel.
- Brady, Philip A.
- Brady, Seán.
- Breen, Dan.
- Brennan, Joseph.
- Cummins, Patrick J.
- Cunningham, Liam.
- Davern, Mick.
- de Valera, Eamon.
- de Valera, Vivion.
- Doherty, Seán.
- Donegan, Batt.
- Dooley, Patrick.
- Egan, Kieran P.
- Egan, Nicholas.
- Fanning, John.
- Faulkner, Padraig.
- Flynn, Stephen.
- Galvin, John.
- Geoghegan, John.
- Gibbons, James.
- Gilbride, Eugene.
- Gogan, Richard P.
- Griffin, James.
- Haughey, Charles.
- Healy, Augustine A.
- Hilliard, Michael.
- Humphreys, Francis.
- Kenneally, William.
- Kennedy, Michael J.
- Brennan, Paudge.
- Breslin, Cormac.
- Browne, Seán.
- Burke, Patrick.
- Calleary, Phelim A.
- Carty, Michael.
- Clohessy, Patrick.
- Collins, James J.
- Cotter, Edward.
- Crowley, Honor M.
- Killilea, Mark.
- Kitt, Michael F.
- Lemass, Noel T.
- Lemass, Seán.
- Loughman, Frank.
- Lynch, Celia.
- MacCarthy, Seán.
- McEllistrim, Thomas.
- MacEntee, Seán.
- Maher, Peadar.
- Medlar, Martin.
- Millar, Anthony G.
- Moher, John W.
- Moloney, Daniel J.
- Mooney, Patrick.
- Moran, Michael.
- Ó Briain, Donnchadh.
- O'Malley, Donogh.
- Ormonde, John.
- O'Toole, James.
- Ryan, James.
- Sheridan, Michael.
- Smith, Patrick.
- Traynor, Oscar.
Tellers:—Tá: Deputies Wycherley and Finucane; Níl: Deputies Ó Briain and Loughman.
Question declared lost.