asked the Taoiseach if he will give an estimate in respect of a recent year of the value of each of the principal items of agricultural produce lost to farmers in the home market due to emigration and the total value in the form of a reply of 17th June, 1958.
Written Answers. - Value of Agricultural Produce.
97.
As was stated in the reply to which the Deputy refers, it is not possible to compile figures for net emigration except for intercensal periods. Figures for the annual consumption of the principal foodstuffs of the average annual number of persons who emigrated in the last such period for which data are available (1951-56) were given in the reply in question. It is not possible to estimate the value of such consumption in the home market lost to farmers, since the estimate of the consumption given is not necessarily equivalent to the decline in the home market due to emigration, and further since the amount of such consumption which relates to farm produce consumed without process of sale is not known.