It is no wonder that at certain times the Government's policy in relation to various matters comes under grave and serious consideration by the people. We must, I think, all agree now that, no matter what test of policy there has been in the past, there are very few who could deny today that the Government are very speedily on the way out. The results of the local elections and the results of the by-election in the farming constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny are a clear indication of the realisation on the part of the agricultural community of the manner in which they have been deceived by the Government. Not alone did this Government promise too much; it gave too little.
I often wonder if the members of the Government, particularly the Minister for Agriculture, ever cast their minds back on the promises they made and the undertakings they gave and, in turn, wonder how they ever received the confidence of the electorate. From every platform and every meeting place, in the newspapers, on the radio, and, particularly, in the election address, which was put into the hands of every citizen before the general election, special reference was made to agriculture. In the pamphlet issued, details were given of agricultural policy. They had a plan for agriculture. The pamphlet dealt with the fundamentals of a sound agricultural policy.
Fianna Fáil always seems to have good plans and a sound policy before an election but, the minute the election is over, the plans vanish into thin ai and the promises and undertaking become things of the past. Realising that this is an agricultural country, one would expect the Minister for Agriculture, when introducing the Estimate for his Department, to declare that no matter what expenditure of energy is made by anybody, it will not change it from being an agricultural country. There is only one industry in the country. There can be only one industry and it is agriculture, and if the agricultural industry is flourishing, then everybody is flourishing. More money is in circulation; there are good markets and good fairs, good prices for all farm produce; and the best spenders are the farmers when they have money. They are the biggest payers and the best employers in the country today. The farmers are keeping the country shops going; they are the backbone of the country; and the day they are forced into poverty and distress is the day when the whole country will collapse completely.
Within the past 12 months, farmers have begun to ask themselves will any lead be given to them by the Government? Is the Department of Agriculture in existence at all now? The Minister himself has been surrounded by complete silence. There has not been a single word in relation to farming policy. Everything has been allowed to drift—wheat, oats, beet, barley, pigs, sheep, wool and cattle. Where is there any policy on all those things? I venture to say that if the Minister meets any group of independent-minded farmers they will tell him that not since the dark days of the Economic War have they experienced such great difficulties as in the past 12 months. They have experienced difficulties in every branch of farming, whether it be dairy farming, tillage farming or livestock.
Now that the Government have been very seriously chastised by the electorate, one would expect that they would at least change their attitude towards the farming community and do something towards putting agriculture in its rightful place as the main industry of the country, but the Minister's speech introducing this vote was nothing more than a well-phrased statement of apology. I have not seen anything in his speech which gives any hope to the farmers that they will be better off in the year to come as compared with that gone past, and I should like to direct attention to the fact that one of the pledges made by the Fianna Fáil Party at the last general election was that they would introduce a new marketing system. The Fianna Fáil pamphlet issued to each elector went on to say that it was intended to encourage and help farmers' organisations to set up marketing organisations, and to give them all the necessary powers and sufficient funds to enable them to increase exports of their products, and to improve the quality, dividends, and all other matters affecting them. What have they done about that in the past three years?
We have heard Deputies speak about how difficult it is to obtain Irish bacon, Irish butter, and Irish cheese in Britain and it has taken the Fianna Fáil Government a long time to realise that Ireland, in that respect, could not be better geographically situated. We are probably the most convenient agricultural country in the world to the greatest market in the world—the British market—but while every other country was leaving nothing undone to get into that market, a group of simple minded people here, known as the Fianna Fáil Party, were doing everything they could to deprive our farmers of the benefits of the British market, to discourage them selling in it, and to make their access to it more difficult.
Now I am glad the time has come when a Fianna Fáil Government realises the British market is the most profitable one we could have. In addition to that we happen to be in a very fortunate position because, unlike many other countries, if we increase our exports to Great Britain we have our own people there to eat them, but in the case of Irish bacon, it is a well-known fact that very few of our emigrants in Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol, London, Hull and other large English cities can get it. I wonder why?
There was a time not very many years ago when there were markets in rural Ireland known as the pig markets. I have seen the Waterford pig dealers attending fairs in the midlands, buying pigs and paying good prices for them. I have seen wagon loads of pigs leaving Mountmellick railway station for the Waterford factories. But what is the position today? Our pig markets have gone. They have disappeared. Our small farmers are no longer interested in keeping pigs and we find that Irish bacon cannot be had in Britain. There is something very wrong with our marketing system when that happens.
We were told by one Deputy that a question was addressed to the owner of a well-known provision store in London as to why he did not stock Irish bacon and his reply was: "We might get a few sides today but it may be some months before we get any more." Does the same situation not apply to Irish cheese, and is it not time something were done when we hear Deputies making speeches on the serious situation that has arisen in regard to malting barley? It would be possible to increase greatly the acreage of malting barley here but we do not seem to be able to push the market for Irish whiskey. If there were a greater market for Irish whiskey, there probably would be a greater demand for malting barely. Therefore, it would be a very profitable crop for the farmer.
The story in relation to Irish whiskey is the same as that in relation to Irish bacon. In the hotels and licensed premises throughout Britain, you will see every kind of whiskey, particularly Scotch, displayed; but if you ask why Irish whiskey cannot be obtained, you will be politely told that they have not seen the traveller and cannot get supplies. That shows there is something seriously wrong with our marketing system.
