asked the Minister for Agriculture why he licensed the import of 1,500,000 cwts. of pollard since August, 1960, when An Bord Gráin have 110,000 tons of 1960 crop wheat, which is unsuitable for milling into flour, still on hands.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Licensing of Imports of Pollard.
18.
It is not correct to say that An Bord Gráin have 110,000 tons of 1960 crop wheat still on hands. In my reply to the Deputy's question on 20th June, I indicated that the Board had 110,000 tons on hands but that 68,000 tons of that quantity had been sold for export before mid-August next. I understand that, with the exception of a small quantity retained by the Board to meet current orders, the balance of 42,000 tons has been sold on the home market.
The question seems to suggest that our policy in regard to the provision of animal feeding stuffs can be based on surplus unmillable wheat which, unfortunately, arises from time to time because of bad harvests. We guarantee the price of wheat required for human consumption and we support the barley price in order to encourage the production of as much as possible of the animal feed we need. The arrangements made with the trade interests concerned for the marketing of our barley are sound and have operated satisfactorily. It would not, therefore, be reasonable or desirable to interfere unduly with these arrangements in order to meet the unforeseen problem of disposing of surplus wheat of the 1960 crop.
Arising out of the Minister's reply, but without all the complications he introduced, what sense or meaning is there in bringing in 1,500,000 cwts. of pollard while we have a large quantity of unmillable wheat on our hands? Pollard is milled wheat. Why did we not mill our own wheat into pollard, sell it to the compounders, and avoid the import of 1,500,000 cwts. of fodder?
My policy and aim have been, and will continue to be, to make the purchase, the handling and the distribution of feeding stuffs as free as possible, subject to one condition, namely, that we will honour any guarantees given by the Government to the growers of barley. That is the policy I have been pursuing and I know that, from the point of view of those in the trade and the users of the feeding stuffs, that policy has resulted in considerably cheapening the price of feeding stuffs to those who need them for conversion into the finished product.
Why deal in these abstractions? Why should we import 1,500,000 cwts. of pollard at whatever the current price may be, when it was open to us to reduce 100,000 tons of unmillable wheat which we had on hands into pollard and sell it to the compounders at whatever price the foreign market was getting for it? What was the purpose of bringing pollard in through one door and sending wheat out through another door?
I believe that those who engage in that business are the best judges. They know when to buy and what to buy, when the price is known to them—the price at which the surplus unmillable wheat is available to them and the price at which they can import pollard, bran maize and so on. I believe those questions are questions to be decided by those in the trade. That is how I have arranged matters for the past two years. As a result of the freedom that has been given and the policy of non-intervention by the Department in giving quotas and licences, or refusing licences and quotas, and determining questions that the Department were not really capable of determining at all, I believe desirable results have ensued. The free movement I have referred to in this trade has had that very desirable result and I will not be coaxed in any shape or form to depart from that policy simply because we had a bad wheat harvest in 1960 and an excessive amount of surplus unmillable wheat is available to us because of that bad harvest when that bad year might be followed by two good years with no surplus wheat at all. I believe in this freedom in marketing feeding stuffs and I will defend it anywhere as a sensible approach.
Let people import pollard in years when we have not got 100,000 tons of unmillable wheat sitting in the cereal storage of this country? How does that affect the general policy?
It has all been sold.
What is the Minister for Health quacking about?
What is the Deputy talking about?
The Minister for Health does not understand B from a bull's foot in this matter. How does it alter the general policy to say that, when we have 100,000 tons of unmillable wheat, we ought to use that to feed the pigs before we bring in 1,500,000 cwts. of pollard? If that import is not daft policy, then I do not know what is.
This is developing into an argument.
From a Deputy who is so prejudiced, and rightly so, about freedom for those engaged in the provision of feeding stuffs for our small farmers, I cannot understand the sort of daft talk that is being raised here——
It is only freedom for the millers to exploit the situation.
It is as daft a policy as I ever heard of—as daft as a sixpenny watch.