I have always had a very deep-rooted objection to a series of large Supplementary Estimates during the course of the year. It seems extraordinary that estimation in the Department to cover the subsequent period of this year could be so much out. It does, however, give a very welcome opportunity of analysing some of the very serious ills in our agricultural economy.
My colleague, Deputy Clinton, dealt with a problem the Minister will have to face as quickly as possible. There was a deep-seated responsibility on his Department to give us the result of the pig progeny testing and to give the Irish farmer direction as to the line of production in which he should engage to ensure a reasonable grading of his pigs. I shall not say much about the Pigs and Bacon Commission because the less said about them the better. Their sorry history is consolidated by more inefficiency. It is time the Minister realised the position, particularly when he is dealing with the pig producer in the area I have the honour to represent, the very large pig producer in Ballyvourney back into the Berehaven peninsula area. It is of vital importance to that producer to know the particular type of pig that is best suited to his production and that will give him the best return.
The Minister should make known to farmers the effective result of the pig progeny testing scheme. He should let them know whether the time has come for us to get out of the production of the pork pig and to get into the production of a different type of pig. I can assure him that, with rising costs of ration and delivery, it has become a vital economic factor for any pig producer in my area to have his pigs properly graded. Whatever bit of potential profit is in them is wiped out if the grading goes wrong.
I have heard it suggested that we should not quibble about paying a vast sum of money for the loss on wheat. It is time this country knew the appalling mess that was made of the disposal of that wheat. It is time we got an explanation as to why non-millable wheat was offered, in job lots of six tons, to the Irish farmer at £22 or £23 a ton, and afterwards the ports were opened and it was disposed of at £16 10s. a ton to our competitors. There is no doubt in my mind that the loss suffered thereon was grossly aggravated by that fact. The convenience of the miller was suited and he was allowed to export it in bulk.
It is very difficult to ask the Irish farmer, particularly the small, hardworking, industrious mixed farmer in an area like West Cork, to have patience with the Department of Agriculture when it is responsible for such extraordinary stupidity. We, in West Cork, know that the millers are a cartel the Government do not like to interfere with, and all their squeals and aches are met by the money gift, by way of subsidy or appropriation-in-aid to cover loss, but there is damned little sympathy in the Government for the unfortunate pig producers in the fastnesses of Ballyvourney, Rathnaree or back in the Beara peninsula, who are not only carrying the Rolls Royces of the millers on their backs but also the profits of the distributors, and if anything goes wrong with the profits on their pigs or should any unfortunate mishap occur in their economy, they must take the brunt of it without sympathy or grant-in-aid.
Deputy Corry was quite right when he said there has been gross mishandling of the butter situation. I was interested at Question Time when the Minister was pressed by the Leader of Fine Gael as to whether or not he had made representations about the fact that there was a formal breach of the Trade Agreement as well as a breach of the spirit, because it is time the Irish people realised what is involved in this action of the British Government whereby they give to our competitors quotas commensurate with their import quantities into England and ask the Irish people to accept grossly deflated quotas and, as a consequence of the Department not accepting that, have brought down this bludgeon blow on Irish butter.
To my mind, the officials and the Minister have been blind to the fact that this problem has been building up over a number of years in a most serious way. I was appalled recently to find that the Minister who had a very large appropriation for the purpose of market exploration had used practically none of it and that we have no practically-conceived policy yet as to how we can readily profitably and properly dispose of our milk surplus in some fashion other than as butter. It has become apparent over the years that we are over-producing butter, as such. What will the Minister do to face the problem that will inevitably arise unless something is done about increasing the cold storage for what has to be held in stock?
I have no doubt that the time has come when the Minister and his Department must get down to rational planning of our agricultural economy; no doubt that it needs very careful consideration to get that flexibility of policy that will enable Irish farmers to gear themselves to the type of production for which they are best suited. Instead of having to give large sums of money to make up for the loss sustained by the poor, starving millers, it is time we faced the real problem besetting the whole foundation of our stock production, the problem of getting down the prices of all the offals that go to make the various rations essential to primary producers here. It is time that the Minister's power was directed towards making available in a proper manner, at far more reasonable prices, basic rations to the primary producers instead of allowing the millers to get away with murder. I have no doubt that, as long as they remain the arbiter of the standard of acceptability of grain, we are completely in their hands. If the Minister brought the leaders of that industry into his office and said to them: "There is the wheat that you tell me is unmillable; I am telling you to mill it," I am satisfied he would have got the same reaction as Deputy Dillon got when he was Minister and we would not have any artificial diseases arising in our wheat to give them another lever to reject wheat on the basis of its not being suitable to mill for flour.
There is a great amount of ineptitude in the whole approach of the Department to the present inherent difficulty in our economy. While Deputy Corry may try to bring in a sidelight on sugar, I know that the present problem arises because we have allowed our agricultural economy to drift in a direction that should have been altered years ago so that we would not be now facing the task of having to bargain or barter or make some kind of compromise with the British on the problem of our butter exports. We have been told here for years that we have to subsidise our butter to feed the British people, while we make our own people pay what has been fixed as the economic price. To me, that was always a cockeyed scheme. It seems far more rational to me that if any profit or subsidy is to accumulate from butter production for the benefit of the consumers, it would be better that Irish consumers should reap the benefit and enjoy the nutritious quality of our own butter rather than pay somebody else to eat it for us. It is a problem that is perenially with us and yet the Department has done nothing about it but allowed it to grow in its complexities and difficulties over the years.
There are many facets of this Estimate where there is a welcome improvement. I want to see the use of lime and fertilisers on our land expanded; I want to see the farming community with better housing for stock and storage for grain, and it is good to see that money is to be spent on a more lavish scale in that way, but but one must come back to the fundamental principle, that if our economy is to depend on animal husbandry and if it is to be mainly an economy of pigs, cattle and poultry, we must face the problem of finding not only stable but profitable markets for it. The Minister knows that difficulties have arisen in every section of our economy, to my mind, because of lack of proper market research facilities and lack of efforts by the Department to guide and direct it in the likely way of progress and profit. If there had been any rational approach to the problem, we would not have the mounting difficulty of turkey prices, the falling off in fowl, the immense difficulty in pig production and the continuing difficulties that exist in the cattle trade.
The Minister comes in to seek £10 million odd for his Department. Agriculture is the most important facet of our economy. It is intrinsically and basically the real foundation of our economy. Yet, the Minister cannot give us any reasoned approach as to what the alternative will be to over-production in milk, what the nature and type of our improved bacon trade will be, what type of pig will be best suited for that trade. He does not give us any explanation as to how he can sit quietly and allow our competitors to benefit to the extent of 30/-, 35/- or 40/- per cwt. in the differential price for bacon. He cannot give us any reasonable prognosis of what the future will be in any branch of agriculture.
There is talk as to what may happen when we enter the Common Market. Perhaps I strike a realistic note when I say now is the time to gear our economy if we have to face that competition. Now is the time for the Department of Agriculture to advise the primary producer what are the lines upon which his economy should be geared to make the best use of the Common Market, either as full or associate members. Now is the time to evaluate the competition that will have to be met. Now is the time to plan and direct the primary producer along the paths which hold out the best hope of ultimate success. Now is the time for the Minister, instead of coming in here talking about wheat losses, to face up to the fact that we cannot afford to over-produce wheat. The land of this country is more suited to the coarser types of grain which can be walked off the land in the bellies of our stock. Now is the time to get the Irish farmer to realise the integral facets of his economy that must be put right before he can become a competitor in the Common Market.
I do not intend to delay the House by traversing the entire field of our agricultural economy. I merely want to direct the Minister's attention to matters of urgent importance where the pig producer in my area is concerned. The time has come, if the research and effective investigation of his Department is a reality, to let us know the type of pig to which we should switch, the type of pig likely to grade best and give the best profit to the producer. Instead of panic export of unmillable wheat, the Minister should insist that the millers give him some return by way of production of offal or quality feed which will inure to the benefit of our animal husbandry rather than cast it to the winds at completely uneconomic prices for the benefit of our competitors.
If I got warmed up on the subject of the ineptitude of the Department of Agriculture, I could keep the House here all night and all tomorrow. The Minister is charged with the biggest task and the most difficult task any Minister could have. He is dealing with that particular facet of our economy which will be the real life-line of the country in a Common Market situation. It is a task to which all his energies and efforts will have to be applied if he intends to get Irish agriculture geared in the right direction to reap the best possible harvest. No matter what industrial-minded people may think, many of our tariff-protected industries will collapse when we enter the Common Market. It will be up to the Minister to continue to keep this country afloat and ultimately put it into a state of economic soundness.
