I raise this matter on the adjournment because I found the reply given to the question I asked unsatisfactory. It was given by the Minister for Finance on behalf of the Minister for Agriculture and, in reply to a supplementary question, he stated that it was merely a point of view. I asked the Minister for Agriculture if he had refused to sanction an increase in the price paid to producers of liquid milk for the Dublin milk sales district. In answer to that, I was told by the Minister for Finance, speaking for the Minister for Agriculture, that a request from the Dublin District Milk Board had been refused. That reply will be found at Column 137 of Volume 193 of the Official Report of 15th March. The reply stated:
I informed the deputation that I was unable to accede to this request on the grounds that any increase in the present price could be considered only in conjunction with a corresponding increase in the price of creamery milk.
I do not accept that there is any comparison between the two groups. The producer of creamery milk can supply as he pleases during the year. He can see his cows calve out normally before 12th May. The full price paid to the producer in the Dublin milk sales district is based on the supply during the scarce months of November, December and January. If there is a surplus, he drops to what is virtually the creamery price. The standards he must maintain are very stringent. He must ensure cleanliness. If there is any acidity in the milk, it is sent back. There is no question of compensation—he must take the rap. His milk must have a certain minimum butter fat. He must pay for delivery of his milk. I pay 1¾d. a gallon for delivery. I must register my dairy premises. They must be passed by a veterinary surgeon. They are subject to constant inspection by the veterinary surgeon. All that costs money.
I should like now to deal with the price of milk. The price of milk in 1953-54 was 28.66d. in the Dublin milk sales district. That was the average price per gallon. In 1960-61 and in 1961-62, the average price was exactly 1d. more, 29.66d. That increase was because of the winter price being maintained for an extra month at each end in the year 1960-61. The position is that we in the Dublin milk sales district are producing milk for an expanding city. We do not want to charge the Dubliner too much. I will not be drawn into any comparison between the cost of milk production in the creamery areas and the cost of milk production in the Dublin milk sales district; neither will I be drawn into any argument with regard to the market available.
Some few years ago, this House passed legislation here under which it was provided that farmers must have registered dairy premises, a certain standard of housing, a certain standard of hygiene, a certain quality of milk, and so on and so forth. They were given a price related to the cost of production, plus a profit. There was no intimation then that there would be a standstill order from 1953 up to now, and presumably to continue until goodness knows when. That legislation was passed. While we do not want to charge Dubliners too much for their milk, we are entitled to a fair price.
I propose very briefly to prove that with the aid of some statistics. Taking the year 1947 as base 100, the cost of living index figure moved from 125 in 1953 to 151 in 1961, an increase of 26 points. That means that the farmer, compelled to comply with all these stringent regulations during that entire period, has has to do so and live, despite the fact that the cost of living has increased 26 points over the period. I am fully aware that the cost of living for Dubliners also increased by 26 points. I am also aware that the industrial wage rate—this is something we must consider in relation to the market we have—has increased in the same period. If you take base 100 in 1953, and that is the base given in the Statistical Abstract, you find an increase in 1961 of 126.4. In other words, from 1953 to 1961, our customers enjoyed an equivalent increase in wages in relation to the increase in the cost of living. We enjoyed an increase of 1d. in the year 1961. That represents less than four per cent.
During that period everything the farmer had to buy went up in price— his raw materials, the oil for his tractor, the tractor itself, its repair, the cost of all his farmyard utensils, his rates. Everything went up. His agricultural wage rate went up; it is admittedly still too low, although very few of the milkmen producing this high quality milk are at the minimum wage increase from 1953 onwards, if you take the convenient base again of 100; the latter increase was 134.74 in 1961, an increase of 34.7. We have the milk, thanks be to God. We have an expanding, virile Dublin community. That community is buying our milk.
