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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 3 Nov 1966

Vol. 225 No. 2

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dispute with NFA.

87.

asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries whether there had been any developments in regard to the dispute with the NFA.

The Government's position has again been made clear in the letter of 1st November from the Taoiseach to the NFA President, which has been published.

I regret that statements and actions by the NFA during the past week have not, so far, produced evidence of a desire on their part for a return to normal and reasonable relations.

Is the Minister aware that he has based his refusal on feeble procedural technicalities? Does he not realise that this dispute will have to be settled sooner or later? They have submitted numerous memoranda and would the Minister consider, in the interests of harmony and progress in the country, forgetting his personal vanity and inviting this deputation in with a view to settling the dispute?

Will the Minister accept that humility is one of the great qualities and would he employ humility at the moment and deal with the NFA?

I have as much humility as any man in the House. This is not a question of my attitude of mind towards the farming organisations: this is a question of the manner in which the Government consider the affairs of the country should be carried on.

Is the Minister aware that a precedent has —indeed many precedents have— been established through which disputes between trade unions and employees, having reached impasse, have been settled by the intervention of a third party acting as intermediary? Would the Minister not agree that both sides should no longer continue to wait for the other side to start eating humble pie? Would he agree that can be done now and let us have done with this damn nonsense which is making a laughing stock of the Government and the NFA?

I have no desire to make any farmer or farming organisation eat humble pie.

Would the Minister be fortified by the knowledge—I speak now on behalf of the Labour Party and not for the Fine Gael or any other group — that all Members of this House would support him in his invitation to the farmers' organisations to talk to him about his plan and their plans?

The Deputy must admit that I have already given a very fair offer in the situation. The first thing necessary is for the members of this organisation to get off the steps of my Department in Merrion Street.

They are not on the steps. They were carried off them and put on the street.

Thrown into the gutter.

Will the Minister remember that in recent weeks he did not insist they would have to leave the steps? His only condition was that they submit a memorandum. Not alone has the Minister got a memorandum——

I have not.

It is in the form of a speech. Every Deputy in the House, I understand, got a memorandum in the form of a speech. I do not care what it is. Could the Minister not meet them on the basis of that?

(Cavan): Did I understand the Minister to say there is not now any question of the NFA writing a letter to him?

The Taoiseach said here the other day——

(Cavan): I am asking a Supplementary Question arising out of a statement by the Minister a couple of minutes ago. Is there now no question of the NFA writing a letter to him and does that mean that if the farmers get off their seats or their beds they are welcome to go into the Department from there?

I have said there will be no difficulty about arranging a meeting if the representatives of the NFA at present on the steps remove themselves from the steps of my office and indicate they wish to arrange a meeting.

(Cavan): Will the Minister say——

Will Deputy Fitzpatrick allow me? There have been so many questions asked during the past quarter of an hour that I do not think any useful purpose will be served by proceeding further in this fashion.

In spite of what the Chair has just said, this is a matter which could be and should be discussed for hours on end if, by so doing, we could achieve some useful purpose.

I do not think any useful purpose——

May I ask the Minister now whether he agrees that in the circumstances of things he is in a position of power, that he need not rely on a technicality to save his face, that he need not exercise even humility, only the power he has to rise above the technical quality involved in the matter? He will thus be showing that he believes democracy is soundly based in that way rather than by having a group of farmers on the street——

The initiative in this matter does not lie with me.

I must draw the line somewhere.

If the Minister were to issue an invitation to the representatives of the NFA to come together with him——

That is a separate question.

That is a question I put to him a few minutes ago.

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