I welcome this Bill. I wholeheartedly approve of it. I have served for over 25 years as a member of a county committee of agriculture. Very few people give these committees the credit and appreciation they deserve. These committees were first established in the early days of the State; it was a combined committee— educational, agricultural and technical. There was a division then on the establishment of the vocational education committees. The county committees of agriculture became a separate entity. These committees have rendered a very valuable service and they have made a very generous contribution to agricultural policy because it is through these committees the farmers find expression.
The county committees of agriculture are the only statutory committees dealing with agricultural matters. This Bill is very desirable because many of these committees have reached their maximum from the point of view of the striking of the rate and their activities were considerably handicapped because of lack of funds. Now that we are, so to speak, on the doorstep of the EEC, I wonder should we have a look at the usefulness of these committees. What would the Minister's view be of permitting these committees to make their own demands, subject to the sanction of the Minister, without tying them down to any particular ceiling? Some committees are, perhaps, more energetic than others. Again, because of our geographical situation, there are areas in which the county committees focus their attention on milk production and everything connected with it. There are areas in which the committees bend their energies to tillage. In other areas they focus all their attention on livestock production. In the west of Ireland the main problem is, of course, the supplementing of the income of the smallholder in the congested districts.
The county committees of agriculture have great responsibilities. They will have greater responsibilities in the years ahead. I would ask the Minister to give serious thought to greater co-operation between his Department and the county committees of agriculture. More emphasis should be placed on their work. They should be given more staff and the wherewithal to meet the expense involved.
It is quite wrong to argue that the county committees are not democratically constituted. After each local election the county committee of agriculture is appointed by the elected representatives. Membership is not confined to elected representatives. Under the law there must be a number of non-elected members. The local authority has the right to appoint to these committees members of farming organisations and others of outstanding ability from the point of view of agriculture. The county committee of agriculture of which I am a member invited the NFA and Macra na Feirme to nominate their own members to the committee. They did so. This has been very helpful because the elected members are re-inforced with the guidance, wisdom and knowledge of those intimately connected with farming organisations.
Lest there might be any misunderstanding in regard to what the last speaker said about appointments, I know of no appointment that has not been made strictly on merit. Permanent appointments are made by the Local Appointments Commission. I do not always agree that this is the best system, but it is the best we have at the moment. County committees of agriculture make temporary appointments. It is only right that I should put on record that those who serve voluntarily on these committees do so in the knowledge that they have a duty and obligation to appoint the best, the most highly qualified and the most efficient. The first qualification for appointment is experience, efficiency and suitability.
The present system of appointment has been satisfactory. It might be even more satisfactory if some of the major posts filled by the Local Appointments Commission were filled by the committees. For how long will we go on pretending that we cannot trust each other to do the work that should be done? Will we merely use the county committees of agriculture as talking machines or will we share responsibility with them? I think the time has come when we must look on these county committees of agriculture as county agricultural development committees. I should like to see these committees taking over some of the work of the Land Commission. I should like to see county committees of agriculture taking on some of the work of the Forestry Division; I should like to see them playing a more important part in advocating private forestry among small farmers so that through them smallholders could find ways and means of supplementing their incomes.
When large holdings are being divided by the Land Commission the committees, the advisers, and the chief agricultural officer should be consulted about the suitability of applicants. The county committees should have greater responsibilities and I am disappointed that in this Bill there is not even a section to cover the importance of the general council of committees of agriculture. At the moment funds available to the committees are restricted and this Bill is to remove that restriction considerably so that a higher rate can be struck and more funds will be available for expenditure by the committees.
The general council have rendered outstanding service but they are restricted through the lack of a secretariat, proper offices and research workers. The Department of Agriculture do not seem to be eager to place the emphasis on the statutory agricultural authorities, namely, the county committees of agriculture. Does the Minister not agree that if the general council had a full secretariat staff they would be able to conduct research into the various branches of agriculture and the Minister would have to hand expert advice from practical farmers and elected representatives who are in the closest touch with people in all branches of agriculture? It is all right to pay lip service to voluntary workers on the committees of agriculture but here we have a golden opportunity, now that changes are coming in every branch of our economy, to do something practical and worthwhile for those who believe in the activities of the county committees.
The county committees were represented on the National Agricultural Council of which we have heard nothing of late. Since the right of the county committees of agriculture to make a demand on the local authority is mentioned in the Bill, it is not too much to ask the Minister for Agriculture to allow these committees to play a greater part in the moulding of our agricultural policy. Are we just going to allow them to seek the maximum rate as provided for under this Bill? Are we going to leave it at that and allow them to draft schemes, whether it be the premium boar scheme, or the fox destruction scheme, or the noxious weeds regulations, or whatever it may be, or are we going to give them more solid and more effective work to do? Every committee concentrates on its staff and wants to provide on its staff the best advisory services they can get for all farmers. Is it not also correct to say that in recent years the farmers have been clamouring for the advice of the agricultural advisers and instructors in every county, something they were most reluctant to accept 25 years ago? They are doing it now because they have seen that by accepting the advice of these qualified people who are available for 24 hours a day to advise on fertilisers, on seeds, the rotation of crops and indeed on all branches of agriculture, they can improve their farms and so the services are being eagerly sought. Should we not regard this as an occasion for complimenting the county committees of agriculture who have been responsible for creating such an atmosphere and such a spirit of co-operation between the men on the land and the advisers?
It may be said that farmers do not need these advisory services, that they already know sufficient. None of us knows sufficient. I knew a man who lived to an extraordinary old age and his advice to young and old was that every day was a school day, that it was only when we left school that we started to learn all that we should know. So it is with the farmers. There was never greater need for the full acceptance of our advisory services in every agricultural home. The barrier has been broken and thank God for that. However, there may be still some of the older school, whom we respect, who may feel that they know enough and that they are not concerned with modern agricultural techniques, with modern agricultural machinery or with the various tests and sampling carried out by the Agricultural Institute, or with other information which can be given freely so that their incomes and profits may be increased at harvest time.
Surely the Minister will agree that when we have such an excellent service sponsored and fostered by the county committees of agriculture it is the duty of the committees to have at their disposal the best type of qualified personnel because the money we are providing under this Bill will be spent on these people? I want to express my surprise in regard to the machinery which was set up recently to deal with the pay and remuneration of agricultural advisers, for whom the Minister has no responsibility. It is only right to warn the Minister that young men who have graduated in agricultural science take up their first appointment at a rate of £950 per year whilst in other professions the starting point is usually £1,300 to £1,500. Why should agriculture be ground down in this way to the lowest point? Would one not expect in an agricultural country that when a man is qualified and takes on agriculture as his career we would put him into a position in which he could build up his future on a solid foundation? There is little encouragement for anybody to concentrate on agriculture as other professions have a much more encouraging scale of pay than the scale paid by the county committees of agriculture. I ask the Minister to intervene in this.
I understand a certain committee have been dealing with this and that the representatives of the General Council of County Committees of Agriculture, an officer or two from the Department of Agricultural and Fisheries and representatives of the Agricultural Officers Association who sit on the committee have been dealing with this problem but the most recent report I have heard has been most unsatsfactory from the point of view of encouraging young men to take up agriculture as a career.
I ask what better career can a young man adopt in this country than one devoted to agriculture? However, the tendency is that he is attracted to the more remunerative professions. We must stop that trend, not that we begrudge these other professions the high standards they have set as regards salaries. Our aim is that those engaged in agriculture should be brought up to the same level. With this in mind I ask the Minister seriously to intervene in this matter so that we will have a greater flow of young men, and girls, devoting their talents towards qualifying in agriculture in order to have them ready and available to county committees of agriculture as experts and advisers.
I often wonder if the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries examines closely the various schemes which must be undertaken by county committees. Is it not extraordinary that many county committees find themselves severely handicapped, because of lack of money, to realise their ambitions? It is correct to say that 50 per cent of expenditure on such schemes is recouped by the Department, in many instances more. I strongly recommend that the Minister should accord national recognition to the General Council of County Committees of Agriculture by giving them a higher standing, the rank that they deserve, as advisers on national agricultural policy.
The time has come for the Minister to review the various schemes undertaken by county committees. For instance, are we really satisfied with the operation of the pig premium scheme? At every other meeting of the committee of which I am a member letters come in from those qualified to have what we describe as boar stations to the effect that the pigs supplied to them are suffering from different types of rheumatism peculiar to pigs, or that the pigs have proved to be infertile, and they request that the committee provide replacements. I should like to know the type of supervisory system employed in these schemes. Is it correct to say, for instance, that when a pig is supplied to a county committee, the animal has not been examined or certified by a veterinary surgeon as being in sound condition and excellent health? I suggest pigs should be so certified. I know cases where farmers cared well for the pigs, fed them well and housed them well, but they did not prove to be healthy. I suggest that in such schemes there should be more exactness.
While dealing with the work of county committees of agriculture it might be appropriate to ask is it a fact that many counties have been disregarding the fox destruction scheme? If so, is it because they have no money? The Minister stated that a number of counties had raised the maximum amount. I regretfully have to tell the House that parts of the country are completely overrun by foxes. As a result of the vast increase in the fox population there is a big diminution in the poultry stocks throughout the country. I know farmers who have been unable to continue large-scale poultry production because of invasion by foxes.
Therefore, I suggest that the Department take some steps to rid this country of the vast number of foxes that now threaten agricultural production. There have been complaints that numerous county committees of agriculture have disregarded the fox destruction scheme. If you ask them about it they say that the bounties are payable to those who capture foxes provided the foxes' tails are produced in the local garda stations. I do not know whether, having received the 5s for the tail, the person is allowed to take it away, and whether he might not take it back again and receive a second bounty. There have been allegations that the same tail came in on numerous occasions.