asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if, in view of recent difficulties arising out of the appointment of producer members to the Board of the Pigs and Bacon Commission, he will now appoint the members for the IAOS who secured the highest number of votes at meetings held to nominate members.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Pigs and Bacon Commission.
57.
I would refer the Deputy to my reply to a question on this subject yesterday.
Would the Minister tell us what was the reply he gave yesterday? I was not here. Was the reply very complicated?
We are glad to see the Deputy.
I am here more often than the Minister.
Could the Minister give us the answer he gave yesterday?
As soon as the interruptions cease. It is the business of the producers' representatives to notify the Department of their nominees to represent them on the Pigs and Bacon Commission. They failed to do this and I then wrote to the producers' representatives and asked them to have another go at it because I was reluctant to carry out the functions of the Minister in this case of failure on the part of the producers themselves to come up with agreed representatives. They had another go and failed again. There is no provision in the Act for a voting process so any voting process would, therefore, be invalid. I thought the best thing to do in the interests of harmony was to maintain the status quo and that is what I did.
Does the Minister consider he was maintaining the status quo by simply making a political appointment?
This was not a political appointment.
Is it not a fact that the nominating bodies met on three occasions and on three occasions they selected two people by vote? This was the only way they could get the feeling of the producer bodies. The individual the Minister appointed secured one vote only and the man who got the highest number of votes on three occasions was eliminated.
That is what he is there for.
He is not there to make political appointments, whatever the Minister for Transport and Power says.
There is no procedure whatever for a voting procedure.
Is that not defective legislation and I am drawing the Minister's attention to it?
It was a failure on the part of the producers' representatives.
It is defective legislation.
Let me tell the Deputy that it was a failure on the part of the producers' representatives to agree——
It is the most idiotic legislation I have heard of.
——on a panel of representatives. I want to say further to Deputy Clinton that there are no political kudos in this. One of the most vital things for the future is harmony between the farming groups and the Department. Anything that Deputy Clinton or any other Deputy says to the effect that this was a political appointment is false. I do not know who this man is.
Do not give us that. The Minister does not know who Mr. Denis Murphy of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association is?
We cannot debate this question all evening.
He got one vote out of 15.
I asked only one supplementary and the Minister has kept talking since.
I replied out of courtesy only. I gave the reply yesterday.
I appreciate the courtesy we get but can the Minister tell the House if there is anything to prevent him settling this row by appointing the man who got the highest number of votes in addition to the two people appointed?
There is.
There is nothing in legislation.
I think there is.
I think there is not.
I will not be dragged into an inter-organisational squabble.
The Ryan Tribunal might help.
The pig producers representatives are sensible people and they support my decision.
They are horrified at the political appointment the Minister made.
It was not a political appointment.
Of course it was.
The Deputy is playing politics with something that should not be made political.
I share the Minister's dismay.
He is a well-known Fianna Fáil supporter.
I do not know how many pig producers there are in Deputy O'Leary's constituency.
None.
(Interruptions.)
Question No. 58.