asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the amount of subsidies and/or grants paid to the Dairy Disposal Company in the financial years 1970 and 1971.
26.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dairy Disposal Company.
25.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he has considered the introduction of legislation to make the Dairy Disposal Company a statutory corporation in view of the fact that it is State-owned, is in receipt of State subsidies and has civil servants on its board.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 25 and 26 together.
The milk suppliers to the Dairy Disposal Company's creameries have benefited, in the same way as all other creamery milk suppliers, from the arrangements for Exchequer support for the dairy industry, but the company itself does not receive any State subsidies and has no access to State grants other than those equally available to co-operative dairy societies. Such grants paid to the company, being almost entirely IDA grants, amounted to less than £10,000 in 1970 and less than £12,000 in 1971.
I see no good reason for altering the basis on which the company, as an essentially commercial and trading entity, is incorporated.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary tell me if the requirements in relation to the Dairy Disposal Company as to the provision of its annual report and information on its activities to the House and to the public are the same as those which apply to the Sugar Company?
I could not say. The Dairy Disposal Company is a private limited company.
It is difficult to get information about their activities.