asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will indicate the reasons for the short supply of 26 per cent NET nitrogen especially in view of the new plant operated by Nítrigin Éireann Teo; if he will make a statement in the matter.
64.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Nitrogen Supplies.
63.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware of the shortage of nitrogen; and the steps his Department propose to take to remedy the matter.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 63 and 64 together.
I am aware that supplies of nitrogenous fertilisers in the country are at present tight. This is the result mainly of a sharp decrease in imports of urea because of the substantially increased world market prices of fertilisers. While NET's increased calcium ammonium nitrate production capacity from the new plant, which recently came on stream, will help to ease the situation the full benefit of the increased CAN capacity will not be evident until the next fertiliser year. Meanwhile the company are, I am informed, supplying the full quantities of 26 per cent N contracted for by wholesalers at the beginning of the current fertiliser year.
I understand that sufficient supplies of NPK compound fertilisers, which contain nitrogen, are available and could be used where CAN is unobtainable.
Is the Minister aware that this is not so, that supplies are not available at present and also that if farmers were to use the compounds he talks about, and which contain phosphate, and probably having used a phosphate-potash mixture earlier in the year it would be a very costly kind of fertilising? Is he also aware that a large tonnage of urea was reexported from this country earlier in the year? What action did his Department take at that time to ask the merchants to refrain from exporting? It was pointed out then that there would be a scarcity.
There are a number of things to be said here. First there is some scarcity; I did not say there was not.
There is an acute shortage; it is almost impossible to obtain in some areas.
That may be so in some limited areas but the total shortfall is of the order of one-sixth, nationwide. This is a serious shortfall but there is an acute world shortage. The quantities shipped out were very small and there has been a net importation. The difficulty about imports is the fact that urea can command a price of the magnitude of £100 per ton on the world market and nobody will buy it at that price. The difficulty this year in certain areas may be very acute but nationwide the shortage is not very acute. The use of NPK compound will certainly be more expensive than pure nitrogen but there is a residual benefit from the unnecessary phosphate and potassium which can save expenditure at a later stage. I do not suggest that the situation is perfect and in any case of acute shortage I shall make whatever intervention is possible. The extra capacity that NET has now coming on stream—and we are now near the end of the fertiliser year— will help to ensure that the problem will not recur next year.
If this situation does not improve inside the next month it will have an adverse effect on the supply of fodder next winter and that is very serious.
I would ask the Minister to take a very serious view of the fact that there was a great scarcity of fodder last year. The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries are advising farmers this year to make sure that they have sufficient for the coming winter as livestock is increasing. Without nigrogen it will be practically impossible to do that.
Is the Minister aware that we have 138,000 extra cattle to be fed this year in the winter period and that it is now important to make arrangements to have sufficient fodder for them? In view of that, would the Minister or his Department try to get nitrogen abroad, where ever it can be got, so that cattle will not be starving next spring?
I agree with the significance of the point the Deputy makes but it is important from the viewpoint of the confidence of farmers here to try to give the true picture. I have said that there is a scarcity and I know that in certain parts of the country it is acute. I shall try to give some idea of the total scale of the shortfall.
We would like to know what the Minister is doing to remedy the situation.
The material is available on world markets but at prices our farmers will not pay. With hindsight it was very fortunate that NET were urged to press on at full speed with the development of their extra plant. There will be the equivalent of 50,000 tons less of CAN in this year. That is the equivalent of the loss in urea imports. On the other hand, NET is producing 30,000 tons more this year with a production figure of over 200,000, so that the real shortfall this year is in the order of 20,000 tons of CAN. Next year with the new CAN plant operating, which has now been functioning since the end of March, the company's capacity will go from 200,000 tons this year to 400,000 tons next year. The problem is well on the way to solution.
Is it possible——
We must pass on. I have given Deputy Crinion and his colleagues a lot of latitude. Question No. 65, please.
A Cheann Comhairle, with your permission, I propose to raise the subject matter of this question on the Adjournment.
I will communicate with the Deputy.