asked the Minister for Agriculture if it is a fact that prospective applicants for training at the Athenry training college, County Galway, are advised that courses carried out there are not suited to small farmers in the Connemara Gaeltacht.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Athenry College (Galway) Training Courses.
14.
The answer to the question is "no".
15.
asked the Minister for Agriculture if the Agricultural Training College at Athenry, County Galway, provides special courses, structured to encourage the modernisation of the methods and management of small holdings in the Connemara Gaeltacht.
The main course at Mellowes Agricultural College, Athenry, which lasts a full year covers general agriculture and has been developed to suit prospective farmers in all areas, including the Connemara Gaeltacht. A specialised course in pig husbandry and management is also conducted at the college.
The principal channel of advice to Connemara Gaeltacht smallholders is through on-farm visits by the county committee advisory staff.
If a young Connemara man goes to Athenry is it possible for him to get lectures and instruction through Irish? I have been given to understand that a particular young Connemara man, a very competent farmer who learned his skills on his father's well run farm, was told that he would need at least 50 acres and would have to have a tractor if he was to get any benefit out of the course in the Athenry college.
I am unable to say whether it is possible for Gaeltacht young men or women to receive instruction in Irish, because the question does not relate to that. I would be glad to find out myself. I must confess I do not know. As to whether on 50 acres a tractor is a necessity or not I cannot say. I have no reason to doubt the genuineness of the local advisers' word. It seems that on any kind of reasonable land a tractor might be justifiable on such acreage. That is my opinion.
In view of the exchanges with various Deputies on the matter of uneconomic holdings in Connemara and the low living standards of people there and the rather scandalous admission by the Minister that this situation has existed unchanged for some years, surely some positive action should be taken of a special kind applicable to the difficult business of trying to make a living out of the kind of holdings people have there due to geographical and other physical difficulties? There must be a special approach to the problem rather than having places like Athenry where they tend to concentrate on the big farm and where the young Connemara farmer is unpopular and is not wanted because their activities are not directed towards the skills he would need.
I should have thought that for small farm areas in the West of Ireland generally the two main lines that suggest themselves most in farm development are milk production and pig production. In Athenry there is an excellent course in pig husbandry. Even on very small acreages a pig project is a viable proposition, properly run and supervised. I acknowledge the Deputy's assertion that in these very small acreages, very often of poor quality, the problems are rather specialised. In saying that I think the special attention paid by Athenry to pig husbandry is aimed straight at areas such as Connemara.
While not in any way disputing the excellence of the tuition afforded not only in Athenry but in other agricultural colleges, is it not a fact that far too few of the places available in all these colleges go to students who return to the farms? In fact is it not the situation that they are largely training schools for the Department of Agriculture up to now—in other words too few are going back to the land rather than that there is any fault in the actual education students receive there?
What the Deputy says is, on the whole, true in both respects, that students tend to go into the Department of Agriculture employment. In recent years the numbers are tending to go up but there remains a problem—not enough go back to the farms.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Could the Minister think of any way of changing the trend and of influencing students who benefit from training or education in Athenry, Ballyhaise and other such places to return to the farm? Could he make it more attractive for young men committed to returning to farmers to get training in these colleges?
It is becoming more attractive. Where the acreage is at all adequate the rewards in farming have been better for the last three or four years than they had been hitherto. Deputy Blaney poses the problem of graduates of such schools tending to go out of agriculture; that was due to necessity. The rewards in a small farm anyway would not be as good as those of a Department job.
Question No. 16. We are getting a long way from Athenry.
(Cavan-Monaghan): As the Minister admits, that has been a trend over the years and it is regrettable. Admittedly the more remunerative returns of agriculture are changing the trend, but could the Minister think of any other way of accelerating the present trend and loading the dice, so to speak, in favour of young men who intend to return to farming to give them preference in these colleges? There is a waiting list and it is difficult to get into them.
The Deputy asked that question.
They already have a preference.
(Cavan-Monaghan): I recommend that the Minister increase it.