I should like to make a few suggestions that the Minister might consider. The Minister stressed the necessity for autonomy for the institute when he opened the debate on this Bill. Perhaps he would consider granting more autonomy to the new advisory body for the same reasons that he suggested in the case of the institute. He should have spelled out in more detail what path agriculture should take in the future. He said recently that he is going to involve himself in a new educational deal for farmers, and for young farmers in particular. It would be better if the Minister gave this job to the new body, indicating his own views and those of the House with regard to education for farmers. Our top priority should be to educate our farmers. To date it has been a very piecemeal operation. There is a scarcity of places in colleges and lack of finance has meant that many young farmers, even though they qualified, could not take up the places. Many have to pay for the courses themselves and this imposes a strain on them. The Bill should give some help in this area.
We are dealing with a highly specialised operation. We cannot continue the situation where the agricultural adviser was a kind of general practitioner. The advisers will have to specialise in the future. In every area there will have to be a man dealing with cereals, a man dealing with beef and dairying, another dealing with farm accounts and so on. This will be necessary in the era of new technology, coping with diseases and so on. I should like to hear from the Minister about the finance available to the new body. It all hinges on finance. The new body must have sufficient funds and autonomy to do their job. I have no doubt that they will be capable of doing an excellent job if they are given a free hand. However, if they are under the aegis of the civil servants and have all kinds of restrictions imposed on them it is possible that their powers will have limited scope. They should be directed by the Minister and by the Dail to look at the situation in agriculture and to consider the future. We are in competition in Europe with the sophisticated farming set-up on the continent.
