In giving the Bill a guarded welcome, I take the opportunity to welcome the Minister of State. It is the first time that I have been involved in a discussion in his presence and I wish him well in his new post.
This Bill is long overdue. It is high time that the farming community, through the voluntary organisations, were given a say in the membership of the county committees of agriculture. The Bill has a certain number of defects but at this stage a reasonable Bill is better than no Bill at all.
I welcome the involvement and expertise of farmers who have to make a living from farming. There is no doubt that any full-time farmer who has to go through the rigours of making a living from the land, is entitled to be a member of a county committee of agriculture. It is a far cry from the days when we had all kinds of people who had not the slightest interest in agriculture and, while some of them made a contribution, others had no interest in it other than being on various committees with all the attending possibilities they might have, for example, through expenses and so on. Over the years the county committees of agriculture—I happen to be a member of one in Galway—have outlived their usefulness in the sense that the rate of progress in farming seems to have outpaced them. At budget time in the committees of agriculture, one would have to get the go-ahead from Dublin to purchase a biro even though the committees are established by statute. Through the Department of Finance, the activities of the county committees of agriculture have been very much curtailed.
There is great potential for the new type of county committees envisaged here. There are a certain number of politicians who would argue that 40 per cent is too great a percentage of people from voluntary organisations. I do not agree with that. I believe that there has to be a platform for people who are leaders in their own particular walks of life. I hope they will make good use of it.
There are a number of questions this Bill raises. I read the passage of the Bill through the Dáil. This was involved in the setting up of AnCOT some time ago. Who will define the number and kind of organisations that will be entitled to be on the board? Who is to say that the 40 per cent would be drawn in a certain manner one way or another? When the Bill was passing through the Dáil that question was not answered. It is easy enough to create a situation where the fly-by-night organisations that mushroom up could be cut out. What type of mechanism is there to ensure that a particular organisation does not decide to have the whole lot? If there are a number of organisations that would like to be on this and if by allowing a member from each organisation on it it goes above 40 per cent, who decides to leave the one or two out?
I sincerely hope, for the benefit of every farmer, that the new county committee of agriculture, under AnCOT and under the structure that is now taking shape, will have a more important role. It is true to say, if one wanted to be cynical, that they are now only an advisory body. If one looks at the legislation one will see that it is basically in an advisory capacity that they operate. Words like "responsive to the needs of the local community" could fall on very deaf ears if the bureaucracy that was involved begins to raise its ugly head again under the new director of AnCOT, for whom I have the highest personal regard. I hope that he will not be hand-tripped by all types of bueaucracy of one type or another and that the obvious flare he has for Irish agriculture which he showed in the Agricultural Institute, will show through in the agricultural advisory service and all the training services that are so vitally important.
Whatever else happens, the central and regional directors should be given a reasonably free hand, because there is a power of work to be done in the whole area of agricultural advisory work and agricultural education. It is tragic that the Bill does not incorporate the Agricultural Institute under the one roof. I am amazed that the research wing of this important organisation will be left out. I know that it is water under the bridge and there is nothing we can do about it here this evening, but I place on record my absolute regret that the institute is left out from under this umbrella.
The stage has been reached where AnCOT will have a tremendous job to rejuvenate the framework and services that work for them on behalf of Irish farming. It is true to say that, despite the best efforts of all involved there was a certain sense of decay and frustration right through even down to the local agricultural adviser. We have to hand it to them that, over the years, they have been an important factor in our agriculture advancement. There is a certain degree of cynicism at this stage right through the various services. I hope that the AnCOT people, who are now charged with the responsibility for them, will be in a position to get fire back into their bellies.
Not many years ago a lot of people who worked in rural Ireland were not too worried about a 5 o'clock finish in the evening or about overtime for lectures or whatever. I know that times have changed and that one has to treat the farming folk in the same light as anybody else nowadays with the advent of television and so on. But the time has come for people with enthusiasm and ambition, who are in the services, to be recognised and given various positions of trust. If we are unable to get new entrants into agriculture trained to a certain degree of proficiency, there is no point in the world in talking about Irish farmers being able to compete with any farmers in Europe or anywhere else. We are making reasonable progress but we are absolutely miles behind.
I hope that the new county committees of agriculture will play a 100 per cent greater role in the activities of farming, in solving problems that beset all farmers and that reasonable note will be taken of what they have to say. There is nothing so frustrating as to sit around a table for two or three hours one day a month—and there are many people listening to me today who are in a similar position—to be told that there are certain rules that govern particular situations or that there is no money for this, that or the other. If 20 committed people in a county like Galway, or any other county, think that a certain line of action is good for the farmers of County Galway, it is only right and fair that people in higher authority would listen to what they have to say. For the ten or 12 months that I have been on the Galway Committee of Agriculture I could not say that our views were listened to because we seem to be hitting our heads off a stone wall most of the time. I am making that special appeal. I welcome the Bill as far as it goes. I will be delighted to see 40 per cent of the membership coming from the farming organisations. I hope that they will accept the responsibility, do a good job and knit in nicely with the elected representatives. From the point of view of the committee of agriculture, I hope all will be working for and on behalf of the particular county.
Reference was made in the Minister's speech to the fact that one of the functions of the new county committees will be to draw up a plan of activity for the year for both training and advisory work. The new AnCOT authority should not alone hope that this would happen, but should make sure that every committee of agriculture has a plan of action for the advisory service for that year. There should be certain goals to be achieved and certain questions asked at the end of a period of time if they were not achieved. The time has now come in this competitive age when all things can be measured to some degree or other. A plan of action should be followed and, at the end of the day, the AnCOT authorities should have a full appraisal of the situation. In any county that is not pulling its weight, no matter in what section, somebody should do some hard talking.
I hope that the change means that the county committees of agriculture will mean far more in the future to farmers than they have in the past. I am sorry that the institute are not involved and are not under the umbrella of the AnCOT authority. Perhaps where the institute people are on the ground they might be given one of the seats on the committees of agriculture so that at least we would have a link with them.