I move amendment No. 169 :—
After Section 153 to insert the following new section :—
PART V.
154.—(1) There shall be established in accordance with this Part of this Act a Joint Board (in this Act referred to as the Joint Board) to be styled and known as the Joint Pigs and Bacon Marketing Board, to fulfil certain functions of common concern to Pigs and Bacon Marketing Boards as hereinafter set out.
(2) The Joint Board shall consist of all members of the Pigs Marketing Board and all members of the Bacon Marketing Board which shall be known as the Constituent Boards.
I put down this amendment because I was not satisfied that there was equitable representation of the two main interests concerned on the two Boards. There is an earlier amendment affecting the constitution of the Bacon Marketing Board and the Pigs Marketing Board which I would prefer. By that the Bacon Marketing Board would be constituted as originally proposed in the Bill and the Pigs Marketing Board constituted exclusively of Pig producers. Then, there would be two boards, one consisting exclusively of curers and the other exclusively of pig producers. There are matters that the Bacon Marketing Board is given the exclusive right to decide and matters that the Pigs Marketing Board is given the exclusive right to decide. I refer to the production order of the Bacon Marketing Board, which affects pig production, in the making of which the Bacon Marketing Board has exclusive authority. The bacon curers have, in effect, exclusive authority to make the order, because it is provided that there will be seven bacon curers, or representatives of curers on the Bacon Marketing Board. On any matters affecting curing interests those seven curers will agree and the chairman will have no authority except formally to say that they agreed and the order is made. That gives the whole authority on big matters to the bacon curers. The Pigs Marketing Board will consist of three pig producers nominated by the Minister. We will assume that they will be three perfect representatives of pig producers. The other three, making 50 per cent. of the entire ordinary members of the Board, are nominated by the Bacon Marketing Board, directly representing the curers, or representatives elected by curers on the Pig Marketing Board. In fixing the price of bacon or in the matter of pig production they have full authority to snap their fingers at the chairman, provided they are unanimous. From the very nature of their interests it is difficult for them ever to be unanimous, because if pig producers put up a fixed price the bacon curers will say: " We cannot work at that price." There you have the element of disagreement, with the result that in all matters seriously affecting pig producers' interests you have the snag in the Board that there will be always dissent. It is then the duty of the chairman to make a decision on the evidence put up by both sides. The result boils down to this, that the chairman of the Pigs Marketing Board will be the Board in all matters of that kind, because there will not be agreement amongst the members because of the constitution of the Board. I can quite understand that a Pigs Marketing Board, consisting entirely of producers, would not be a feasible proposition, because it might fix the price of bacon and destroy the whole trade, or fix a price for pigs that would be too dear for curers. There are interests to be served in the Pigs Marketing Board that would, in my opinion, be best served by a Board consisting entirely of pig producers. There are interests of the curers dovetailed in the industry as a whole that would be best served by a board of bacon curers, as is proposed in the Bill. There are matters of common concern, such as the production order to be made by the Bacon Marketing Board, that are of vital concern to pig producers, and they should have a voice in that, if only to state their case. The fixing of the price of pigs is a matter of vital concern not only to the industry as a whole but to the bacon curers. I mention these two at random. There may be other matters that should be decided by a composite board. I have no fixed ideas as to what the powers of the Chairman of the Joint Board should be. I am concerned only with the principle. Boiled down it amounts to this, that the bacon curers would have a board that concerns them, the pig producers a board that concerns them, so that a Joint Board in matters of common interest would be a distinct improvement to the Bill, and to the industry, and would, I am sure, ease the Minister's position, as all interests would be given a right, in matters of common concern, to have a say. That is my case for the establishment of the Joint Board. I do not know if what I heard is true, or if the Minister knows of it, that separate Boards did not work well in Northern Ireland, and that it is contemplated establishing a Board consisting of three pig men, three bacon men, and three members nominated by the Minister and to dissolve the other two Boards. While I do not say that I favour that, I would favour it in preference to the two Boards we have here.