Edition Bobbett1. Texts by Elizabeth F. Bobbett: 1.1.3. Correspondence, Letters to newspapers

1938 Elizabeth Bobbett: Letter to the Irish Independent, 14.09.1938

Helping Agriculture

Elizabeth F. Bobbett, General Secretary, Irish Farmers’ Federation, Springfield, Wicklow, in the course of a letter writes: “Sir. It is admitted by all that agriculture is the mainstay of our country. Also that farmers have been working at a considerable loss for the past six years owing to the circumstances over which we had no control. Now when our Government should be endeavouring to rebuild our ruined agriculture and enabling the farmers to produce more wealth from the land, what is the position to-day in this and other counties? On Wednesday last I attended a sale of seized cattle in Arklow when 13 cattle belonging to Mr. John Kinsella were offered for sale by a Court Official. Mr. John Kinsella is one of the hardest workers in the county, but like all of us cannot continue to pay increased expenditure on a diminished income. He sells milk to Dublin, which commodity is under the control of the Dublin Milk Board, he is only given a quota to supply 8 gallons daily although he could supply 20 gallons, but the distributer does not take the milk every day, it is left two days a week.

In 1914 Mr. Kinsella’s rates were £20 odd, this year they are £90, while everything the farmer needs to run his farm is from 120 per cent to 230 per cent above the 1914 prices, while our agricultural prices are not as good and we have less to sell. Our Government had no difficulty in finding the ten million pounds to pay England; they could find almost a quarter of a million pounds to give the Roscrea Meat Factory free material and then compensate them for not working. It is time our Government found money to compensate the farmers for their losses for the past six years. Farmers are not flying from the land, they are being driven from it.”