Edition Bobbett2. Speeches and statements by Elizabeth F. Bobbett
1939 Gurteen, Meeting of the Irish Farmers’ Federation
Source: Roscommon Herald, 15.07.1939
Miss Bobbett said the immediate aim of the Federation was to get immediate relief for the farmers. The members of the Federation called on Dr. James Ryan last week and put up these five points as of urgent and vital necessity: 1) The grant of £ per £ of the PLV of each holding (with a minimum of £25) as a partial recompense for losses suffered during the economic war, and to provide funds for reconstruction purposes; 2) De-rating; 3) A wage subsidy of 10/- per week to be paid to each farmer in respect of each worker – whether a member of his family or an employee – 5s of this amount to be retained by the farmer and the remaining 5s to be applied immediately to increase the wage of the worker; 4) Complete remission of annuities; 5) Fixity of tenure. “I regret to say,” she continued, “that the Minister for Agriculture has refused to grant any consideration under the above five headings, so the farmers must rely on their own strength as a trade union and in a united body press for their demands. It may be necessary to call a General Farmers Strike. It would be very easy to do this. If you farmers are told to down tools for a couple of weeks, it means you do not offer for sale any live stock or produce or anything off your farm during that period. When a scarcity would be felt in the city of Dublin and other large towns we might get some consideration for the farmers.
Your prices for all your farm produce are only 14 per cent higher than they were in 1914, whereas your cost of production is from 150 to 300 per cent higher, it takes three times as much of your agricultural produce to meet your obligations, and you cannot produce enough to meet your obligations. Our overhead charges are far too high and the cost of living is too high. The farmers have to sell in the world market, we are governed by the prices prevailing in the British Market, while we have to purchase our requirements in the Home Market.
We must get complete de-rating of agricultural land and farm buildings. Rates are an unjust charge, because rates represent a tax to meet social services in the country, and a farmer with £20 valuation might, under the system, have to pay as much as a professional man or minister with £2,000 a year. The farmers of Northern Ireland, Scotland and England have de-rating and we have to compete on their market, and we should be put on an equal footing.
We demand compensation for the extraordinary losses farmers suffered through the Economic War, which should have been borne by the State. We demand a wage subsidy for our Workers. It is only by the unpaid slave labour of the farmer’s wife and family that the farmer has been able to exist. This method must be stopped or all the young people will run away from the land. Our industry must provide sufficient profit to pay each member engaged in it, and unless we have security in our homes and the prospects of a decent living we will never stop the flight of the people from the land. She told how Governments in New Zealand, Denmark and other countries were helping the farmers in these countries. Mr. Erskine Childers had again stated recently in the Dail, “that Mr. Eamon de Valera had saved eighty-eight million pounds in the financial agreement with England.” These eighty-eight million pounds belong to the farmers of Ireland, and we are asking for a share of it. We are demanding immediately £1 per £1 of our PLV with a minimum of £25 to any farmer. When the Ministers raised their salaries and voted themselves pensions and voted huge sums for armaments and tourist traffic, they did not say it would increase the cost of living for the small man. If we bring down the cost of living the small farmer would reap the benefit in three months on the amount of flour he buys alone.