asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state when the Cost of Living Report for Mid-January will be issued.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - COST OF LIVING REPORT FOR JANUARY.
The Cost of Living Report for Mid-January, 1926, was published in the monthly Irish Trade Journal for February, 1926, issued by the Department of Industry and Commerce. After the publication of the Cost of Living Report for Mid-October, 1925, it was decided to cease publishing these quarterly reports as separate publications. In future they will appear regularly as special articles in the issues of the Irish Trade Journal for the months of February, May, August and November.
I think, perhaps, I should ask you, sir, and not the Minister, could it be arranged to have these Journals filed? Hitherto we have been able to go to the file in the Library and compare the cost-of-living statistics. If there is to be a Journal which will be taken off the file, we shall not be in the same position to make comparisons.
With regard to that I have nothing to say, but I understand that copies of the Irish Trade Journal are supplied to Deputies and Senators.
No; a sample copy was supplied, but only a sample.
I shall make inquiries as to that, because it was the intention to have these supplied both to Deputies and Senators.
Is it to be taken that this Irish Trade Journal is an authoritative official Journal and that everything in it has the official sanction of the Minister?
I would not like to go so far as that. It is an authoritative Journal issued by the Department from information collected from the other Departments, but the articles at times will reveal that they are not to be taken as definitely and entirely authoritative. There always has to be a certain amount of discretion given. That will generally be revealed by the type of the article itself or something arising out of the article.
The important point is that if the cost-of-living index figure is to be taken as an index affecting wages, it ought to be in some way quite definitely circulated as an official document. If the Irish Trade Journal is not to be considered as an official authoritative document, there is no assurance that this is a strict official return.
I quite see the Deputy's point. It may be necessary to have some note prefixed to the issues which contain the cost-of-living figures. Actually what is happening is that the inquiry goes on as before, and the result, instead of being published as a separate sheet, is included in the Trade Journal. We might have that more specifically marked in succeeding issues of the Journal with regard to that item.
Could we take it that this official Trade Journal should be accepted by everybody as an official document which could be always referred to?
If I might confine myself to the cost of living: as far as the cost-of-living figure is concerned it is authoritative in the fullest sense of that word. It is the same as used to be provided only that now it is included in the Journal.
I should like to suggest to the Minister the advisability of keeping to the old forms, because they are convenient for filing. The Trade Journal is very inconvenient for filing as it means filing a great deal more than is requisite to file for the cost-of-living figure, inasmuch as that periodical matter is filed in many offices as something to refer to, and the cost, surely, would not be very great.
It would not be very big, but it was thought desirable to include it in this Trade Journal. Certainly it had been thought that this Journal was being supplied to Deputies and Senators and, as the difference in price is only a penny, that it would be bought by anybody who had previously bought the cost-of-living sheet. However, I will consider the Deputy's suggestion to return to the old separate publication.