With regard to the small oat mills mentioned by Deputy McMenamin, I have had that question very fully considered in the time available since the Committee Stage, and I cannot find any way out of having these mills compelled to register. If, however, they are not buying oats as dealers or selling oatmeal on the market, there will be no further trouble put on them in any way. There will be no records. They are not obliged to keep any records in that case except the ordinary books in which they may keep entries of the oats they take in. Obviously, however, if they go into bigger business and begin selling oatmeal they will have to come under the provisions of the Bill. Having discussed the matter with the officials of the Department and the draftsman, I cannot see how any exemption could be made that might not be dangerous, because if we were to exempt a mill that was milling on commission alone there would be nothing to prevent one of the biggest merchants in the country employing one of the biggest millers in the country to mill on commission and so escape the provisions of the Bill. The whole question is very difficult and we shall further consider it to see if anything can be done. We are considering it at the moment.
With regard to the point raised by Deputy Belton, I think we have already discussed this matter of how prices are to be fixed. If possible, the first consideration will be the cost of production. There are other considerations, too, as I already mentioned here, including the cost of maize as far as it can be taken into consideration and naturally we must take into consideration what the feeder is able to pay, because if the feeder is not able to buy stuff, then the whole scheme falls down. We must, therefore, take that into consideration.
