asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state (1) the total amount of butter sold on the home market during the year ended 31st December, 1936; (2) the rates and periods at which levy was collected from butter so sold, and (3) the total amount of levy so collected; (4) the quantity and value of butter exported; and (5) the total amount of subsidy paid thereon in the year ended 31st December, 1936.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Home and Export Butter Trade.
As the reply contains a good deal of detail, some of it in schedule form, I do not propose to read it, but will have it circulated in the Official Report.
The reply is as follows:—
(1) The quantity of creamery butter sold in Saorstát Eireann during the year ended 31st December, 1936, was 371,994 cwts. Levy was paid on the whole of this butter. During the same period 31,506 cwts. of non-creamery butter on which levy was paid were sold in the Saorstát. No information is available as to the total sales of non-creamery butter in the Saorstát during the year, since no levy was payable on sales of such butter under an exemption licence granted by me under the Dairy Produce (Price Stabilisation) Act, 1935, and there is reason to believe that many dealers in farm butter failed to register under the Act and to pay levy on their sales.
(2) The ordinary rates of levy in force during the year on creamery and non-creamery butter were as follows:—
|
CREAMERY BUTTER |
NON-CREAMERY BUTTER |
||
|
Month |
Rate per Cwt. |
Month |
Rate per Cwt. |
|
January |
10/- |
January |
Nil. |
|
February |
February |
||
|
March |
March |
||
|
April |
31/- |
April |
28/- |
|
May |
May |
||
|
June |
30/- |
June |
|
|
July |
July |
||
|
August |
21/- |
August |
18/8 |
|
September |
September |
||
|
October |
October |
||
|
November |
November |
||
|
December |
10/- |
December |
Nil. |
In addition to the above rates special rates of levy were in operation in respect of creamery and non-creamery butter cold stored under my sanction to meet home requirements during the winter months of low production.
(3) The total amount of levy collected during the year on creamery and non-creamery butter was £488,614 and £36,540 respectively.
(4) 460,219 cwts. of creamery butter and 57,933 cwts. of non-creamery butter were exported during the year. The estimated value of the creamery butter exported was £2,596,402 and of the non-creamery butter £286,768.
(5) The sums paid on creamery and non-creamery butter during the year by way of (a) statutory bounty under the Dairy Produce (Price Stabilisation) Act, 1935; and (b) subsidy out of the Vote for Export Bounties and Subsidies were as follows:—
|
Creamery Butter |
Non-Creamery Butter |
||
|
£ |
£ |
||
|
Bounty |
311,983 |
Bounty |
31,733 |
|
Subsidy |
634,954 |
Subsidy |
71,651 |
|
TOTAL |
946,937 |
TOTAL |
103,384 |
Will the Minister now state if it is true that his Department has been responsible for the export of such large quantities of butter during the last few months that he has now created an artificial scarcity in butter?
Dr. Ryan
That is another question.
May I submit, Sir, that that question properly arises out of Deputy Curran's question as to the quantity and value of butter exported? The Chair will have observed that considerable public inconvenience and anxiety have been caused by the fact that there is greater scarcity of butter in the Saorstát at the present moment——
The Chair does not officially observe such matters.
Well, the House observes it, and I base my claim to put a supplementary question on those grounds. I ask the Minister now was he responsible for the export out of this country of such a quantity of butter as to make an artificial scarcity now, so much so as to make it necessary to import butter to meet the requirements of our own people.
Dr. Ryan
Butter cannot, of course, be exported except on licence when an order of prohibition has been made. In that way the Minister is responsible for any shortage in butter supplies, if such shortage arises.
So the Minister is responsible.