asked the Minister for Supplies if he can estimate the increase per ton of home-manufactured sugar likely to result from the new prices recently announced for sugar beet and pulp in the 1940-41 season.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Sugar Beet and Pulp Prices.
asked the Minister for Supplies if he will state whether consequent on the new prices recently announced for sugar beet and pulp for the 1940-41 season there is likely to be any further increase in the retail price of sugar; if so, if he will state what the further increase will be per lb.; if not, if he will indicate from what source the money to meet these new prices will be found.
I propose to take Nos. 6 and 7 together. The new price recently announced for sugar beet need not necessarily involve any increase in the prevailing price of sugar. In the absence, however, of information relating to the acreage to be grown, and other factors, it is not yet possible to make a definite statement in the matter.
Is the Minister in a position to say whether the increased price for beet will absorb any part of the ¾d. per lb. by which the price of sugar has been increased, in addition to the ¾d. revenue tax put upon sugar in the recent Budget?
There is no relation between the recent increase in the price of sugar and the new price offered for sugar beet. The increase in the price of sugar relates only to the cost of importing sugar in the present year.
Does the Minister suggest that it will not cost any more to manufacture sugar from beet which is costing 60/- per ton than to manufacture sugar from beet that costs 47/6 per ton?
If all the other conditions are the same it would not cost more.
Is the Minister informing the House that the production cost of sugar, based on a price of 60/- per ton for beet, will not be higher than the production cost based on 47/6 per ton?
I did not say that.
Where will the money come from to pay the extra production costs of sugar manufactured from the beet costing 60/- per ton?
I was asked if the new price for beet will involve any further increase in the price of sugar, and my answer is that it need not necessarily do so, but that it is impossible to be specific until all the factors are known.
If there is an increase in the price of sugar, having regard to the increased cost of beet, where will the increased cost come from, if not out of the ¾d. per lb. put on the price of sugar by Comhlucht Siúicre Eireann?
Ministers should not be asked to answer hypothetical questions.
The question immediately arises, where will the money come from?
From the present price.
From the increased ¾d. put on sugar by Comhlucht Siúicre Eireann a month ago? Is not that so?
The price of sugar is not fixed for all time. It is fixed on the known cost of importing and manufacturing sugar to the end of the current season.
The Minister assures us that there will be no increase?
I gave no such undertaking.
Do we understand that the answer to every question put to the Minister on this subject is "not necessarily"?
I said that there need not necessarily be a further increase in the price of sugar because of the price of beet. Whether there is going to be an increase depends on factors which no one can foresee.
The answer to every question is "not necessarily".