asked the Minister for Supplies if there is a maximum price fixed for (a) creamery butter, (b) farmers' butter, and, if so, if the Minister will state what those prices are, and if it is illegal to charge higher prices.
Ceisteanna.—Questions. Oral Answers. - Butter Prices.
There is a maximum retail price fixed for creamery butter and farmers' butter under the Emergency Powers (Control of Prices) (No. 72) Order, 1940, which order was made by me on the 10th December, 1940.
Under the terms of this order it is illegal for any person who carries on the business of selling butter retail on or after the 10th December, 1940, to sell any butter of a particular class retail at a price in excess of the price charged by such person for butter of that class on the 1st day of November, 1940. The prices permitted to be charged by this order for creamery butter vary from 1/7 per lb. in the larger cities and towns to 1/8 per lb. and in some cases 1/8½ per lb. according to the transport charges prevailing from the main centres of distribution. Creamery butter sold in packets and rolls is generally ld. per lb. dearer than butter taken from bulk. The permitted prices for farmers' butter vary considerably from district to district. This butter is generally sold on an open market in the larger towns, but in the rural areas it is sold either direct to consumers or to the smaller county shopkeepers.
There is no maximum price fixed for farmers' butter?
There is a maximum price fixed.
Will the Minister say what it is?
It is the price prevailing on the 1st November, 1940. It varies very considerably from district to district.
Will the Minister consider the advisability of fixing some ascertainable price for butter, as there is no use fixing a price for farmers' butter in relation to a date when there was no farmers' butter sold? If you want to fix a price for butter, you must day on which farmers' butter was sold, but if there was no butter sold on the day mentioned in the Minister's order, a price could not be fixed. Would it not be more convenient for everybody if the Minister would fix a price for creamery butter in cartons and in lumps?
The price which prevailed for farmers' butter varied very considerably from one district to another. The difference between the lowest and the highest price charged was often as much as 1/- per 1b., and there were circumstances which appeared to justify that very big differential. In the case of creamery butter, the price fixed is easily ascertainable. A uniform price for the whole country is not practicable, because the transport charges from the main centres of distribution have to be taken into account.
If the Minister will fix a price for creamery butter, I believe that farmers' butter will regulate itself. Good farmers' butter will make the same price as creamery butter, and the less good will be proportionately cheaper. Surely it is easy to say that creamery butter must be sold at 1/8 or 1/7 in the varying districts, county by county, and put an end to all the confusion.
Has the Minister any information as to what farmers' butter should be, say, in the County of Wexford, which is in the middle of an agricultural area?
I can ascertain that, but it will require investigation.
It depends on the butter.