asked the Minister for Supplies whether he is aware of the fact that certain firms are unable to supply customers with sugar on the basis of one pound per head, and what steps he proposes to take to remedy the difficulties which have already been experienced.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Sugar Supplies.
asked the Minister for Supplies if he is aware that many families cannot procure their full sugar ration, and that retailers state they cannot obtain it from the wholesalers, and if he will state the cause of the shortage.
I propose to take Nos. 22 and 23 together. A comparatively small number of complaints have been received from householders as to inability to obtain the maximum weekly sugar ration. I am satisfied that these complaints arose mainly from the difficulties which are inherent in the initial stages of any rationing scheme. These difficulties would appear to be due in particular to the acceptance by some retailers of the registration of householders who did not usually purchase sugar from them, with the result that such retailers are unable to supply the maximum ration from the supplies made available to them through their wholesale suppliers. All such complaints investigated have been readily adjusted.
Is the Minister aware that not only have domestic users been left short, but that the Grangegorman Mental Hospital has been left 6,000 lbs. short over a period of two months?
I am not aware of that.
Is the Minister aware of the fact that very large traders in the city of Dublin have intimated to their customers that they are in a position to supply only ½ lb. of sugar per week per head, and that this is causing very great hardship in the case of families in which there are a number of young children. Has the Minister taken any steps to deal with the matter so as to ensure that the provisions of the orders which he has made will be complied with by traders, and that sufficient sugar will be available for this purpose?
It is inevitable that difficulties will arise in the case of individual traders whenever any ration scheme is brought into operation. It is the job of my Department to smooth out these difficulties in the course of time, and that is being done. The quantity of sugar released for sale this year is substantially in excess of the quantity released last year or the year before.
Released to whom?
Released to traders.
People in Wexford cannot get more than ½ lb. of sugar.
Many retailers have not a pound of sugar to give to any customers. Many small retailers who took out licences have been continually writing to the Minister's Department and they are still without sugar for their customers. Even retailers with big numbers of customers are without sugar. I just wonder if there is a pound of sugar per person available at all. If there is, why allow a month to pass without replying to a complaint to the Minister's Department from a shopkeeper that he cannot get any sugar because his wholesaler would not pay the £5 for the licence and has ceased to wholesale sugar? The name of the firm was given to the Minister's Department and there was no reply from the Minister's Department for a month.
Is not the Minister's answer to the question grossly misleading? Is he not aware that every retailer is entitled to get 80 per cent. of his drawings of last year, but deducted from that in the current month is the excess which he drew in the months of April, May and June of this year compared with what he drew last year, with the result that certain retailers are not receiving a half-pound of sugar or even six ounces in respect of each customer. From the lb. per customer allocated to retailers, or 80 per cent. of last year's drawings, is deducted the surplus which they drew on the recommendation of the Minister's Department last April, May and June.
The statement that excess drawings were made on the recommendation of my Department is entirely without foundation. As soon as information came to my Department that excess drawings were taking place, the distribution of sugar was stopped. Presumably, the traders concerned have these excess quantities still and they should be available to their customers.
Was it not the declared policy of the Department to distribute supplies of essential commodities as widely as possible?
The Deputy is talking of something that happened this time last year.
Traders were asked to take into their stores the maximum quantity of stuff, lest there should be an invasion and communications should be interrupted. In this event, it was hoped that supplies would be accumulated for remote areas. These excess drawings are now being deducted from the monthly allocation of the traders who drew them and distributed them throughout the area they serve.
That statement is entirely without foundation.
It is true, to my own certain knowledge, and it cannot be denied.
I deny it.
The Minister is trying to mislead the House in regard to this matter.
A Minister should not be accused of trying to mislead the House.
If the Minister is not misleading the House, I say that he is being shamelessly misled by those advising him.
The Deputy should not make allegations, particularly on matters not relevant to the question.
I know that the answer given is not, in fact, correct.
Will the Minister immediately take steps to ensure that consumers will get 1 lb. of sugar per head from those who have failed to comply with the order already made?
I shall take steps to ensure that bona fide difficulties in the administration of the rationing scheme will be removed, but I ask Deputies not to accept, without examination or question, every story told by traders. It is an advantage to a trader to get more sugar than he is entitled to get either in relation to his registered customers or his previous supplies, and efforts are being made to create a situation in which traders will get more sugar than they are entitled to get. All the stories which Deputies hear are not correct, but a number of cases of difficulty have to be rectified, and will be rectified in due course.
The customer of a shop which drew more sugar in April, May and June of this year than it did last year cannot get his lb. of sugar from that shop until his shopkeeper has worked off his surplus drawings.
What happened the sugar which he drew in May?
Is it not true that he is not getting sufficient sugar to give his customers a lb. each?
Why is he not getting it?
Because he drew more in those months than he was entitled to draw.
What did he do with it?
He sold it.
To smugglers?
He did not sell it to smugglers.
Since the Minister has now power to have the liquid in the tank of a motor car examined, why not send an inspector to examine the stocks of those traders who, he says, accumulated sugar?
That is being done.
Will the Minister take steps to have examined the stocks of large general stores in the city who are giving only a half lb. of sugar, although the ration is a lb.?
Certainly.
We know well they cannot give it because they have not got it.
asked the Minister for Supplies if he is aware that, since his order rationing sugar, the price of sugar by wholesalers to retailers has been increased to such an extent that they cannot retail the sugar to the public at the same price as heretofore, and if he will state if the sugar manufacturing company has increased the price and, if so, what is the amount of the increase.
No increase in the price charged for sugar by the Irish Sugar Company or by wholesalers to retailers has been authorised by my Department since the 1st November, 1939. A number of complaints has been recently received, however, alleging increased charges by wholesalers to retailers. Such increases are unauthorised and are at present the subject of investigations in my Department.
Is the Minister not aware that there has been a general increase in price since the rationing took place?
No.
That knowledge is general and there is no necessity for me to refer to the matter. There has been a general increase by wholesalers. What is more, wholesalers will supply only by the stone to the retailer and the retailer has to sell that sugar by the lb. at 1/- per cwt. more than he pays for it. That is after dividing it into lbs.
I refer the Deputy to my reply.
Does the Minister propose to do anything to stop this?