asked the Minister for Defence if he will state the total amount outstanding from persons who have supplied bread to the Defence Forces for bread supplied up to the 31st March, 1942.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Bread Supply to Defence Forces.
All claims received to date in this Department in respect of bread supplied to the Defence Forces up to 31st March, 1942, have been discharged.
asked the Minister for Defence if he will state whether he has requested persons supplying the Defence Forces with bread, prior or subsequent to the 31st March, 1942, either to forgo payments due to them or to refund payments made to them, by way of bread subsidy; and, if so, if he will state under what authority he has made such a request and the amount which, as a result, has been either forgone or refunded, and if he will state how it is intended that these sums shall be accounted for or disposed of.
The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. With the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, contractors for the supply of bread to the Army were asked by my Department as a party to the contracts whether, in the event of a subsidy of ½d. per 4-lb. loaf being granted to them by the Department of Supplies, they would be prepared to agree to a reduction by a similar amount in the contract price. As many of the contracts are still current, it is not yet possible to state the total sums which, as a result of agreements reached with the contractors, will go to the relief of the appropriate subhead of the Army Vote.
Does the Minister intimate that a certain agreement has been reached with some of the contractors?
Yes.
Will the Minister say how many contractors have agreed to refund the whole of the subsidy, or have agreed to forgo the subsidy?
To date, about two-thirds have agreed.
How much money is involved?
At the moment I could not say what amount is involved.