asked the Minister for Supplies whether he is aware that Emergency Powers (Conditional Sale of Commodities) Order, 1942, will operate to transfer available supplies of sewing thread into the hands of speculators and leave stocks of textiles unsaleable on drapers' hands when they have no thread to sell with cloth; and, if so, whether he will exclude sewing thread from this Order.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Sewing Thread.
On the information at present available to my Department I cannot agree that the Order will have the effect anticipated by the Deputy, and I can therefore see no sufficient reason why sewing thread should be excluded from the Order as suggested. I have received no representations from any section of the trade which would support the view put forward in the Deputy's question. Should such representations be received, they will be given full consideration in my Department.
Is the Minister aware that in country towns it is now becoming a common practice for persons to send children into a shop one after another to buy one or two spools of thread, some of which, at least, I believe are being sold at enhanced prices elsewhere; that his Order, as it at present stands, appears to place an obligation on the trader who has stocks of thread to give it to those customers?
No.
The trader is not entitled to say, "I will not sell you thread unless you require it to sew cloth which I know you purchased". He is bound to sell thread if they ask for it. If that goes on, people will buy the thread from the law-abiding draper at twopence a reel and, when they clear his stocks, they will proceed to sell it on the black market at 4d. or 5d., and the draper will have no thread, particularly coloured thread, to offer with the textiles which he desires to sell. Surely that is not reasonable. It is perfectly fair for the draper to say, "I will not sell you a blue spool if you have not bought a blue textile, because you cannot possibly want it". Surely that is reasonable?
The Order to which the Deputy refers in his question is an Order which prohibits the sale of any commodity being conditional on the sale of another commodity or service. In the case of thread, there may be grounds for a draper relating his sales of thread to his sales of material, but there are circumstances in which people might quite legitimately require thread without requiring material. The only thing the Order does is to prohibit the sale of thread being made conditional on the sale of some other goods. It does not prohibit the trader from exercising his discretion in the matter of the sale of thread to particular customers if he is satisfied that the limited stocks available can be allocated amongst his customers upon some reasonable basis.
Does not the Minister realise that the Order draws the man who wants to obey the law into the danger of breaking the law? A person may come in and ask for a reel of thread and the merchant may say: "I cannot sell you thread, my stocks are going low." The customer returns in half-an-hour and buys from another assistant ten yards of lawn and the assistant may say: "I will give you a reel of thread." That customer has been refused thread when he asked for it at noon, and at half-past twelve, because he bought cloth, is given thread which, immediately, prima facie, establishes the fact that the merchant has made it a condition of selling thread that he would sell cloth. I think that is a perfectly reasonable thing for the merchant to do. Will the Minister accept this question as a representation from an unorganised section of the drapers' community to have the merits of this case investigated?
I have told the Deputy that if the traders concerned put forward a case it will be considered.
These traders are unorganised. They are not like the traders in the City of Dublin.
Shall I put it—"a section of the trade concerned"?
The Minister should take me as putting it forward now.