I asked the Minister for Supplies to-day whether he is aware that shirt manufacturers in Éire are charging 108/- per dozen to the wholesalers and 126/- per dozen to the retailers for utility tunic shirts; whether that price represented approximately 100 per cent. profit on cost for the manufacturers; whether the Minister had approved these prices and, if so, would he alter his decision in this matter. He says he is not aware that shirt manufacturers are charging prices which represent 100 per cent. on cost for utility tunic shirts; that he has not been consulted about it; that he has not consented to it; that no such prices have been fixed under his authority and, if the Deputy has any particulars of the case he has in mind the Minister will have the matter investigated.
The situation is this: some weeks ago the Minister announced, in reply to a question put down by me, that he was going to introduce a system for the control of cotton textiles, linings and certain other textiles in order to ensure that what supplies were available would be used for the greatest advantage of the greatest number. He said that 75 per cent. of the linings would be directed to the makers-up. Then he came to shirting and said he had decided that 100 per cent of the available shirting must go to the makers-up as well, in order that the consumers of shirts, those who use them, would be assured of getting supplies of shirts at the lowest possible cost. He then proceeded to give effect to that policy and when he gave effect to it he discovered that the large bulk of this printed shirting suitable for conversion into tunic shirts was coming, under the British Board of Trade regulations, from two or three manufacturers of low-grade shirting in Manchester. There are technical reasons why that should have been so, into which we need not now go. It appeared most convenient that a small group of makers-up should be established, and that one firm amongst them should bring in all the cotton print intended for tunic shirts from the Manchester manufacturers and distribute it when it got here amongst the persons whom the Minister designated, and in the proportions that the Minister thought right.
Accordingly, the shirting was delivered here and the Dublin Shirt and Collar Company proceeded to distribute it, in accordance with the Minister's instructions, amongst the makers-up and a very small percentage of other persons who were entitled to quotas of the material which they ordinarily got made up on contract, though they themselves are not manufacturers.
The invoiced price of this shirting cloth was 1/0½d. per yard. Pre-war, when a shirt was made on full lines, it took 39 yards to make a dozen of tunic shirts. Under the Minister's new regulation in controlling the size of shirts, 37 yards are allowed for the dozen shirts. You can, therefore, multiply 1/0½d. by 37, giving, approximately, 38/6 for the material required to manufacture one dozen shirts. I have no intimate information of manufacturers' costings in making shirts but I do know what makers-up will charge you if you send your material to them to cut, make and trim it. There are manufacturers in this country who, in addition to manufacturing their own materials, offer a service to cut the cloth, make it up and trim it, put on buttons and collar bands, and such like, for a fixed sum per dozen. The quotation for that service up to six weeks ago, was 24/6 per dozen shirts. That is to say, if you deliver 37 yards of cloth to a cut, make and trim merchant, he will return you a dozen shirts made up for 24/6 as payment for his service. Bear in mind that when he quoted the 24/6 he had not only paid his own costs in making up the shirts but had some profit on it, as all such men have in that business.
Let us assume, however, that since that quotation was made, six weeks ago, there has been some increase in costs. Let us assess that increase at 3/- a dozen. That would mean a quotation to-day to cut, make and trim would be 27/6, that is allowing a margin. 27/6 and 38/6 make 66/- a dozen. I ask Deputies to remember that the price for making up that I am quoting to them is a price for a cut, make and trim service but the persons whom I am indicting are the manufacturers who cut, make and trim for themselves and who have to pay no profit on that service.
I am only giving the figures I have personal knowledge of, but, taking these figures—and they are figures which leave the manufacturer who is operating on first costs a generous margin—the cost of the shirts manufactured from this textile which cost 1/0½ a yard, is ? per shirt, or 66/-per dozen. I have seen an invoice for these shirts from a manufacturer to a wholesaler, and the invoice reads: "One dozen of shirts, 108/-." I have seen an invoice for these shirts to a retailer and the price charged to the retailer is 126/- per dozen. The wholesaler is buying the shirt which cost ? for 9/-, and the retailer is buying the shirt which cost 5/6 for 10/6. I have seen these shirts in a Dublin shop window offered to a working boy for 14/11. So that the shirt which begins its history at a modest 5/6, owing to the economical restrictions placed upon it by the Minister for Industry and Commerce of this State, arrives at the user of the shirt for the modest price of 14/11. 5/6 from 14/11 leaves 9/5. A shirt costs 5/6, but getting the shirt from the manufacturers' premises on to the man's back costs 9/5. It would be much cheaper to buy the shirt in Valparaiso, pay the current costs of transport to Lisbon, tranship it there, bring it by the Irish Mercantile Marine to Dublin, send a brass band down to meet it, and carry it home in triumph. You would still have it at home for less than it costs to bring it from the Irish manufacturer's factory to Marlborough Street. The Minister blandly says to me that he does not know anything about it.
