asked the Minister for Supplies if he will state with reference to the recent Flour Milling Order reducing percentage of flour to 85 per cent., whether this Order applies to all licensed grinding mills in the country.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Flour Milling Order.
The production of the new flour which will contain an admixture of barley flour will be confined to the licensed flour mills which, I am advised, are the only mills equipped to produce it.
Is the Minister aware that in many provincial towns mills are equipped for an 85 per cent. extraction?
Licensed mills are equipped to produce this flour.
If other mills are fitted with the necessary equipment will they be allowed to mill this flour?
So far as grinding mills are concerned—and the question relates to them—they are not equipped to produce flour of the kind it is proposed to make available. They can mill wholemeal flour. In so far as some of them may have attempted to produce a white flour, that has been done by the use of sieves. They are not equipped to produce any particular percentage of extraction, such as an 85 per cent. extraction. That can be done only in licensed mills.
Does that mean that commissioned mills can continue to make wholemeal for farmers?
They will continue to make wholemeal.
Does that debar small mills working in remote parts of the country from making flour of this extraction?
Mills that operated on commisyion can produce wholemeal.
Previous to the emergency these mills wrrc working satisfactorily and were taking the bran off the flour.
These mills sometimes, by the use of sieves, produced flour which was about 40 per cent. extraction but they are not equipped to produce flour of any particular extraction. By the use of sieves they could produce a flour which was about 40 per cent. extraction. That is an entirely different proposition to what is contemplated for the licensed mills.
If we can prove to the Minister that they have the necessary equipment will he allow them to produce this flour?
So far as commission mills are concerned, they are covered by different regulations. Commission mills are not entitled to sell flour. The regulations affecting them are different from those applicable to mills entitled under the law to mill wheat into flour for sale.