I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £753,000 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1954, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Industry and Commerce, including certain Services administered by that Office, and for payment of certain Subsidies and sundry Grants-in-Aid.
The need for this Supplementary Estimate arises out of the increased cost of the flour and wheaten meal subsidy. The amount required for the flour and wheaten meal subsidy in any year depends on a number of factors which are difficult to predict. The practice has been to prepare the Estimate on the basis of the previous year's experience. The Estimate for this year was so prepared and the amount of the subsidy was calculated on certain assumptions. The first of these assumptions was that our wheat requirements would be met as to one-third by native wheat and as to two-thirds by imported wheat and that the cost of both imported and native wheat would be as in the previous year. In fact, however, the situation proved to be considerably different. In the first place, there was, as Deputies are aware, a very considerable increase in the acreage under wheat here last year and, in fact, on this year's experience, the percentages of native and imported wheat going into the miller's grist are reversed. We are now meeting our requirements as to two-thirds by native wheat and as to one-third by imported wheat. In fact, at the present time, the grist being used in the mills is 75 per cent. native and 25 per cent. imported. That factor upsets the cost of the Estimate because the price of native wheat is fairly substantially higher than the price of imported wheat. Furthermore, the guaranteed minimum price for native wheat during the year was increased by 3/- a barrel.
The wheat agreement under which imported wheat was purchased during the previous three years terminated last year and a new agreement was negotiated which provided for an increase in the ceiling price for imported wheat from 1.86 dollars per bushel to 2.05 dollars per bushel. That also affected the cost of wheat to the community in this year.
The final factor was that, owing to a fall in world prices of offals, it was necessary to reduce the price of offals produced from Irish mills here from £20 to £25, a fall of £5 per ton. The net effect of all these changes was to increase the cost of maintaining flour at the present price from £5,386,000 to £6,239,000, an increase of £853,000. Against that increased cost there were savings on other sub-heads of the Department amounting to £70,000, a yield from an Appropriation-in-Aid in excess of Estimate amounting to £30,000. In other words, against the higher cost of the flour subsidy there was a set-off of £100,000 making the supplementary now for £753,000.
Estimate put and agreed to.
