asked the Minister for Agriculture whether there is any likelihood in the near future of a further increase in the price of bran and pollard.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Price of Bran and Pollard.
The price of bran and pollard here depends on the world-market price, which fluctuates from time to time and which I am not in a position to forecast.
Arising out of the question, would the Minister tell the House if the prices automatically go up or come down as world prices rise or fall?
Yes.
By whose direction?
By nobody's direction, but the position is that there is no restriction on the import of bran or pollard. Therefore, if it is sought to maintain an excessive price for bran or pollard for domestic uses the Deputy will agree that anybody could import bran and pollard and profit accordingly.
Arising further out of the question, will the Minister not agree that that applies only in the case where the prices fall? In the case where the prices rise it could not apply in the same way. By some unknown process is it true that the price of bran and pollard rises suddenly, and does some Minister from some Department direct the millers as to what they should charge from week to week?
As far as I am aware, the millers get what they can for bran and pollard.
They are directed.
If the Deputy knows more than I do, it is I who should be asking the questions and the Deputy answering them.
I am telling the Minister now——
And I am telling the Deputy all I know. If he knows more I should be glad to get the information. As far as I know, and as they say in the northern parts of this country, the millers get what they are fit to get. As the Deputy is aware, the Minister for Industry and Commerce is responsible for the administration of the flour subsidy and I am not——
Arising out of that reply is there such a committee as the Millers' Advisory Committee, and was this committee consulted before the recent increase in the prices of bran and pollard, and, if so, was it their advice that they were not satisfied with putting up the prices——
There must have been an awful lot in that bit of paper the Deputy took out of his pocket.
There was a fair bit and I should like the Minister to know about it.
If the Deputy will send me a copy of the note he took out of his pocket I should be glad to answer it here or directly to the Deputy.
Would the Minister——
Question No. 65.