asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will make a statement concerning his reasons for making the Wheat Milling (General Quota Variation) Order, 1955, by which the quotas of all licensed mills are increased by 10 per cent. and, particularly, if he will state the anticipated effect of this Order on the future of the smaller mills.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Wheat Milling Order, 1955.
Mr. Lemass
Home-grown wheat of the 1954 crop had an abnormally high moisture content, estimated at about 13 per cent. as compared with 7 to 10 per cent. in a normal year, and a given quantity of native wheat would after drying produce a correspondingly smaller quantity of flour. Because of this and of the high proportion of home-grown wheat in the grist which is milled into flour, the quotas appointed in 1953 were insufficient to produce the country's requirements of flour, and had to be increased by 10 per cent.
As the individual quotas have been increased by a uniform percentage, and as flour requirements do not vary widely from one year to another, I do not anticipate that this Order will have any effect on the future of the smaller mills.
Mr. Lemass
Is it intended that this increase in quotas should operate for this year only?
Yes. It can be reviewed from time to time in the light of both the moisture content and the grist mixture.