asked the Taoiseach if he is aware that the cost per head per week of providing the army scale of rations is 35/1 at Dublin retail prices and 34/1 at national retail prices; that the values placed on farm workers' diet by the Agricultural Wages Board from 28th May, 1956, is substantially in excess of the cost of providing the army scale of rations; that the Agricultural Wages Board since it was established in 1937 have never carried out any investigation into the cost, content or standard of farm workers' diet; that the food values prescribed by the board have no relation to actual prices and are considerably in excess of actual prices; and whether in view of these circumstances he will arrange to have the price of food consumed by farm workers and farmers calculated on the same basis for the purpose of the National Farm Survey.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Price of Food Consumed by Farmers and Farm Workers.
I am aware that the Minister for Defence did, in reply to a written question on the 25th November, 1958, state that the cost of the food items issued in a Dublin barracks during the week ended 8th November, 1958, at the retail prices ruling in mid-August, 1958, amounted to the sums mentioned by the Deputy. I am also aware of the values at which benefits or advantages, as set out in the Agricultural Wages (Minimum Rates) Order, 1956, at present current, may be reckoned as payment of wages in lieu of payment in cash. I am not in a position to express any opinion on, or draw any comparison between, the content or the cost of the army dietary scale and that of farm workers.
In relation to the methods by which the Agricultural Wages Board carries out the functions assigned to it in this regard by the Agricultural Wages Act, 1936, I have nothing to add to the reply given by the Minister for Agriculture to Deputy Kyne on 4th December, 1957.
The organisation of the National Farm Survey was not designed for the purpose of obtaining information as to the cost of diets, since this was not relevant to the purposes of the survey, and in any case the collection of data for the survey has now ceased. I do not propose to arrange for a special inquiry to have the value of food consumed by farmers and farm workers calculated on the same basis.