Vol. 216 No. 2
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the number of flour mills which have sold or otherwise handed over their flour milling quotas to other flour milling firms or interests during the past five years; and if he will give the location of each such mill.
32.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the number of flour mills which have ceased flour milling during the past five years; and the location of each such mill.
33.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state in regard to the flour milling industry the number of flour milling concerns which operate or control (a) one mill, (b) two mills, (c) three to five mills, (d) five to ten mills, and (e) over ten mills; and what steps, if any, his Department have taken to discourage the tendency to monopoly or near-monopoly in this industry.
34.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the number of flour mills at present operating in the State; and the number of them which are owned in whole or in part by a firm (name supplied).
35.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce what provisions at present exist for the compensation of flour milling workers who are rendered redundant by the closing of flour mills or the contraction of employment in flour mills.
I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 31, 32, 33, 34, and 35 together.
There are 21 flour mills at present operating in the State and I am advised that four are controlled by the firm mentioned by the Deputy.
There are nine concerns which operate or control one mill each. I am advised that one concern operates or controls four mills and one concern operates or controls eight mills.
Trends in the flour milling industry have been examined by a survey team appointed by the Minister for Agriculture and the report of the survey team is at present under consideration with a view to deciding future policy.
During the past five years, 12 flour mills ceased production. These mills were located as follows:— Dublin, three, Galway, two, and one each in Bagenalstown, Aughrim, Thomastown, Ballina, Midleton, Cork and Clonakilty.
No mill is empowered to sell or otherwise hand over its flour milling quota to another flour milling firm or interest.
The voluntary scheme of rationalisation operated under the Adaptation Council for the Flour Milling Industry is a private one and provides compensation for loss of employment to workers rendered redundant by the closing of flour mills. I understand that the compensation is related to the aggregate length of service in the industry and includes provision for pensions in the case of older workers.
Is it not evident from what the Minister has told us now that there is a dangerous monopoly emerging in flour milling? It already has had serious consequences because so many small firms have been closed and the vast numbers of workers dependent on these mills for their livelihood have suffered. Does the Minister not consider it particularly unwise to allow the creation of a monopoly in flour milling as a result of which control may be achieved over the manufacture and distribution of flour and ultimately over the price of bread and flour? Bread is the staff of life and main diet of the ordinary people.
I do not think the information here depicts the picture the Deputy suggests. As I said, trends in the flour milling industry have been examined by a survey team and when the report of that team has been fully examined, policy will be decided. I do not agree that the exercise is a development of monopoly for the sake of monopoly. As I explained yesterday, there has been a continuous and quite considerable reduction in the consumption of flour. Fewer people are eating bread and those who are eating it are eating less. This gave rise to a position in which we had over-capacity and this scheme of rationalisation has been voluntarily undertaken by the Adaptation Council of the flour millers to meet the very real situation of a considerable drop in consumption, with consequent over-capacity. Even with the number of mills already closed down, I understand over-capacity is running about 50 per cent more than requirements. I tried to explain that yesterday.
Does the Minister not agree that, while that kind of policy may seem economically wise, it is not socially desirable that so many mills should go to the wall, so many workers become disemployed and the business life of so many small towns disrupted as a result of quotas being sold? Further, is the Minister aware that the latest town to be added to the sorry list is the lovely town of Cahir in my own constituency. The flour milling industry is the only industry in it and the dislocation of it will have disastrous consequences on that small town.
While I understand the Deputy's anxiety, I must beg of him to accept what I told him in answer to his questions. It is not a question of selling quotas. Neither is the reduction in the consumption of flour the result of a policy. It is the result of people not wanting to eat bread.
Perhaps they can eat cake.
If Deputies continue to ascribe the drop in the consumption of flour to a policy on the part of anybody, they are leading people astray.
Does the Minister not agree that it is largely due to his policy, the fact that he has tolerated and condoned the creation of cartels and monopolies in the flour milling industry?
I again ask the House to accept that this situation is a matter for the Adaptation Council. It arises out of the continuous drop in the consumption of flour. It is not a policy. It is not being forced on any millers. It is an adaptation plan to meet a real situation which developed without being a matter of anybody's policy.
Does the Minister really believe that an excess capacity of 50 per cent over their present requirements is the result exclusively of a decline in the demand for flour? Does he not realise that the "big boys" expanded their production in order to equip themselves to stamp out of existence the small mills without regard to the welfare of the centres in which those mills were established?
The House will appreciate my position. I have to deal with facts which I have been given. I cannot make assertions.
Not given to the Minister. Surely the Minister has a duty to examine them himself?
This is developing into a debate.
Could the Minister give us any idea whether he expects the present consumption of flour to fall further or if he has any idea what the eventual consumption will be?
It has been generally found that a drop in the consumption of flour is related to increased prosperity.
It is expected this will continue.
Arising out of the unsatisfactory nature of the Minister's reply, I wish to give notice, Sir, that I propose to raise this matter on the Adjournment.
I shall communicate with the Deputy.
