asked the Ministe for Finance whether in view of the critical inflationary situation he will take immediate steps to undertake discussions leading to a prices and incomes policy covering all incomes and not only wages and salaries; and whether as a preliminary to such negotiations he will request manufacturers to limit price increases to a specified maximum figure for a sufficient period of time to enable such a policy to be agreed and implemented.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Prices and Incomes Policy.
72.
The Government have consistently taken the view that the best interest of the community would be served in the field of incomes policy by agreements voluntarily negotiated through the medium of free collective bargaining.
As the Deputy is, no doubt, aware, the 1972 national agreement, which was concluded after many months of detailed negotiation, was ratified on 31st July, 1972, and will not expire for the first groups until 31st December, 1973. Despite its inflationary character the Government decided at the time that the best course was for the State to join in the ratification and to trust that all concerned would operate it with the greatest sense of responsibility. I take it the Deputy is not suggesting the reopening, at this stage, of that agreement.
As regards price increases, the Deputy is aware that surveillance of manufacturers' prices is at present exercised by the National Prices Commission, with the agreement of the Minister for Industry and Commerce, in accordance with the guidelines set out in paragraphs 4-6 of their report of September, 1972. I am not clear whether, and if so to what extent, the Deputy has in mind that these guidelines should be made more restrictive.
Would the Minister not agree that in his reply, suggesting that any arrangements with regard to incomes must be negotiated between the two sides in industry, he is by implication excluding the possibility of an incomes and prices policy as distinct from a wages policy? Would he not agree that at this stage it is crucial that the Government should make efforts, as are being made in Britain, to secure such a general incomes policy and that there is no possibility of securing a deceleration of future wage demands unless trade unions and workers can be assured that all incomes would be restrained and not only wages and salaries? Does he not agree that the onus falls on the Government to initiate steps in this respect and is he going to sit on the fence, like the British Government did for a couple of years, and then suddenly become a convert to an incomes policy when it is nearly too late?
The answer to all the Deputy's supplementaries, in so far as I can recall them, is no.
Now who is sitting on the fence?