asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is satisfied that there has been no profiteering in the purchase of last season's home barley crop and its manufacture and sale as animal feed.
12.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Animal Feedingstuffs.
11.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the increase in the price of animal feedingstuffs since 14th March, 1973.
13.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is now satisfied that the removal of animal feedingstuffs from price control has been justified.
14.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the price of barley meal at mid-January in 1973 and 1974.
15.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the price of maize meal at mid-January in 1973 and 1974.
16.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will indicate the protection afforded to-farmers against exorbitant increases in the costs of animal feedingstuffs.
17.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the price of soya bean at mid-January in 1973 and 1974.
18.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the price of pig meals at mid-January in 1973 and 1974.
19.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce by how much the price of animal foodstuffs increased since he removed them from price control.
20.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the price of turkey ration at mid-January in 1973 and 1974.
21.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the price of dairy ration at mid-January in 1973 and 1974.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 to 21, inclusive, together.
Following are the increases per metric ton in the price of animal feeding stuffs since 14th March, 1973:
|
Pig Rations |
£32.78 |
|
Turkey and Broiler Rations |
£38.32 |
|
Other Poultry Rations |
£33.18 |
|
Dairy (Cattle) Rations |
£38.32 |
Included in these figures are increases as follows per metric ton, which were applied following removal of price control:
|
Pig Rations |
£13 |
|
Turkey and Broiler Rations |
£12 |
|
Other Poultry Rations |
£13 |
|
Dairy (Cattle) Rations |
£12 |
These various increases were due mainly to the higher cost of cereals and proteins and increased overheads.
The manufacturers' price lists of these rations are very extensive and the prices quoted vary as between manufacturers. It is not possible, therefore, to supply comprehensive information on the actual levels of prices but the following would appear to be about average prices:
|
Mid-January, 1973 |
Mid-January, 1974 |
|
|
Pig Rations |
£45.70 |
£79.68 |
|
Dairy (Cattle) Rations |
£46.70 |
£87.42 |
|
Turkey and Broiler Rations |
£61.08 |
£105.50 |
The prices of barley meal, maize meal and soya beans were as follows:
|
Mid-January, 1973 |
Mid-January, 1974 |
|
|
Barley Meal |
£42.40 |
£72.80 |
|
Maize Meal |
£43.40 |
£77.20 |
|
Soya Beans |
£82.60 |
£132.00 |
I decided on 20th December, 1973, to exclude the animal feedingstuffs industry from formal price control on the recommendation of the National Prices Commission and following consultations with the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries and also with the various farmers' representative organisations. These organisations had pressed strongly for the removal of price control from animal feedingstuffs and generally they welcomed the proposal. A system of monitoring price changes and profit margins in the industry is now being put into operation. I have also asked the Examiner of Restrictive Practices to keep the industry under review to help ensure that no practices aimed at restraining competition in the industry develop.
The recommendations of the National Prices Commission were made on the basis that the keener competition which would result should prove more effective than formal price control in containing price increases and promoting much needed improvement in efficiency in the industry. These arrangements will be reviewed by the Commission after 12 months and it would be premature at this stage to make any judgment on their effectiveness.
I have no evidence of excessive profits being made on the manufacture of animal feedingstuffs. The new monitoring system will enable the manufacturers' profit margins to be kept under close scrutiny and will help to ensure that unwarranted increases in prices are not applied.
It is most unsatisfactory to deal with all these important questions in a lump. The result is that individual questions are not dealt with at all. One of my questions has not been dealt with and for that reason I will put the question again to the Minister. I should like to ask the Minister if a profit of £20 odd per ton to grain merchants is not excessive occurring between the period of last year's harvest and the 1st of this month? I am talking about the prices paid for barley at the harvest, £42 to £43 per ton——
Would the Deputy give me the number of the question to which he is referring?
It is Question No. 11.
That Question is not as the Deputy has described it.
I do not understand what the Minister means but I would like a reply to the question I have just put to him. If the farmer got £43 for the grain at the time of the harvest and the merchant is now selling it back to the farmer at £65 per ton and upwards, does he consider that no more than a fair profit? If the Minister does not consider it so what is he doing about it? I believe it is excessive and the result is that people are being forced out of the pig industry.
Would the Minister be in a position to state whether millers enjoy more favourable grants in terms of provision of storage space for barley and the subsequent manufacture of feeding stuffs than farmers enjoy?
On the last point, the matter of grants, the Deputy should put that question to the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries who is responsible for farm grants.
Has the Minister for Industry and Commerce responsibility for grants to millers?
I have responsibility for some of them but without warning I cannot give an answer to that question. However, I would be happy that between the two of us the answer should be elicited. Deputy Gibbons's Question No. 11, as verbalised by him, is very different from what appears on the Order Paper. The fact that he did not get an answer to his Question No. 11, as he verbalised it here, was because it was quite different to what is on the Order Paper. I accept that a lot of questions were joined together and this was done because they were closely related. In a long answer we endeavoured to give a large amount of information in a complicated area.
Deputy Gibbons has asked me if I believe there has been profiteering in grain—he quoted a figure of £20 per ton—and if I condone it. If there has been profiteering I condemn it as wholeheartedly as anyone in this House but the Deputy knows enough from his own experience both privately and in Government to know that the question of grain stocks is a complicated one. In examining applications for price increases such as those which took place before 20th December the stocks were monitored to know if the increases could be deferred until grain purchased at the original price was used up. At a time when prices are rising rapidly— I say this in relation to animal feedingstuffs and coal, to the whole population—and when different people have a different quantity of stocks there will be different prices. Some people had no stock and had to buy at the new price with the result that the customers had to pay this increased price. Some people had a lot of stock and in many cases they passed on that stock at the lower prices. Prices have certainly been out of step at certain times.
The National Prices Commission went into this carefully and the examiner of restrictive practices is looking at the industry to see if there has been profiteering. If the Deputy has heard information that this is taking place as distinct from the rumours which he and I have heard I would be happy to receive it.
I should like the Minister to give me an answer to Question No. 13. In that question I asked him if he was now satisfied that the removal of the controls was justified.
I have already answered that question but I am happy to reiterate the answer. That action was taken in the light of unanimous advice and I believe, and notwithstanding the price rises which I deplore as sincerely as any Deputy, that it was correct in the circumstances and I do not propose to reintroduce controls.
The Minister said that these controls would lead to more competition with a consequent reduction in price. Does the Minister still hold that view?
The Deputy is indulging in an argument.
The evidence is that there is increasing competition in the area of animal feedingstuffs and this is having some small benefit for the purchaser. It is a time of rapidly rising prices and that is not evident. I still believe that if there is a fixed price for animal feedingstuffs it tends to become the standard price. This is an area where competition is important and in my view in the coming months it will bring some benefit to the consumers.
Surely the Minister is aware, although he evidently does not know because he asked me for this information, that the standard price during the last harvest for barley of between 15 and 20 per cent moisture leaving the harvest field was about £42 to £43 per ton. I know those prices are correct because that is the price for which I sold barley. However, if I want a ton of my own barley back with the same moisture content I have to pay a lot more for it.
We cannot deliberate on this matter; it is too large a matter to deliberate on at Question Time.
In view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply I received to my question and in view of the importance of this matter to the people engaged in the pig industry in County Monaghan I propose to raise the subject matter of my question on the Adjournment.
The Chair will communicate with the Deputy.
I should like to put a question to the Minister. Seven or eight questions were dealt with in the reply given by the Minister.
The Chair has alowed a lot of latitude in this matter. We have only reached Question No. 22 after almost threequarters of an hour of deliberating.
What policy has the Government to stop the continuous rise in prices?
That is a separate question.
Could the Minister say if the EEC had anything to do with the removal of price control on feedingstuffs by the Prices Commission?
The Deputy is enlarging on the subject matter.
The Minister is trying to create that impression abroad.
I have not received a reply to my question.