The discussion which proceeded on the Fifth Stage of the Bill yesterday was to some extent irrelevant in so far as it dealt with the necessity for a regulation of prices rather than with the Bill before the House. The House has already decided to accept the principle contained in the Bill and to establish machinery for the investigation and if necessary the regulation of prices of articles of common necessity. Various Deputies pretended to fear the possible reactions of the passage of this measure upon traders in the country. I have stated before, and I repeat now, that no trader who is content with a reasonable profit on goods which he has to sell need fear the Bill in the slightest or need anticipate that at any time the working of the measure will affect his trade. This Bill is designed merely to provide the common people of the country with a means of redressing what they believe to be unfair treatment by unscrupulous traders in the matter of prices charged them for articles they must buy. Heretofore the common people have had no such means of redress.
If a worker or a farmer entered a shop to purchase some article and found subsequently that he had been charged for that article a price altogether in excess of its value, or in excess of the price at which he could have obtained it at some other store, he could do nothing but perhaps write a letter of protest to the trader and a letter of complaint to the Department of Industry and Commerce, and the matter ended there. There was no power in the Department of Industry and Commerce to investigate the complaint, much less to secure redress for the aggrieved person. We are now taking that power. We are proposing to establish an organisation which will have for its purpose the investigation of complaints and the taking of effective action where these complaints are shown to be justified. But this organisation will also have another function, the function of carrying out an investigation into the general level of prices for articles of common necessity, or articles subjected to protective duties.
The late Government, many years ago, established a Food Prices Tribunal. That Tribunal carried out investigations throughout the country, at great length, and considerable expense, and published a report of its work and then ceased to exist. The Report has been available for the information of Deputies, and the general public for the six years that have elapsed since its publication. No action was taken upon the Report, and none of the recommendations of the Tribunal was adopted or put into effect. The Report did say, that in respect of various commodities and articles of food the general level of prices in the country, or parts of the country, was in excess of what the Tribunal deemed to be justifiable. The termination of the investigations of that Commission and the publication of its Report, ended the work of the Commission. There was no attempt made to give effect to the recommendations of the Commission. No machinery came into existence, and there was no possible means by which its investigations could be carried further into effect. No means were discovered, whereby the recommendations of the Commission, in connection with those engaged in particular trades could be made to produce fruit, the report went on to the shelves of the Library and found its way into the pigeon-holes of the Department of Industry and Commerce but that ended the business. And we have been told that this is dealing fairly with the people.
We think it is necessary to have some organisation that can carry on, not merely investigation but continuous investigation, even to the extent of getting evidence upon oath into these matters with power to make recommendations to the parties affected by the results of these investigations and by publicity or argument or persuasion to remedy any attempt at excessive prices that may occur. But it is quite clear that if no such arguments would be effective the Commission should, in fact, be able to put weight behind its representations, and that the Minister for Industry and Commerce should have power in the last resort, by recommendation to the Commission to fix prices. I do not anticipate that that power will have to be exercised except in very clear cases. The knowledge that these powers are there and are at the disposal of the Government will give to the Commission a driving force it otherwise would not have. That Commission will, however, be charged with the responsibility of investigating, on its own initative and continuously monthly prices for commodities. I am curious to know why Deputies opposite are opposed to this measure in view of their continual assertion that protection will lead to profit making and that a protectionist policy will lead to increased cost of living.
When we decided to set up an authoratative body to discover whether such excessive profit taking has occurred or for the purpose of continuously investigating prices in commodities, Deputies opposite, they are opposed to it. Why? Is it they fear that their fallacious arguments will be exposed and that the work of the Commission will indicate that the contrary of what they foretell will follow. However, the Government believes that the establishment of this machinery is a step that should be taken as a matter of simple justice to the plain people. They must be given the means of protecting themselves against unscrupulous profiteering, if that exists. They must be given an assurance that there is in existence an authoritative body, armed with the necessary powers, and continuously watching prices charged for articles of necessity which the people must procure, and articles in respect of which the Government has imposed protective duties. The knowledge that that organisation is there and that these powers repose in that organisation, will, in itself, tend to discourage and check any attempt at profiteering that may display itself. In the event, however, of that moral reaction from the establishment of the Commission not taking place there is, in any case, always there, the power to deal with such profiteering as may be discovered to exist, in the way indicated in the Bill by imprisoning the profiteers in the last resort. That is our policy out-lined in this Bill and we may confidently ask the House to enact it.
