asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if, in view of the many commodities now subject to taxation, he will cause inquiry to be made as to whether the returns collected for the purpose of the compilation of the cost-of-living index figure take sufficiently into consideration the matter of quality; and if, further, he will so readjust the "weights" given to the various commodities included in the return as to produce an index figure that will probably reflect changes in actual costs of living.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cost-of-Living Index Figure.
The cost-of-living index figures are intended to indicate the trend of retail prices (and rents) for the same qualities of the household commodities included in the computation. While the individual price quotations for each commodity cover a considerable range of quality at each inquiry, every effort is made to ensure that, on the average, the quality of each commodity for which prices are quoted remains unchanged between consecutive inquiries. Provision is made, however, in the technique of the computation to allow for changes from time to time in quality of the commodities quoted for, in accordance with changes in public demand. These index figures are not intended to reflect changes in the actual standard of living, for which periodical budget inquiries would be necessary, and such inquiries in this, as in all other countries, are exceedingly onerous.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will consider the advisability of getting out the cost-of-living index for cities and towns graded in order to make the cost-of-living index of more value to the community.
Returns from which national average prices are derived for the quarterly cost-of-living inquiries are sufficiently numerous for the computation of figures which will indicate the trend of retail prices (and rents) in the Saorstát as a whole, but are too few for the computation of reasonably accurate figures for individual cities and towns or even for groups of cities and towns. A very considerable increase in the number of returns would be necessary before a useful computation could be made, and I am not satisfied that the value of the results would be commensurate with the labour and expense which such an extension in the scope of the inquiry would entail. It should also be pointed out that even if such returns were obtained there would be no possibility of obtaining reliable regional average prices in the base period (July, 1914), and that in any such computations the possibility of substantial differences in the family budgets in different cities and towns would have to be taken into account. No data are available from which such regional "weights" could be obtained.