asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if the supply of flour now available or likely to be available is sufficient to permit an allowance of bread to small caterers, and owners of tea shops in country towns who have not, at present, regular allowances of butter, sugar or tea, and who supply refreshments at irregular periods, such as fair days, sports meetings, feiseanna, etc.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Flour Supplies.
Owing to the uncertainty of the flour supply position, it is not yet possible to grant an allowance of bread to the type of caterer mentioned by the Deputy.
Is the Minister in a position to say when he proposes to remove bread rationing, inasmuch as supplies of flour seem now to be abundant and inasmuch as we are threatened with an inundation of wheat in a couple of months, far in excess of our ability to consume?
The removal of rationing would seem to be a separate question.
I wish the circumstances were as the Deputy describes.
The question asks if the Minister will take off rationing in respect of tea shops. Why does he not remove bread rationing in view of the largest wheat crop the world has ever seen? What is this figment of a famine in bread? It is the purest "cod".
The Deputy will have difficulty in convincing the world about that.
It is the purest fraud.