asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state (a) how many retailers have been prosecuted for overcharging or other offences under any price-control Order or Regulation since the 19th February, 1948, to date; (b) how many such prosecutions have been prosecuted to conclusion and the result of such prosecution; giving in each case particulars of the offence charged, the commodity or commodities, the subject of the prosecution, and the business carried on by the person or firm prosecuted.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Price Control Prosecutions.
Major de Valera
As the reply to this question is somewhat lengthy and detailed, I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to circulate it with the Official Report.
The reply is as follows:—
(a) 691 retailers have been prosecuted for overcharging or other offences under Price Control Orders or Regulations since 19th February, 1948, to date.
(b) Of these prosecutions, 690 have been brought to conclusion; fines ranging from 1/- to £590 were imposed in 472 cases, together with sentences of imprisonment in two of these cases. The Probation of Offenders Act was applied in 168 cases, 46 cases were dismissed and four cases were adjourned generally. The offences charged consisted of contraventions of the Prices Orders relating to the following commodities:—
Bacon, bananas, bicycles, binder twine, biscuits, Bovril, bran, bread, bread soda, butter, cheese, candles, cigarettes, cloth and clothing, coffee, condensed milk, cooked ham, corn-flour, currants, dripping, eggs, Erinox, fish (canned and fresh), flour, footwear, fresh meat, horse-shoe nails, jam, kerosene, knitting wool, lard, margarine, maize meal, marmalade, milk (fresh), oatmeal, onions, oranges, Oxo, Ozene, petrol, Persil, pollard, pork, pork sausages, potatoes, pottery, prunes, puddings, Rinso, raisins, semolina, second-hand agricultural machinery, soap, sole leather, suet, sultanas, sulphate of copper, sugar, sweets, and chocolates, tea, tobacco, tomatoes, turf, washing soda, wheatenmeal.
Prosecutions were also brought in some of these cases for contraventions of the Retail Prices (Display) (No. 1) Order, 1938, the Particulars of Sales Order, 1943, and the Retail Prices of Tobacco and Cigarettes (Display) Order, 1943.
The businesses carried on by the persons or firms prosecuted were as follows:—
Boot and shoe retailers, chandler, confectioners, co-operative societies, cycle agents, drapers, egg merchants, farmers, fishmongers, fuel vendors, greengrocers and fruiterers, grocers and general merchants, hardware, merchants, hawkers, hucksters and street traders, leather merchant, milk vendors and dairies, outfitters, pork butchers, publicans, tobacconists and victuallers.
In view of the very large number of prosecution cases involved, the time and labour involved in giving in each individual case the detailed particulars required by the Deputy would not, in my opinion, be justified. The particulars are, therefore, furnished in summarised form.