asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the adjustment which has been made in the flour subsidy to millers consequent on the increase in the price of mill offals, and the expected total saving to the Exchequer in the current financial year.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Flour Subsidy.
The original draft estimates for flour and wheatenmeal subsidy for the financial year 1954-55 were prepared on the assumption that millers would receive on average during that financial year, £25 per ton for offals, i.e., the price then prevailing. Towards the end of 1953, however, world prices of wheaten offals fell by about £5 a ton and prices of home-produced offals fell correspondingly. This involved a reduction of some £37,500 a month in the estimated receipts by millers from sales of offals and provision for a corresponding increase in payments from the Exchequer was accordingly made in the final estimate for flour and wheatenmeal subsidy for 1954-55.
In recent months the world price of offals moved upwards and since then the receipts of the millers from sales of offals have averaged £23 a ton. This increase in price has the effect of reducing to £15,000 a month the losses to be met by the Exchequer arising from the earlier fall in offal prices.