asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if, having regard to the fact that butter can be sold at 3/7 and 3/6 per lb. in some shops and that, furthermore, Irish butter is being sold at 3/7 per lb. in the open market in Belfast, he will investigate the possibility of effecting a general reduction in the present maximum retail price of 3/9 per lb.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Retail Price of Butter.
My only function in relation to butter prices is to regulate the retailers' margins on the sale of creamery butter within the State. The margins at present fixed apply to the entire retail trade and are, in my opinion, reasonable. The fact that individual traders are prepared to sell creamery butter at prices lower than the maximum retail price does not, in my opinion, afford justification for undertaking a general investigation of the present margin allowed to retailers.
The Minister did not make any reference to the fact that our butter is being sold in Belfast and in England at 3/7 per lb. or to the fact that the English wholesalers are buying butter much cheaper from the factories and the B.M.C. Is the Minister in agreement with the policy that we should pay the English housewife an extra subsidy to eat our butter instead of giving it to our own people?
I have no information as to the price at which the butter which is being sold in Belfast or elsewhere is being bought. I have indicated that I am responsible for the fixation of the margins and that in my opinion these margins are reasonable.
Further arising out of the Minister's reply, is it not true that butter can be exported only by licence and that the only two bodies concerned with the licence are the creameries and the B.M.C. and that they are giving a better rate to the British wholesalers who are thereby enabled to sell at 3/7 a lb.? In other words, the British wholesaler is buying it at less than the price paid by the Irish wholesaler.
I have no responsibility for the export of butter or for the issuing of export licences.
Can the Minister tell me what are the margins, retail and wholesale, at present?
So far as the wholesale margins are concerned, in respect of bulk butter, the wholesaler's margin is 2.05 per cent.
Gross or net?
On sales—a physical margin of 2.05 per cent. on the price which he pays for the butter. The retailer's margin on the price he pays for the butter, that is, in respect of bulk butter, is 7.1 per cent. on physical sales. In respect of rolled butter the wholesaler's margin is 1.3 per cent. on sales and the retailer's margin is 4.6 per cent. on sales.
Would the Minister be able to say what amount of butter has been exported to date since the change of price and what is the amount of subsidy that the Exchequer here has paid on that quantity exported?
These questions are not proper to the Department of Industry and Commerce. I have no responsibility either for the export of butter or the payment of any subsidy on it. The Deputy perhaps will address his questions to the other Ministers concerned.