Vol. 184 No. 5
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether the Government is prepared to implement the recommendations of the Flour and Bread Inquiry, 1956, that governmental policy regarding the flour milling industry should be reexamined, with particular reference to the inter-connected problems of uneconomic mills and excess capacity.
46.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether in order to help reduce the price of bread he will require flour millers to implement the finding of the final report of the Flour and Bread Inquiry, 1956, to the effect that the first and most fundamental recommendation was the introduction without delay of a proper improved costing system to help assist materially in the control and limitation of milling expenditure.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle I propose to take Questions 45 and 46 together.
The comments of the Flour and Bread Committee, on the matter to which the Deputy refers, were directly related to the administration of subsidy. As the payment of subsidy has been discontinued these comments do not now call for decisions by me.
Is it not a fact that the Inquiry advocated the establishment of a sane costing system to distinguish between the efficient and the inefficient mills so that bread might be sold to the people at a reasonable price?
The Committee did suggest an equation of the costing systems but only for the purpose of determining what the subsidy would be.
The suggestion was that the efficiency and inefficiency of the mills should be determined, so that the subsidy might be reduced by putting the inefficient mills out of business so that the people would get bread at a reasonable price.
That purpose was achieved by the decision of 1953 to apply a fixed subsidy.
The remaining Questions for oral answer will appear on to-morrow's Order Paper.
