asked the Minister for Finance if he will introduce another coin between 2p and 5p because there will be no single coin between 4.8d and 1/- under the new decimal system and because confusion may result with the public on this account.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Decimal Coinage.
42.
I do not propose to introduce an extra coin as suggested by the Deputy. The sequence 1, 2 and 5 has been found by countries using decimal currency systems to be simple and efficient for effecting payments and giving change. To insert an intermediate coin in it, would mean that the public would have yet another new coin value to cope with. This would increase rather than reduce the risks of confusion.
Does the Parliamentary Secretary not consider that a coin equal to the present sixpence is necessary and that, if it is not included, there will be increases in the price of several commodities and several services such as the price of stamps and the price of bus fares, because there is not a value in the new decimal system equivalent to that coin? It must mean that there will be confusion and increases in prices on that account.
I do not agree with the Deputy at all.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that in the other decimal currencies to which he refers which use units of 1, 2 and 5, the units are very much smaller and that, typically, they are one-tenth of the size of the units here? Therefore, reference to these other currencies is a false analogy from which conclusions cannot be drawn.
The minimum value of those based on 10/- in Australia is the same value as ours, 1.2 pence, and there has been no increase in the cost of living out there and no ill-effects. We must be guided by what happens in other countries.
Does the Parliamentary Secretary not know one thing that has been established for about 50 years, that is, that in the United States they have one dollar, two dollar and five dollar bills, but the two dollar bill has never been used?
For the information of the Deputy it is not intended to take the sixpence out of circulation on D-day. It will be in existence for some considerable time afterwards.
The Government will be out of office then and we can make a decision on it.
43.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will ensure that there will be no increase in the lower priced items especially bread, milk, matches and the cheaper groceries and confectionery on account of the changeover to decimalisation.
The New Halfpenny Conversion Table, recommended for use in changing retail prices to decimal currency, is so devised that, over the whole range of pence price endings, increases and decreases will cancel out. The use of this Table, the good sense of traders, the force of competition and the public alertness which will result from the activities of the Decimal Currency Board, will all help to ensure that decimalisation, as such, will not result in an overall increase in the level of prices.
Furthermore, any apparently excessive price increase coming to notice will be investigated by the Minister for Industry and Commerce.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not agree that the Government themselves have set a headline for this by setting the price of parking meters at 1/-, the new five pence, because there was no equivalent to the sixpenny piece in the new decimal system and, therefore, others will follow that example?
The parking meters are a matter for the local authorities and the Minister for Local Government sanctions them. In effect, what happens is that goods priced at half a new penny will be up by 0.2 pence, at one penny they will be up 0.4 pence, at 1½ pence they will be reduced by .6 pence, at twopence they will be reduced by .2 pence.
In theory.
Traders will apply this scale.
It increases it up to 40 per cent.
While admitting that I am a trader myself may I ask does the Parliamentary Secretary not think that the traders will toss up a coin and make sure it comes down heads for them all the time, and that the swings and the roundabouts will end up only as swings?
The Deputy has a very poor opinion of our traders. We have good, honest traders.
The Deputy is a pragmatist. The Parliamentary Secretary is telling us about Alice in Wonderland.