asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will explain the variation in retail price of barley meal of £22.20 per tonne between two different centres as set out in the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Farm Bulletin for March, 1974.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers (Resumed). - Barley Meal Prices.
37.
I understand that the lowest retail price reported for barley meal in the Department's Farm Bulletin for March, 1974, related to that charged by a farmer's co-operative society which, I am pleased to say, appears to have passed on to its customers the benefit of its relatively favourable purchase price of barley. As regards the highest price reported I am not in a position to say why this should be at such a level but it must be assumed that it is related to a higher purchase price, a lower throughput and probably a higher profit margin.
The retail price of barley meal is determined largely by the price paid for the barley which has been subject to fluctuation in the period since last harvest.
My question relates to only two centres in which this variation is occurring. What measures do the Department intend to take to draw the attention of merchants to these variations?
The Deputy knows the price of feeding stuffs has been decontrolled.
Was there ever control of the price of ground barley?
There was control of the price of feeding stuffs and it was removed at the request of the farming community.
My question is : was there control in respect of ground barley?
I cannot be certain, but if barley is in the class of feeding stuffs, I would say yes.
Can the Minister say——
I have called Deputy Crinion.
This is a very important question. Would the Department consider advertising in some way the different prices in different areas so that it might create competition and curb profiteering——
Is that not exactly the effect of the publication of these prices? That is why the Deputy is in a position to say that one organisation is selling it at one price and one at another. These statistics, as the Deputy knows, are collected by agricultural instructors, advisers, in the various areas.
But can the Minister say——
I have been calling on Deputy Crinion. Deputy Leonard must at some time obey the Chair.
Does this not bring home to the Minister the folly of his decision to decontrol the price of feeding stuffs? The farmers would not be mulcted——
The fact that the price of feeding stuffs has come down by £10 per ton indicates that that decision was the right one. Prices came down because of the competition created.
Is the Minister not as well aware as the rest of us that a great deal of profiteering was done in barley by certain elements of the grain trade who ganged up on the producers and the consumers of barley, and that no effort has been made by the Government to restrain this gross——
The Deputy is making a speech.
The real reason why there has been a drop in price here is because there has been a drop in the world price of grain.
I must ask the Deputy to put a supplementary question. He has been making a speech.
I am not making a speech—I am trying to make the point that it was not as a result of the wisdom of the Government that grain prices dropped here. It was because there has been a drop in world price. I am asking the Minister to reconsider the matter against the background of the gross profiteering that has been taking place.
The farmers have asked for decontrol and they have got it.
Some of them asked for it.