Allen, DenisWednesday, 23 February 1955 |
Dáil Éireann Debate
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Committee on Finance. - Supplies and Services (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1946 (Continuance and Amendment) Bill, 1954—Second Stage (Resumed).
Why not take it down another 6d.?
Would you answer that question?
Could you answer my question?
Why did you not bring it down to 2/9?
What price would it be if you were allowed to buy in Mincing Lane when you tried?
Is it £26 a ton you said?
Yes.
What price are you paying for wheat?
When this Bill was before the Dáil on the last occasion, Deputy Dillon, now Minister for Agriculture, spoke for a period of three hours.
And he dealt with many subjects in the course of his remarks. He charged the then Government and the then Minister for Industry and Commerce with not using the powers under the Supplies and Services ...
But there is a big “but” in the matter. We say that if tea, sugar, bread, butter or anything else is to be subsidised it should be subsidised out of current revenue and not from borrowed moneys. We ...
No nonsense about it. For the first time in the history of this nation we paid for our food with borrowed moneys.
And we are asking the population to repay those moneys with interest.
There is no need to ask anyone. If the present inter-Party Government are proposing to do the same, to subsidise bread, butter or tea or any other commodity and leave debts for posterity to pay, I wo...
The last time that the Minister for Agriculture spoke in this House about tea he said a lot. In the course of his remarks he asked why should our people be asked to pay 6d. per lb. more for tea in or...
The reference is column 1676, Volume 142. I wonder has Deputy Dillon changed his mind in the last 15 months. He said at that time that the central purchasing of tea by this country was daft and desc...
I wonder if we had not had a sound Government in this country and a wise Minister for Industry and Commerce who insisted on the total tea supplies of this country being bought in bulk in the country o...
What would it be costing the taxpayers?
We would be paying on the double.
We do know this, that we would be paying on the double— on the treble. Tea costs 3/- to 4/- a lb. more across the water than it costs here and it is 2/- to 3/- per lb. more in Northern Ireland, and i...
The Minister is proud of that, perhaps.
The taxpayers here are paying the subsidy to give the black marketeers a handsome profit. If the Fianna Fáil Government of 12 or 15 months ago had taken Deputy Dillon's advice, instead of the present...
During the course of his remarks on the last occasion when he addressed the House on the Supplies and Services Bill the Minister also referred to artificial manure and talked about the “daft policy” o...
His dead body would be presented to the farmers of Ireland if even a halfpenny increase went on to the price of artificial manure, but he has admitted that there is a 3 per cent. increase—I suggest it...
Considerably more. I happened to see the wholesale price list in the last few days and I think there is more than 3 per cent. on certain types of artificial manure—or on the fertilisers, let us say——
——that will be used by the farmers in this country in the coming year. The Minister boasted again to-night of the great achievement of this present Government in slashing the price of wheat to the f...
I do not, and I happen to have some little bit of knowledge about what the farmers have been paying in the last year, and I saw no £28 an acre. The average price from any information I could get was ...
If one pair of farmers in County Wexford, because of a spleen between two families, go to a public auction and bid against one another until one is eliminated, it is not fair for the Minister for Agri...
It was one single instance in County Wexford where two families were not on good terms and bid against one another up to £28 for conacre to grow wheat, and the Minister for Agriculture takes that as t...
It is not fair to take isolated instances like that. I have personal knowledge of such a case myself and I could tell the Minister the full background if I had time and he would agree that that shoul...
I know, but the Minister for Agriculture spent a considerable portion of time in his address challenging this side of the House on the question of the prices farmers are paying for conacre.
I cannot hear the Minister.
I do not want to go into details, but I am entitled to advert to the matters which the Minister for Agriculture——
There are one or two other matters to which the Minister adverted and with which I would like to deal. The Minister for Agriculture when speaking on the present Act—I suppose it has not expired yet—...
Under the 1953 Bill, in talking about the Central Bank, the Minister for Agriculture said at column 1682, Volume 142 of the Official Debates of 10th November, 1953:— “The Central Bank gets into a stat...
The Central Bank was discussed on the 1953 Supplies and Services Bill for at least five columns. The Minister talks about the Central Bank and the restless pillow they had. To continue the quotation...
They are now responsible for carrying out the promises they made during the general election; they are now responsible for putting into operation the policy they broadcast to the people throughout the...
The skins of the Labour Party have got too tight to allow them to twist any more. They have twisted too often and their skins have got too tight. They cannot twist any more.
Deputy Davin, the present Parliamentary Secretary, as reported in the Midland Tribune on the 15th May, 1954, said: “As far as the Labour Party is concerned, the principal item in our programme in this...
He promised to bring down the cost of living, to bring down the loaf from 9d. to 7d. or 6d.
Whoever put it up you have not fulfilled your promise to bring it down. The job you undertook was to get it down.
Deputy Davin said: “I pledge my word of honour that if I am re-elected I shall take all possible steps to bring down those prices,” and he meant the prices of tea, sugar and beer.
He said he would reduce them to the 1951 level.
What about the price of beer? Are the Labour Party not concerned about the price of beer?
On every election platform during the last election, you promised to bring it down.
Deputy Seán Dunne is reported in the Meath Chronicle——
He said that the prices of bread, butter, tea, sugar, cigarettes and the workers' pint would be reduced immediately. Have they done anything about that? We know too what the Labour programme was—imm...
Will the Minister for Industry and Commerce, will Deputy Larkin or the Labour Party take any steps to prevent a rise in the price of meat? Meat is an essential commodity. Has anything been done about...
Has the Prices Advisory Body done anything about the rise in the price of meat?
This Bill is the only programme before the people of Ireland and before Dáil Éireann to-day. That is the only programme of the Government in office, by the grace of God. That is the programme the Go...
You are the man who was going to reduce taxation by £1,000,000.
He is the financial wizard in the Government.
Deputy Casey in the Cork Examiner on the 29th April, 1954, stated:— “The first point in the Labour Party programme is that the cost of living must be kept within the means of the ordinary people.” I a...
——is reported as stating: “I think the Budget is a disastrous insult to the people. The least that we expected would be the removal of the taxes on bread, flour, tea, sugar and butter.” Deputy McGil...
I want to suggest this, as a point of order, that the Supplies and Services Act at present in operation allows and gives them full authority and complete control over finance.
With all respect, I say that this is a relevant matter, and money would be the service in this respect.
I do not know what services we can have. Money would be one. However, we will get away from that.
I take it that repatriation of external assets would be in order?
The high rate of interest payable for any supplies or services?
The Parliamentary Secretary has done that before.
The Parliamentary Secretary talked about inflation across the water, about the danger of greater inflation to our economy, arising out of that.
I feel it is in order dealing with money matters, inflation, the Central Bank, and all these things.
It was dealt with this evening, with all due respect. However, I do not propose to dwell much longer on this matter. Twelve months ago, the present Tánaiste who introduced this Bill to the House a f...
——of the fact that they have done nothing about it. The machinery of State, all the powers required to do something about it, were in their hands. They have been unable to prevent the cost of living...
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