asked the Minister for Agriculture whether he is now in a position to say when Irish creamery butter will again be available for distribution on the ration in Dublin City at the subsidised price.

Irish creamery butter is at present being distributed in Dublin City in quantities sufficient to meet a substantial part of the domestic ration.

Is the Minister aware that in fact such butter is not being appropriated to the ration, but, where available, is being sold off the ration at the higher price?

My information is that approximately 50-50 is the present position.

You have been misinformed.

Is the Minister satisfied that a customer, if he requires a proportion of his ration in Irish creamery butter, can get it?

I think so. If he cannot, I suggest that he change his grocer.

As long as Irish creamery butter is available off the ration at 3/6 a lb., it will obviously be sold in that category in preference to the other. Am I to take it from the Minister's answer that some steps have been taken to ensure that it will be sold on the ration to meet a proportion of the domestic ration?

I have made available, to the best of my knowledge and belief, Irish and imported butter in the proportion of 50 per cent. to 50 per cent. Any acquaintance of the Deputy's whose grocer proves intractable, I suggest, should employ the traditional sanction ordinarily employed against grocers, that is, that, if he is disagreeable, he should change his account. I recently changed mine, with most salutary results.

Will the Minister, as Minister and authority in this matter, take the appropriate steps himself to ensure that an equitable distribution will be arranged for all people, poor or otherwise?

Surely the Deputy will agree with me that, when I make it possible, and publicly declare that I have made it possible, for every grocer obligingly to accommodate his customers, it becomes the duty of the customer to coerce the grocer, and not of the Minister for Agriculture. Surely the Deputy does not expect me to regulate the relations between every grocer in Dublin and every customer who goes into his shop?