Produced by Brian Foley, Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Text in Gaelic Script marked +like so+. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ _FOR OFFICIAL USE._ RIALTAS SEALADACH NA HÉIREANN. MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS. REPORT ON THE COST OF LIVING IN IRELAND JUNE, 1922. DUBLIN: PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE STATIONERY OFFICE. To be purchased through any Bookseller or directly from EASON & SON, LTD., 40 AND 41 LOWER SACKVILLE STREET, DUBLIN. 1922. _Price One Shilling._ PREFACE. It having been represented to the Provisional Government that it was desirable to calculate an official figure indicating in respect of Ireland the change in the cost of living at the present time as compared with the cost of living in 1914, the Provisional Government appointed for the purpose on 10th June, 1922, a Committee comprising representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture, Finance, Economic Affairs and Labour. The Committee reported on the 4th August, 1922, and the result of its enquiries, together with the Committee's detailed explanation of the procedure adopted, are appended hereto. The conclusions set out in the report represent the closest approximation which is practicable to the average increases in the cost of maintaining, in particular months of the current year as compared with July, 1914, the same standard of living for a family dependent on wage earnings in places with 500 or more inhabitants. The inquiry applied to the whole of Ireland, and its basis is therefore broad enough to be reasonably dependable for any practical purpose to which a calculation as to changes in the cost of living can usefully be applied. It is proposed to arrange for the calculation at intervals of three months of a cost of living figure on the same basis as that adopted by the Committee for the purpose of this report. September will be the next month for which a figure will be determined. It is to be observed that the information collected in the course of this inquiry has incidentally revealed relations between the wholesale and the retail prices of several important commodities and between the prices of the same commodity in similar localities which require explanation. This matter is being further examined with a view to determining whether any undue advantage is being taken of the general body of consumers, and, if that be the case, to the adoption of appropriate remedies. MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, _23rd August, 1922_.