It does depend—and I am satisfied with the Minister's explanation—on the Minister's consent, and I think we can be satisfied, therefore, that sufficient safeguard is still maintained. Having praised some of the details of the Bill, and I think I could give many other examples, it does nevertheless give me the impression of being a slightly patchwork Bill. It does tighten up a number of things and inserts good new legislation. It seals off certain loopholes, and makes flexible laws which were previously perhaps too harsh. All of that I think is good, but what it does not do in any way is to present an overall plan, amending the original Act, although it is an Amendment Bill. I should have preferred it, if it had been found possible, to implement more fully, in a more general way, most of the recommendations of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the milk supply which brought out its report in December, 1946.
In 1945-46 they made a very detailed inquiry into the whole milk position in the Dublin sale district, and they made a number of excellent recommendations. I should like to hear the Minister's view, or intended policy, in regard to these recommendations. I am a little disappointed that he has not taken the opportunity which this Bill offered to bring in something like an overall plan such as was recommended by the Tribunal. They suggested the establishment of "a milk board with adequate powers to organise and direct milk production and distribution". They gave details of the composition of the board and suggested that there should be a committee which would have representatives of the producers, distributors, consumers and the departmental and other experts.
It seems to me that that recommendation was a very sound one, and most of us would feel happier if it had been enshrined in this Bill, in order to plan more effectively the overall pattern. One of their recommendations has been partly implemented through the efforts of the present Minister, and more actively still in recent months, that was in regard to bovine tuberculosis. The recommendation in 1946 was that the "planned eradication of bovine tuberculosis" should be set about, and the measures to be taken should be "such as to achieve appreciable results in not more than ten years". I cannot help feeling that if these recommendations had been seriously implemented in 1947, 1948, 1949, and so on we would be in a happier position to-day with regard to bovine tuberculosis.
I notice also that there is no reference in the present suggested amendments, to the fact that with regard to various diseases they recommend that the penicillin, the sulphinanomides, and so on, used for treatment should be provided free in order to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible. They deal also—and I do not think any of the provisions in this Bill are adequate to deal with it—with the question of overlapping of services for the distribution of milk in Dublin. They contend that a board set up would be able to deal with that in a way which cannot be done just by legislation as it now stands.
The last point I wish to mention is that they felt it was wrong that milk from cows which have passed only the preliminary tuberculin tests should be sold as highest grade milk. I do not, in this amending legislation, see that that is prevented. I may be ignorant on the point, and possibly some other measure has re-defined "highest grade milk" so as to preclude the inclusion in it of milk from cows which have only passed a preliminary test. If that is so, I should like the Minister's assurance on that point.
Therefore, when the Minister was setting about amending the milk and Dairies Act, I should have welcomed something a little more radical, a Bill that would have enabled the production, sale and distribution of milk to be more generally planned. I notice, for instance, that in the Bill, in Section 50, the Minister, the Minister for Agriculture, the sanitary authority or a dairyman may submit samples of milk in accordance with the regulations "under Section 49 of this Act". I think that is a very good section. I notice the same authority for the submission of milk samples is confined——