To ask the Minister for Agriculture what steps, if any, he has taken in regard to the abolition of the recent embargo imposed by the British Minister for Agriculture on the shipment of cattle from Ireland to Great Britain; also if he has impressed on the British Ministry the clean bill of health for live stock obtaining for some time past in Ireland; whether he is aware that the continuance of those restrictions imposes a loss in some cases of over £2 per head on the producer of cattle in Ireland.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. - THE CATTLE EMBARGO.
The Minister for Agriculture is unavoidably absent through ill-health. He has asked me to reply as follows to the question: The Minister of Agriculture has written personally to the British Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries pressing for the withdrawal of all special restrictions on Irish cattle landed in Great Britain. In doing so he emphasised the fact that Ireland is free, and has for more than a year been free, from Foot and Mouth disease, and that the time has come for the Irish cattle trade with Great Britain to revert to the conditions prevailing in 1914. The losses to which the recent British Order subjects Irish cattle traders have been pointed out to the British Minister, whose reply is awaited.