I am only dealing with it by way of reference, and not by way of criticism, to show the backing that such an amendment would have, and what a manifest injustice it would be to a sanitary area, or a public health district, in which they had a full appreciation of their responsibilities and had settled up the necessary machinery to deal with the production of a good article compared with places where such supervision is not provided. This Bill proposes to fix a price for milk and that price will be fixed in other than production and joint areas and sale districts. Where a large quantity of milk is bought and consumed the public health authorities will, of necessity, be in advance of districts where comparatively little milk is bought for consumption. In other words, in urban and city areas supervision over milk will be in advance of supervision in rural areas, where very little milk is sold locally. Comparatively little milk is produced in city areas, and none for limited consumption by families. In the city areas we have machinery functioning to take the necessary precautions. They are the minimum essential to provide a clean and wholesome supply of milk. This amendment wants to have such precautions taken that no production area will be included in a sale area with the right to sell unless there is equal supervision over the production of the milk. That is a reasonable request. The health authorities in the sale area have to work to a standard which is necessary to safeguard public health and they insist on milk being produced under certain conditions. The amendment asks that no milk should be allowed to come in there and be sold at the fixed price ruling in the district unless it is produced under certain conditions. Such precautions are necessary. If the amendment is unacceptable the result will be that a district that produces the worst milk will continue to do so and must get the price fixed. The price will be fixed equally for bad milk and good milk. Bad milk is, perhaps, not the proper term. I am referring to milk produced under conditions where production is far cheaper than where it is produced under proper supervision.
I ask the Minister very carefully to consider the equities of the case. The Minister's job is concerned with price-fixing and I appreciate his difficulties. I am aware that he had to contend with a lot of difficulties which are not known to this House. I know a great many of the difficulties which he had to contend with for the last year or year and a half. As a medical man, he understands the importance of this question. When milk is produced under conditions which provide for clinical examination of the cows and when there are stringent regulations with regard to construction and ventilation of the dairy sheds, the machinery which has to be provided to ensure supervision and the loss incidental to the clinical examination of the herds make the production of that milk dearer than the production of milk where there are no such requirements. In the opinion of the public health authorities, milk produced under these conditions is better milk than the milk produced under less stringent conditions. If this amendment is not accepted, it is inevitable that the Minister will mix the districts. He has power to do that under the Bill and he will be forced by circumstances to do it if this amendment is not passed. In fixing his price, if he associates a district with that price which has not the supervision I have mentioned—if he strikes a flat rate of 8d. or 9d. per gallon—it is obvious that if that price is only remunerative for milk produced under slipshod conditions, it will be unremunerative for milk produced under the hygienic conditions to which I have referred. The result will be that milk will cease to be produced under hygienic conditions. On the other hand, if the price fixed be sufficient for the production of milk under the hygienic conditions I have mentioned, why should not the people who are being given that price and who are given access to the market produce good, clean, wholesome milk? If it pays one area to produce milk for a certain market at the price fixed, it should pay another area.
There will be gross inequality in the administration of this Bill from the purely commercial point of view if this amendment is not accepted. There will also—I realise that this is more a matter for the Minister for Local Government and Public Health— be serious danger to the health of the people in the cities, particularly the young. I am mainly concerned now with the City of Dublin, which I represent. I can say that I represent every milk producer in the City and County of Dublin in urging this argument. I can say that I represent all the societies interested in child welfare and nursing. They do not want the standard of the milk provided under the present stringent conditions in the City and County of Dublin to be lowered. The Minister proposes to give for this milk no better price than he will give for milk produced from animals which may be diseased or which are not, at least, subject to clinical examination. That is dangerous to the public health. Speaking for an area that will be scheduled as the production area for the City of Dublin, under present conditions, I say that outside the production area of the City and County of Dublin and the Borough of Dun Laoghaire these stringent conditions do not apply. Nowhere contiguous to the city, or, indeed, in any of the county health districts of the Saorstát, is there a whole-time veterinary officer. That requirement has been looked upon as the low-water mark by expert opinion. I urge the Minister to accept this amendment, because it is necessary for the health of the city. I am informed by lady social workers that no class in the city are so anxious to get high grade milk or so willing to pay for it as the poorer people. Producers have, admittedly, been forced to produce an article in a manner which is more costly than other people are at liberty to use. In these circumstances, it is unfair to fix a flat price for both classes of milk in the same market. Speaking for the producers in the County Dublin, I can say that, if this be done, we will be very lax and, as far as possible, scrap the expensive machinery we have established for supervision. That is, if we do not get recognition for the superior article which is being produced when the price of milk is being fixed in the sale area which will include the City of Dublin.
