asked the Minister for Supplies if he is aware that, in an emergency which now necessitates the use of even Army lorries for the transport of turf from Galway to Dublin, the transport undertakings still use petrol and fuel shifting live pigs from one bacon factory to another, and, if so, what steps he proposes taking to prevent this wastage.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Wastage of Petrol.
I am not aware that road transport is used for the carriage of live pigs from one bacon factory to another. If the Deputy will give me particulars of any specific cases I will have inquiries made.
Is the Minister aware that, by telephone, by letter and by verbal representation, I have given the fullest particulars to three Government Departments—the Taoiseach's Department, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Industry and Commerce—of a case wherein live pigs which had been delivered at a bacon factory in Ballaghaderreen were taken out of the bacon factory and the factory told to stand idle while they were transferred by lorry or railway wagon to Sligo for slaughter there, in order to ensure that the proprietor of the Sligo factory would get the profit on those pigs rather than the proprietor of the factory where they had been originally delivered, and this was on the day after the Taoiseach had stated in Wexford that every lorry and every wagon was as important to this State as a gun would be to another State owing to the difficulty of securing transport for essential fuel?
I have stated in reply to the Deputy's question that I was not aware that road transport was used for the carriage of live pigs. I am not prepared to answer without inquiry the question relating to their transportation by rail.
Has the Minister had any discussion on this matter either with the Taoiseach or the Minister for Agriculture? The fullest particulars are in the hands of both those Ministers.
I am not aware that pigs were transferred to Sligo by road.
Is the Minister satisfied also that they were not transferred by railway wagon?
I do not know.
Is it not true that every wagon which can possibly be spared is wanted at present for the transfer of fuel to the City of Dublin? Is the Taoiseach correct in saying——
The Minister is responsible for his own statements and not for those of another Minister.
Is it correct to say that every railway wagon available is necessary for the transport of fuel to Dublin, and does the Minister for Supplies think it proper that wagons should be used for the purpose of shifting live pigs from one factory to another at a time when those wagons are needed for the transport of turf to Dublin?
I cannot answer that without being aware of the circumstances.
Has the Minister not been made aware of them?
No.
It only shows the hopeless confusion which reigns in Government circles. They simply do not tell each other the facts.