Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 4 Mar 1943

Vol. 89 No. 8

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Shipment of Live Stock.

asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that train loads of live stock have left Amiens Street Station, Dublin, on Wednesdays particularly, and also on other week days for the past two or three months; whether the live stock in question are being transported from Dublin and other South of Ireland market-towns for shipment to Great Britain via Belfast; whether there is any detention period or any examination of live stock before leaving or being loaded at Dublin; whether the Great Northern Railway Company provide a special express service to enable live stock to be shipped at night immediately on the arrival of the train in Belfast; whether ships previously plying to and from Dublin are now being used for the purposes of this diverted traffic; whether he is aware that the diversion of the live-stock traffic from the port of Dublin to Belfast is causing unemployment amongst dockers and other workers, as well as loss of trade to Dublin; and whether he will make representations to the shipping companies and to others concerned for the purpose of retaining for the port of Dublin this important live-stock traffic.

There are no requirements in regard to detention periods or veterinary inspection in respect of live stock loaded at a railway station, nor is there any power to prescribe the routes by which live stock shall be shipped. I am aware that cattle always have been and are still being forwarded, via the Great Northern Railway, to Belfast for shipment. I understand that the question of routes by which cattle are shipped is under discussion between representatives of the exporters and of the carrying companies, and, having regard to all the circumstances, I am not prepared to make representations to the companies in the matter.

Is the Minister in a position to state what the inducement is to shippers to transport live stock directly from the port of Belfast to English ports? Does he realise the disastrous effects wrought on the port of Dublin and on other ports throughout Éire by such a proceeding, and even worse, does he realise how adversely this new form of traffic is affecting dockers working at the port of Dublin and at other ports throughout Éire?

I would like to inform the Deputy that this is no new form of traffic. The Deputy may have heard of it for the first time now, but it is a form of traffic that has been always going on. It is no new form of traffic whatever. The inducement is, as far as my information goes, that there is a better market for a certain type of cattle in Glasgow than in Liverpool.

Is the Minister aware that other ports are suffering by the diversion of traffic to the City of Dublin? We have heard nothing about the position of Drogheda and Dundalk. It is all right for Dublin, of course.

That is good from the ex-Mayor.

Top
Share