Because of the seriousness of the position relating to transport facilities for live stock, and the descriptions that I have got from a number of traders regarding the cruelty and hardship to live stock that are involved, and the congestion which arises at a number of loading stations for fairs, I was constrained to ask for time to bring this matter to the notice of the Minister, so as to give the House an opportunity of hearing what the Minister has to say upon it.
I put down a question yesterday regarding priorities in transport of goods, and I was amazed to find from the Minister's reply that in a list of articles receiving priorities live stock appeared in juxtaposition with such commodities as coal, beet, turf and timber for fuel, agricultural seeds, manures, grain and grain products, bread, potatoes, petroleum products, and so on. I would expect that the Minister should realise the perishable nature of live stock and that he should also realise that in the matter of food units live stock contribute the most important, the most valuable, and the most vital food constituents in the dietary of a nation. I might say, too, that if any man, who has been engaged in the production of food, not merely in this country, but in any other country of the world, were asked for his opinion as regards priority, so far as the carriage of goods under emergency conditions is concerned, as to how he would grade a priority list, I think he would have no hesitation in saying that high up on that list, if not at the very top of it, live stock should appear, and, taking our particular circumstances into account —our almost complete reliance on our agricultural economy in this country —one would at least expect that our live stock would get more preferential treatment than it is getting at the present time in the matter of transport.
I have spoken to a number of prominent cattle traders in the last few weeks, and they all bitterly complain of the services that are available for fairs at the present time. They are unanimous in their complaints that Córas Iompair Éireann is not providing a service capable of meeting the requirements of the trade. I would also point out that while, with the improvement in the fuel position, ordinary passenger services have improved enormously—in fact, they are almost running to schedule—there are no special cattle trains from fairs or any effort made to give adequate service. In that connection, I may say that I think there is an extraordinary amount of time lost as between the time a "special" leaves a fair and when it arrives at its destination, which is generally the City of Dublin.
The trade likewise feel that the carrying company is no longer attaching the same importance to the transport of livestock as it always has attached in the past. I am not surprised at that, after hearing what the Minister said about it yesterday because, in reply to a few supplementary questions that he was asked, he wound up by saying: "I would regard it as an obligation on the company to carry the goods required here in preference to carrying goods for export". How you are going to differentiate, in the matter of the carriage of livestock, between what is to be consumed here and what is for export for consumption abroad, I do not know. I think there should be no differentiation whatever in the carriage of livestock, as it is the most essential commodity we have in our economy. It is a very perishable commodity, and the lack of transport facilities at the moment involves tremendous hardship. The conditions are appalling.
I think the Minister has no idea of what occurs at certain fairs—the congestion, the lack of proper loading facilities, and the lack of wagons. The shortage of wagons, possibly, is something that cannot be got over at the moment, as it is due to the emergency that there is rather an acute shortage of wagons. We were told recently by the railway company that they had now available only 2,000 wagons to the normal 4,000 wagons available before the war. I do not want to minimise in any way the difficulties of transport that exist, but I am in agreement with some of the critics, who know about this matter, that undue delays are occurring and that some of the difficulties could be surmounted to a great extent if there were greater expedition and a shorter turn-over of wagon usage.
The cattle traders survived the worst period of the emergency, when the fuel supply was a most difficult problem, and at that time a suggestion was put forward that there should be a transport inspector, the same as you have on buses, who could pop on to a "special" and take an account of how it was chartered and whether it was making proper time or not. As a matter of fact, the recommendations of the live stock trade at that time were adopted, and the company put on a number of inspectors, with extraordinarily good results. These inspectors speeded up the train time of cattle "specials", but after a few months they were dropped, and I am informed on very reliable authority that there is a marked deterioration in the position at the present time compared with what it was then, although there has been a great improvement in the type of fuel used in the meantime. I cannot understand why a scheme that proved so useful and successful in a period of our greatest difficulty is not resorted to again at the present time.
You have this sort of situation now— and it is fairly general—that you have a couple of cattle wagons loaded at a station, and if there is a small turf train coming along, it is allowed to run through, and the cattle have to wait, and if the owner of the live stock runs to the local station-master and asks him to hook on the couple of wagons of live stock to the turf train so as to get them to the city in the most expeditious way, without involving any delay or anything else, the station-master replies: "No. It cannot be done. Do you want to get me sacked?" Surely, that is a ridiculous situation: that because a short turf train is running through, with its engine capable of pulling a much bigger load, such an important commodity as live stock should have to wait.
In pre-war years, when we had ample transport facilities, a great many people availed of the opportunity of sending quite a lot of live stock by beet wagon, and it seems ridiculous that there should now be priority given to beet in preference to live stock. I am as interested as anybody in the House in the transport of beet, but I would have no hesitation in saying that a wagon load of beet should be allowed to lie by for a week rather than that a wagon of live stock should be delayed for any undue period of time. I am told that the trade can see no reason why it should take a cattle train 20 hours to travel 65 miles, from Ballinrobe to Collooney. These cattle were afterwards transhipped from Collooney to Belfast, a distance of 170 miles, and that took only ten hours. As recently as 15th October last it took a cattle train 49 hours to come from Rathkeale fair to Cabra, here in the city. Just imagine live stock remaining in a wagon for two whole days and nights —and an hour over, as a matter of fact —49 hours to get the cattle here! Does the Minister realise the cruelty and hardship involved in that, and the loss and deterioration that is noticeable in the cattle when they are unloaded? An owner would not recognise his stock which had been in wagons that length of time.
Deputy Fagan told me to-day that he bought two wagon-loads of stock at Tuam fair, that the animals left the fair green, which is a quarter of a mile from the railway station, at 8.50 a.m. but were not loaded until 6.50 that evening. He told me that the congestion at the railway station was shocking. I know a number of people interested in the live-stock trade, and apart from shortage of wagons, they state that the facilities at the unloading banks are primitive. That causes great hardship. We have in this country a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but I do not know what the society is doing when such things are allowed to happen.
The latest type of wagons have dropped boards, and the older wagons have portable boards, but even at big stations they have not provided drop boards to facilitate loading. The old loading boards are worn out and should be replaced. It appears to me to be an extraordinary situation that the present arrangements are allowed to continue. I do not know what the policy of Córas Iompair Eireann is, or whether the motive is primarily to earn profits. When the Transport Act was being passed we were assured by the Minister that we were now going to have a national transport organisation, the primary purpose of which would be to provide national transport, and that the secondary consideration would be profit-earning. Many people now believe that the object is to show a profit and that every other interest is secondary to that. I am sure the Minister's attention has been drawn to reports of recent meetings of cattle traders. At a meeting held in Cork, Córas Iompair Eireann arrangements for fairs in the south were strongly criticised. The report stated:
"A statement issued after the meeting referred to `enormous hardships' met with at Rathduff fair, `where the aggregate of valuable time wasted in unloading operations speaks volumes for Córas Iompair Eireann disregard for the convenience of those who attend the fairs. That it should take the best part of five hours to load and to clear 18 wagons of stock is, in the opinion of the committee, a glaring example of what might aptly be described as the quintessence of inefficient service.' "
Fancy taking five hours to load 18 wagons, due to the fact that the loading bank only accommodated two or three wagons. Nobody can say that that was due to a shortage of material, as a few bags of cement would provide facilities for loading eight or ten wagons. If the railways are to remain a permanent feature of our transport system, the sooner a problem of that sort is tackled the better. We should realise that we are selling our live stock in Great Britain, and should remember what is being done there to improve live stock. Irish cattle will not be wanted in Britain if they do not compare favourably, as regards appearance and quality, with the type of cattle produced there. The appearance of our cattle when they arrive in these markets depends to a great extent on the way they are handled in transit. Do we not know that before the war, when Canadian cattle were landed, they appeared to be fresher than our cattle arriving in the City of Dublin from southern fairs? Are we going to tolerate a primitive transport service to remain a permanent feature for the needs of our main industry? I am facing up to the realities of the position, and I do not want in any way to minimise the difficulties of the management of Córas Iompair Eireann. I emphasise that cattle traders are anxious to cooperate in every way, and to make constructive suggestions which would help to expedite, not merely loading, but transport, as well as the timing of cattle "specials" coming from southern fairs to Dublin. I can assure the Minister, from conversations I had with people who buy cattle at fairs, that they complain bitterly of the manner in which live stock is being treated at present by a national transport service.
