asked the Minister for Agriculture if he has received any protest from the British Ministry of Food following the reimposition by him of the ban on the export of fat or bacon pigs over the Border to the Six Counties from the Irish Republic.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Purchasing Centre for Exporting Pigs.
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state what centre in the Six Counties has been designated by the British Ministry of Food as an approved purchasing centre for fat or bacon pigs exported from the Republic.
The reply to Question No. 45 is: If the Deputy will refer to my reply to his Question No. 46, he will appreciate that this could not arise. The reply to Question No. 46 is: No centre has been so designated.
In view of the Minister's reply may I refer him to the reply which he gave to Deputy Dr. Maguire on Thursday, May 11th, 1950:—
"The British Ministry of Food, which is the purchaser of all fat pigs exported from this country, accepts such pigs only at designated centres in England, namely, Liverpool and Birmingham. There is no approved purchasing centre for our fat pigs in the Six Counties."
Now that the Minister has admitted that, as a result of discussions with Britain, no additional centre has been designated for the purchase of fat pigs in the Six Counties, how he came to remove the prohibition against the export of fat pigs across the land frontier?
Does the Deputy expect me to enforce regulations of the Stormont Government, which should not be there at all, in the Six North-Eastern Counties of our country?
Is it not a fact that the imposition of the ban is not a question as between the Six-County Government and ourselves but is as a result of an agreement between ourselves and the British?
No. I know of no agreement with the British requiring the maintenance of the ban.
Am I to take it from the Minister's reply, which I have quoted, that false and misleading information was being conveyed to the House by the Minister?
No. I think the Deputy is getting a little confused.
I think the Minister must have been confused.
No.
With your permission, Sir, I propose to raise the subjectmatter of Questions Nos. 41, 42, 44 and 45 on the Adjournment——
There is another question to be raised on the Adjournment to-day.
——as the Minister is using Question Time for the purpose of depriving the House and the country of information to which we are entitled.
There is nothing further from my mind.
I am sure you are misleading the House and that you have been guilty of an illegal act in what you have done. I am going to make you admit it here or somewhere else.