At question time to-day I asked the Minister for Agriculture whether in view of his statement of the 1st July, 1954, when replying to the debate on the Estimate for his Department, regarding the Cork milk supply and having regard to the fact that the Cork Corporation had passed a resolution recommending pasteurisation, he will state what action he proposes to take in the matter. The Minister replied:—
"Since my return to office, I have resumed active encouragement of the project promoted during my previous term of office through the Cork Milk Producers' Co-operative Society, Limited, for the pasteurisation of supplies of milk for Cork City. I am glad to say that the society have now informed me that they are making the necessary arrangements for the establishment of pasteurising plant, which I confidently expect will be in operation before the middle of next year. It will then be a matter for the Cork Corporation to implement its intention, of which it decided to give public notice in March, 1952, to request the Minister for Health to make an Order under the Milk and Dairies Act prohibiting the sale of milk other than pasteurised or highest grade milk in the Cork County Borough."
I do not want to make any political propaganda out of this, but in the Minister's reply to the debate last week he tried to put the blame for the condition of the milk in Cork on the corporation and on the county council, and, as he pointed out to me to-day, he said that if the milk supply in Cork was not as good in two years' time as the milk supply in Dublin the fault would lie on those two bodies and, he said, on the Lord Mayor of Cork and the chairman of the county council. The Minister said at column 1053 of Volume 146 of the Official Debates:—
"I must make it clear that I cannot go ahead at my end as expeditiously as I would like unless I have the help of the Lord Mayor of Cork, Deputy McGrath, and of the chairman of the Cork County Council. I can say, however—and it is my duty to say so—that if the Cork milk supply is not as good as the milk supply of the City of Dublin within two years from to-day the fault will lie at the door of the Corporation of Cork City and of the County Council of Cork County."
I know that the Minister for a great many years has been very interested in the supply of milk to Cork City, and that in Volume 129 of the Official Debates at column 989, he made this statement:—
"In regard to the Cork milk suppliers—I tried to cover it up for two years but I will cover it up no longer—in certain respects the position was a scandal. I appealed to the Cork milk suppliers to help me to set right that scandal and not to take their profits at the expense of burying their neighbour's children. I say that the man who definitely knows that tubercular milk is going into his neighbour's house which may fatally infect his neighbour's child is worse than a man who commits murder in cold blood."
He went on to say at column 991:—
"I must say the Cork Corporation, after some persuasion, passed a resolution in regard to pasteurisation, but the Cork County Council was persuaded not to pass it. If I had been returned to office I would have come to Dáil Éireann to seek power to force the Cork County Council in this matter whether they wanted it or not. I was reluctant because I did not want to disclose facts which I did not think ought to be disclosed, but I challenge the Cork milk suppliers now to publish the tests that are in existence of some of the milk that was collected and tested in the Cork distribution area."
The Minister is now returned to office, and what we want to know is, is he going to introduce legislation in this House to compel the county council to pass a resolution in favour of compulsory pasteurisation? He states to-day that he has been promised by the Cork milk suppliers—I think he calls them the Cork Milk Producers' Co-operative Society, Limited, whoever that body is; I do not know, although I know a good number of the producers and they do not seem to be in favour of pasteurisation. I do not know who this body is.