I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. This Bill is to give effect to certain recommendations which the Advisory Committee on the Marketing of Agricultural Produce made in their "Report on Shell Eggs and Liquid Egg". The Bill does not deal with the marketing of eggs generally, but with two limited aspects of the egg trade, namely: removing, as far as home trade is concerned, the requirement on wholesalers to mark fresh shell eggs; and providing for the registration and control of premises manufacturing egg products, such as at present applies to the premises of wholesalers and dealers in shell eggs.
Section 2 of the Bill will give power to amend the regulations governing the marketing of eggs by wholesalers, in order that wholesalers may be relieved of the statutory obligation to mark fresh eggs intended for sale on the home market. Under the 1939 Act, all eggs received at and consigned from registered wholesalers' premises must be marked with prescribed marks and the regulations prescribing the marks to be applied to eggs consigned from registered wholesalers' premises must provide for the marking of every egg so consigned. It will continue to be necessary for wholesalers to mark, with the appropriate marks, eggs which are not fresh eggs — for example: preserved eggs and second-quality eggs — and, subject to any exemptions that may be granted, fresh eggs which are consigned for export.
The Marketing Advisory Committee remarked in their Report upon the preference shown by domestic consumers for unstamped eggs, and the extent to which that preferential demand caused the home trade in eggs to be diverted into the hands of persons whose movements were such as to make it easy for them to evade inspection and control of their activities with regard to eggs. The Committee recommended that the code mark on eggs sold on the home market should be abolished, as having failed to serve its purpose. In the White Paper on the Marketing of Irish Agricultural Produce, dealing with the Advisory Committee's Reports, the Government agreed that opinion was generally in favour of this and indicated that the recommendation would be implemented.
Effect has already been given to the recommendation, so far as the code-marking of eggs by retailers is concerned, by regulations made in May, 1960, under which retailers are not obliged to code mark eggs acquired by them from producers for retail sale.
Sections 3 and 4 of the Bill provide for the registration of manufacturers' premises, under similar conditions to those applicable to the registered premises of traders in shell eggs, and for control over the conditions of manufacture and preparation of egg products. The Marketing Advisory Committee recommended that control should be exercised over the liquid egg industry so as to ensure the production of a top quality product meeting the requirements of importing countries. As indicated in the White Paper, the matter was in fact already under consideration by my Department.
Preparations consisting of whole egg or egg yolk or egg white, with or without other substances as additives or preservatives, may be put up in the form of liquids or crystals or in frozen, dried or powdered form and may be used for various purposes. Their main use is for inclusion as ingredients in foods for human consumption (in confectionery, ice cream, salad dressing, etc.), but they may also have certain industrial uses. In view of the number and variety of such preparations and the different purposes for which they may be intended, it is not practicable to define in general terms "egg products" for the purposes of the Bill. It is proposed, therefore, to specify in regulations the individual products which will constitute egg products within the meaning of the Bill.
The Bill provides for control over the manufacture, testing, grading and packing of egg products, the sampling and bacteriological examination of such products, and control over the sale of egg products found to be of an inferior quality or unsuitable for the purpose for which they are offered for sale. The absence from this Bill of any specific provision for control of the export of egg products is due to the fact that export control is already exercisable by the Minister for Agriculture under the Agricultural and Fishery Products (Regulation of Export) Act, 1947.
