I move:—
That the Seanad requests the Minister for Agriculture to make provision for the attendance of veterinary officers of his Department at the Port of Dublin for the inspection of live stock for export on all occasions on which such officers have been notified by responsible officers of the shipping companies or live stock shipping agents that live stock are in transit by rail for shipment, and that the shipping companies are prepared to hold back the sailing of their ships to allow time for compliance with the regulations of the Department in the case of live stock for export.
I should like the Minister to be here for this motion as I think it important he should be here. On the motion for the adjournment last Wednesday, I raised the matter of the outshipment of about 500 cattle from Tipperary fair. The Minister's reply to my statement was so grossly misleading that I ask the permission of the House to deal with that question before I discuss the motion on the agenda. I complained that about 500 cattle from Tipperary fair, the majority of which were intended for York market, were outshipped through a breakdown on the Great Southern Railways, in the first instance, and, secondly, through the action of the veterinary officers of the Department at the North Wall in not staying on duty to have them inspected. I stand over every word I said in that charge, but I should like to make this correction, that the officers of the Department of Agriculture are not allowed by the regulations of the Department to stay there longer than 15 minutes.
Although the Minister's reply was correct, it was most misleading. It even misled this House and misled the outside public. I do not accuse the Minister of making a statement to mislead the House, and I do not accuse the officers who supplied the statement to him with framing a statement to mislead the Minister or the House, but the fact remains, and it was proved by a statement of Senator Foran here when he said, in respect of the charges I made, that I should get an opportunity of withdrawing or proving them. I intend to prove those charges. The Minister read a statement from Mr. McClancy, Chief Port Inspector at the North Wall, in which he said he was approached for an extension of time by Mr. Jeffares in the forenoon, and by Mr. Cuddy later in the day, and that Mr. Cuddy said that the 15 minutes' extension was quite sufficient for his purpose. I did not see Mr. Cuddy to have an explanation from him, but I personally interviewed Mr. Jeffares and I took down what he said. He said that he approached Mr. McClancy in regard to the extension of time for the cattle from Tipperary fair, owing to a breakdown on the Great Southern Railways; that Mr. McClancy agreed to 15 minutes' extension, and that this extension enabled 254 cattle from Cashel and Charleville to be inspected and shipped by the "Lady Meath." The cattle from Tipperary, however, did not arrive until about 7.30. They were consequently late, missed shipment and missed their market.
If my motion is adopted, it will avoid a recurrence of this. If what I want done had been the rule last week, all these cattle would have been shipped without any great inconvenience to the inspectors at the Port. There was not a single beast from Tipperary fair shipped on Tuesday night. This outshipment put the whole cattle trade of the country out of order. It led to a glut in the markets and to enormous loss to exporters. They will have to try to recoup their losses off producers. Exporters cannot continue to buy stock, if they are going to suffer heavy losses by doing so, and must try to recoup themselves in the following weeks. The outshipment of such a large number of cattle as the 500 from Tipperary, which were intended for York market, was reflected in the fairs of the country for more than a week. Even at Tipperary and other fairs one could observe the absence of competition during the past week, due to this outshipment.
I stated last week, although my statement did not seem to make much of an impression on Senator Comyn, that this was not the first time that this had occurred. I agree that it does not occur very often, but, because of the dislocation to trade which results from it, the representatives of the cattle trade have had to approach the Department seeking redress. They have not succeeded up to the present. The policy that is in operation is a continuation of what went on in the days of the British Government. They carried out those rules and regulations relating to exports at the port. The Minister's predecessor, Mr. Hogan, did the same. He did not alter them, but the situation seems to have become intensified since the present Minister for Agriculture resumed office but not, I should say, because of that. These interruptions to trade are due, to some extent, to the singling of the railway lines and to the fact that the engines and rolling-stock of the Great Southern Railways are not as good as they used to be. The result is that breaksdown occur now more frequently than they used to.
I complained about dearth of staff at the North Wall. I have here some records which I got from the secretary to the Cattle Traders' Association. He refers to an incident which occurred on the 6th June, 1931. A consignment of lambs from Gorey fair arrived at the North Wall at 6.40 p.m. The delay was caused as a result of a landslide on the railway line near Bray. Some of the lambs which were sent to the London, Midland and Scottish yard were examined by the veterinary surgeon there and shipped that night. Portion of the consignment, comprising 350 lambs, which was sent to the British and Irish yard, would not be allowed to be shipped. The inspector closed the gates on the lambs and they had to remain over until the following day. The present Minister, of course, is not responsible for that as he was not in office in 1931. I want to urge that the arrangement of duties, in the case of the portal inspectors at the North Wall, needs to be changed. This was the case of a railway special from Gorey with a consignment of lambs that should have been shipped that night. I understand that the portal inspector who inspected the lambs in the London, Midland and Scottish yard at the North Wall, thereby enabling the stock to be shipped, got severely censured by the authorities at Government Buildings. He was pulled over the coals and severely reprimanded for facilitating the trade of the country. I have here before me other instances where the same kind of thing happened. These are cases of cattle arriving by special train. In one or two instances they arrived five or ten minutes late. Half the cattle were shipped and the other half was out-shipped. The fact that half the cattle were shipped was due to this: that they were on the first portion of the train which was unloaded quickly and those in charge were able to get them into the yard before 6.30. The other half, which could not be unloaded so quickly, was outshipped.
On the last day, when we discussed this, the Minister said that he believed that the regulations were fair and reasonable, and that an extension of time of ten or 15 minutes must only be given by inspectors in very exceptional cases. An instance of an exceptional case was given by the Minister. He said that if cattle arrived at 6.30 on a Saturday night, and that the following Monday was a bank holiday, when the yards were closed, that in such a case the portal inspectors might facilitate the trade by giving an extra 15 minutes. In no case would he give more than 15 minutes. When the representatives of the cattle trade approached the Minister and asked him for half an hour he would not give it. He said that 15 minutes were sufficient. The shipping companies are prepared to hold back their boats and to undergo considerable expense by the payment of overtime to their staffs in order to facilitate the cattle trade of the country. They are prepared to spend from £40 to £50 in order to do that. In view of that, I think that the Minister should keep a couple of veterinary surgeons at each yard for an hour or two in order to facilitate the trade. An occurrence of this kind would not take place more than seven, eight or 12 times in a year, and the cost of keeping on the veterinary surgeons would not be very great.
I have dealt at some length with the case of the cattle special from the Tipperary fair that was outshipped and I think I have shown that I was justified in my complaints. I did not make any unfair accusations against the portal inspectors at the North Wall. The portal regulations for the inspection and shipment of live stock have been handed down to us from the time that the British were in control here. They were a bone of contention during the period that Mr. Hogan was Minister for Agriculture, and they still continue in force. Up to about the year 1912 the inspection of live stock at the ports was simply a matter of form. In that year, there was a severe outbreak of foot and mouth disease, and following that, strict regulations were put in force. There was a period of two hours' detention for inspection before you were allowed to export cattle. There was a further period of ten hours' detention on the other side. Senators can see how difficult it is, under the present regulations, for exporters to catch the markets on the other side.
The cattle trade have been agitating for quite a long time to have these regulations amended. They will continue to agitate, and they hope that something will be done by the Department of Agriculture to rectify the present position. They believe that they ought to have an assurance from the Department that, even though something unforeseen may happen on the railways, facilities will be provided to enable them to ship their cattle in time to catch the markets at the other side. I would like to hear from the Minister what his real objection is to extending the time of the portal inspectors at the North Wall. I believe myself that it is due to the cheese-paring of the Department of Finance: that they are not prepared to pay overtime to the portal inspectors for the extra hours of duty. The heads of the Department of Agriculture do not want to keep their men working extra hours if they are not going to get paid. The portal inspectors are professional men and they are very poorly paid. The chief veterinary inspector and the majority of the inspectors are, I know, decent men and would be anxious to facilitate the trade. As the reports I have read indicate they are not allowed to do that. The regulations lay down that such and such a thing is to be done, and if they go out of their way to facilitate the trade they may leave themselves open to severe censure from the heads of their department. In view of the fact that the shipping companies are prepared to incur extra expense in order to facilitate the trade, I cannot see any reason why a couple of inspectors should not be kept on at each yard at the North Wall, even if it were to cost the State a couple of guineas, in order to inspect cattle and to arrange for their export.
The motion I have put down only refers to cattle coming by train. It does not refer to cattle brought to the port by road or by lorry. I hope, in view of what I have stated, that the Minister will see his way to fall in with the terms of the motion. I understand that in Belfast cattle are very rarely outshipped. The time for shipment there is seven o'clock. The same rule applies in the case of ports, some of them tidal ports in the Free State. I do not believe that the amount of overtime that would have to be paid to the portal inspectors, if the Minister were to agree to what I ask, would amount to more than £100 a year. Surely the cattle trade of the country ought not to be upset for such a paltry sum as that. The Minister, I submit, ought to agree to extend the time and leave it to the discretion of the railway companies to say to the portal inspectors that they must wait, as they are keeping their boats, to inspect cattle arriving for export.
