This Bill, consisting of two clauses, does not convey much to the average member of the Seanad or the average member of the public who would read it but the explanatory statement of the Minister gives us a very wide field for discussion. As far as the two clauses themselves are concerned I doubt that an extra 2d. in the £ in the rates levied by local authorities will achieve much to implement this scheme which is a comprehensive and an immense one if we are going to realise its objects satisfactorily. The first impression I would get is that this 2d. represents a very small amount and being taken from the local authority rates instead of being provided by the central authority will be of little assistance apart from the suggested fund that is referred to later in the Minister's speech.
At present there is practically no effort being made towards the eradication of bovine tuberculosis because what we call the Bovine Tuberculosis Order of 1926 was really a public health Order for the safeguard of the human population rather than the animal population. The net result is that through these years the amount of effective work done under the provisions of the Order of 1926 was negligible. The Minister mentioned some 1,000 cases in which animals were slaughtered under the Order but many animals are dealt with under the Order without being reported to the local authority. They are simply dealt with by the veterinary staff of the Dublin Corporation.
The reporting matter is important because it means that nothing has been done unless a farmer sees that his animal is in decline or is a piner. In order to save whatever little money he can he reports the animal to the local authority to be dealt with under the Tuberculosis Order and thereby salvages some of the loss. Of course, what he is paid under the Tuberculosis Order is not the market value of the animal, which would be very small, and depends on the amount of T.B. which is in the carcase on post-mortem examination. Some of the animals can pine from causes other than T.B.
The Bovine Tuberculosis Order, although not exactly a public health Order, was an Order to safeguard the human population rather than the animal population because one of the clauses under which an animal can be taken up under the Tuberculosis Order is a case where the beast is suspected of suffering from T.B. of the udder. Having dealt with many of these cases, I can say that one feels a sense of having done something important for the community as a result of detecting one of these cases of T.B. of the udder and taking appropriate action. There is a percentage of animals in the country suffering from this form of T.B. and disseminating in the milk T.B. bacilli with which adults and children in the community may be infected. I do not want to be misunderstood because a large proportion of the milk in the City of Dublin, at any rate — I do not think there is any pasteurisation in Cork — is pasteurised, thereby rendering it safe as far as T.B. bacilli are concerned. However, milk with this infection is generally consumed throughout the country and many members of the human population are affected with T.B.
I would say to the Minister that the veterinary profession has been far kinder to him than the medical profession has been to his colleague, Dr. Ryan, the Minister for Health, and to other Ministers during the past 20 years because over 20 years and more the Veterinary Medical Association has been urging the Department of Agriculture to initiate a scheme for the total eradication of bovine T.B. I remember suggestions were made to deal with areas like Clare, Galway, and Kerry where the traffic of cattle is entirely outward and there is no traffic inwards. In that way, generally, our country is far better situated for the surrounding and elimination of this disease because there is no through traffic which is so common in Great Britain — cattle coming from this country and cattle being shifted within the country itself. Here we have the traffic from the farms bar those small animals which are bought as calves and transferred to parts of the country until finally they reach the pastures of Meath.
In the main, however, districts can be taken where the animal traffic is mainly outward. You would have a chance there of getting a district and being assured that you will not have animals which are affected with T.B. coming into it from an outside area. That was suggested down the years but we never got much help. We also suggested it before the Post-Emergency Agricultural Policy Committee who reported in 1944. The Veterinary Medical Association then put up a comprehensive scheme — the word "comprehensive" is used pretty frequently to-day in "comprehensive schemes"— in an endeavour to pave the way towards this attack towards the eradication of animal diseases. The committee did not adopt those recommendations from the Veterinary Medical Association in their entirety. They suggested regional operations. I am sorry that Senator Johnston is not in the House now because he was a member of that committee. There were several minority reports as well as the majority report. However, in the main, they suggested regional operations and regional laboratories to deal with this attack on animal diseases.
I criticise the present project of trying to bring within the central authority all the work connected with the eradication of animal diseases, or practically all, if that is the intention. In his speech, the Minister mentioned more or less "eliminating" or "eradicating" local authority inspectors. The local authority veterinary inspectors throughout the country have dual functions to perform: they have functions under the Ministry of Health and they have functions under the Ministry of Agriculture. You will find that to effect that supervision by using any other means from headquarters will be far more difficult than effecting the subdivision through the local men who are in contact with the local people and who know their difficulties. I have often heard it said that the man from Dublin or the team from Dublin who come down to visit an area will not be as effective as the co-operative movement by men who are known locally and who have constant contact with the farmers and owners of live stock in the local areas.
I will say this from this bench for the Minister's sake that, as far as whole-time officers of the local authorities are concerned, in the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 1941, beginning here and spreading like wildfire through Dublin, his central authority staff would be in a very dangerous position and would not have dealt as efficaciously with the disease in Dublin but for the assistance of the whole-time staff of the Dublin Corporation. Therefore, local authority inspectors and officials, whether they be part-time or whole-time, serve a function and I would feel disappointed if it were to be absorbed into a central authority machine where, possibly, there would not be greater cohesion but they would have their finger in headquarters on what is happening throughout the various areas.
The Veterinary Medical Association's recommendations were that each county should be a unit and should have its own veterinary staff to enforce and transact all business in connection with diseases of animals and public health work and other relevant enactments of the Oireachtas. That was not adopted. However, I will say in favour of it that animals can be disposed of very quickly in Dublin where the local authority can function with its own little laboratory and diseased animals are removed from premises not alone within 24 hours but within 12 hours.
With regard to the work throughout the country under the Bovine Tuberculosis Order, as I see it, the scheme will continue to operate and the scheme will mean that samples of milk will have to be sent from West Cork or from Galway to a central laboratory, let it be in the vicinity of Dublin or in Abbottstown, and with the delay there, it will certainly be at least a week before you will have the results. Similarly with samples of sputum.
The Bovine Tuberculosis Order deals with T.B. of the udder in the heading, that is, examining the milk, and the next heading is a chronic cough. In the case of a chronic cough in a cow, the sputum would be examined for bacilli. That sputum could be examined within half an hour and, if found to be positive, the animal could be slaughtered within six hours. If we send these samples away for examination, and have to await their return, it means an immense delay. So far, my remarks have dealt with the Tuberculosis Order, as such. I hope that the Tuberculosis Order in future will just be by-passed. It must be by-passed if we are to make an effective step towards the eradication of disease. That means that the animals will have to be tuberculin-tested and every animal which reacts must be removed.
Some people may think that this will cost a lot of money, but I do not think it will. The price of an animal, post-mortem, at present is practically as good as the price of milch cows that were bought some years previously. It will be seen, therefore, that the salvage after slaughter in most of these cases will recoup to a wonderful extent the amount that has to be paid in compensation in respect of animals that must be removed as reacting. Many of these animals which react will have more or less local lesions and that would not entail the condemnation of the total carcase. Only in very bad cases would the entire carcase have to be condemned. I believe, therefore, that there will be a considerable salvage and that, to a large extent, that salvage will compensate for a number of animals that would have to be removed.
I hope that the scheme will be implemented without further delay. I had an idea that the utilisation of portion of this grant from the Grant Counterpart Fund was suggested for years. Unfortunately, we had not got the American Government to give us the final "go". If we had, we could say to the Minister: "Go now, or we will be shouting at you." Unfortunately, he has that excuse still, but I hope he will not have it for very long.
The single dipping scheme in the treatment of sheep scab has had tremendously satisfactory results, and a case of sheep scab now is a rarity. If we had the complete co-operation of the farming community and the sheep owners, sheep scab could be wiped out in a year or two. The incidence of it has been reduced enormously in the past ten or 15 years.
Ireland has been remarkably free from the virulent contagious diseases that have afflicted the Continent and that have been afflicting even our neighbours, the British. They have been subject to attacks of foot-and-mouth disease, and even now there are such outbreaks from day to day in different parts of Britain. We have been lucky, by God's goodness as well as by the assistance of the veterinary section of the Department, to have escaped those outbreaks. When the fowl pest came to the country some years ago—it is prevalent still in England—we succeeded in eradicating it without too much difficulty. Therefore, as a country Ireland is in a remarkable position in regard to freedom from disease.
Bovine T.B. is the main problem now. The British have been going ahead for several years and have reached the stage where 50 per cent. of the cattle are guaranteed free from T.B. Those steps mean that a screw can be put on us to ensure that all our cattle going through are free from T.B. The Danes are free from it, and even during the German occupation, they succeeded in going ahead with the eradication of T.B. Therefore, there is no excuse for us to say we could not do it. We must go ahead and we must make progress from month to month and from year to year in eradicating this scourge from our cattle.
In regard to the discussion we had in the Seanad, when the Minister himself was not able to come here, on a, motion at the end of February or the beginning of March, the Seanad unanimously adopted the request to the Minister to take effective action to prevent the warble fly infection. This is the period again when the Minister and his staff should do everything possible to ensure that the ravages of the warble fly are minimised. I am not going over ground covered then, as I am sure the Minister is conversant with the position. We have to depend as much as possible on the publicity to farmers' clubs, Macra na Feirme and Muintir na Tire, to obsess them with the idea that it is in the national interest to prevent the ravages of this fly.
It does not require any inspections, any supervision by veterinary staff or other staff. It simply requires the farmers' own co-operation. If they cooperate, we will be rid of this affliction. Unfortunately, if you have three farmers agreeing to dress their cattle every month while these warbles are coming in, and you have the fourth or fifth man who will not do it, the warble fly does not mind over whose fence he flies or whose gate he goes through, and without this communal co-operative attack, while you may not Fáil, the efforts are not as effective.
The importance of clean wool has been dealt with in the Press fairly well quite recently. Last year there was an effective campaign of advertising.
