I agree with the Deputy that that is the real point. The real point was to ensure that the butter bearing the brand is up to the standard. I am prepared to give, and the Bill as it stands gives, ample power to examine the butter at the ports. If it was found necessary to make regulations which would enable us to examine the butter at the ports we can do so. Further, if there are any amendments needed in that direction I am satisfied to accept them. That, therefore, definitely ought to remove one very big grievance which the creamery managers have against the branding, that is, against the abuse of branding. If there are any amendments necessary to enable us more effectively to make an examination of the butter bearing the national brand at the ports, I am willing to accept that amendment. If it is found that we are making the Bill water-tight in that direction, at least let us hear no more about the contention that butter bearing the national brand may go out and not be up to the standard. I am willing to accept an amendment in this form:—
(1) The Minister may, if and whenever he is satisfied that such order is necessary or expedient in the interest of the butter industry in Saorstát Eireann, by order (in this section referred to as an examination order) require that all or any particular class of butter proposed to be exported, or all or any butter proposed to be exported from any particular premises or class or premises, or any particular consignment of butter consigned for export, should, before the same is exported, be submitted for examination by the prescribed officers with a view to determining whether such butter is suitable for export, and the Minister may by such order prohibit either absolutely or on failure to comply with conditions, the export of any butter which on such examination is found to be unsuitable for exportation.
(2) The Minister may by any examination order or by any subsequent order make regulations in respect of all or any of the matters following, that is to say—
(a) the method of submitting butter to which an examination order applies for examination, including the submission in suitable cases of representative parts only of the butter.
(b) the officers by whom the examination is to be made.
(c) the method of making the examination, and the places in which the same is to be made.
(d) the conditions with which the butter must comply in order to be suitable for export.
(e) the conditions under which butter found unsuitable for unrestricted export may be exported.
(3) An examination order shall remain in force for such period as shall be stated in the order, and for such further period as may be prescribed in any subsequent order, and where no such period is stated in the order, the order shall remain in force until revoked by the Minister.
(4) Any person who shall export or attempt to export any butter in contravention of an examination order or of any regulation made under this section shall be guilty of an offence under this section, and shall on summary conviction thereof be liable, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, and in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds, or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
Now, in that case, it gives us power to say that butter bearing the national brand shall only be exported on certain conditions.