Before the Dáil proceeds with the business of the day, I desire to raise a question. I do not know whether it can be called a point of order or a question relating to the decency of the House. In connection with the debate on agricultural credit societies, certain statements were made by Deputies last Wednesday. On Sunday last, a Deputy who was listening to the debate was down the country and he misrepresented certain statements. I could use a stronger word in regard to his action. This Deputy who went down the country, who was present during the debate, and is present now, said that "some of the Farmers' representatives, Messrs. Gorey and Heffernan, got up in the Dáil a few days ago and said that 90 per cent. of their cattle were diseased. Was not that a nice way to run down their country? Was it any wonder the store cattle trade should be as it was? They said last year the country was reeking with fluke."
Now, what was said with regard to the 90 per cent.—as far as it was connected with my name—was this: "If you ask butchers in our slaughter yards about English, Scotch and Irish cattle, they will tell you a considerable percentage of the livers of these animals, with our rainfall, was not in anything like perfect order and is not yet." That is what was stated here, and yet we have a Deputy going down the country making the statement I have referred to. I will not make any comment. If I do so, I might say a little too much. Some of us do not wonder what comes from that particular Deputy.