asked the Minister for Lands and Agriculture if he is aware that in County Leitrim alone it is estimated that 20,000 cattle were lost by fluke disease during the years 1924-25; that as a result great poverty and distress prevails in areas where stock died; and if he will state what steps he proposes to take to relieve the attendant hardships and want brought about by these appalling losses.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - LEITRIM CATTLE LOSSES FROM FLUKE.
Mr. HOGAN
I am aware that County Leitrim, like several other counties, suffered serious mortality in cattle through fluke disease in the period referred to with consequent losses to the farmers concerned.
All possible steps were taken during that period and since by the Department to make known in County Leitrim the procedure under which loans for re-stocking purposes might be obtained by farmers through the agency of Co-operative Credit Societies, such societies, when formed, obtaining for the purpose advances from State funds for a term of at least three years (free of interest for that period in the case of societies obtaining local deposits). As a result of this scheme, two previously existing Credit Societies and nine specially formed Credit Societies in the county have received State advances, amounting up to the present to approximately £9,000, in addition to over £2,000 in local deposits. I should hope that further societies will be set up in County Leitrim under this useful scheme, which is, as I have explained on previous occasions, in my opinion, the most satisfactory method of enabling State assistance to be given to those small farmers who have suffered through fluke disease, pending such arrangements for the making of agricultural loans of this nature as the Agricultural Credit Corporation, when it has been established, may decide to make.