asked the Minister for Lands and Agriculture if he will state how many bulls, passed this year, earmarked by the inspectors for licences. and entered for Messrs. Marsh & Sons' bull sale, held in Cork on the 21st March, 1928, were prevented from being put through the sale ring by inspectors of the Department of Agriculture; for what reason this action has been taken; and if he can state what experience these inspectors have, and what their qualifications are.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - DEPARTMENTAL INSPECTORS AND CORK BULL SALE.
Mr. HOGAN
Five bulls in respect of which licences had issued, and 11 others earmarked at local inspection centres as suitable for licences, were prevented by the Department's inspectors from being put through the Sale Ring at Messrs. Marsh and Sons' sale in Cork on the 21st instant. In accordance with arrangements made with those responsible for the conduct of sales such as Messrs. Marsh's, approved by the Department for the selection of bulls for premiums under the Department's Live Stock Schemes, only such bulls as are passed by the Department's inspectors at the sale as suitable for licensing for breeding purposes are permitted to be offered by auction. The 16 bulls in question were regarded by the Department's inspectors at the sale as being unsuitable for breeding in any part of the country. The inspectors concerned are fully competent live stock officers who have a thorough knowledge of the live stock industry throughout the country and who have had long experience of the Department's live stock schemes.
Will the Minister explain how it is that these bulls were passed by an inspector of the Department in February and March at the local testing station and were not condemned before the farmers were put to the expense of bringing them to the sale? Were the inspectors who passed the bulls in February and March not as good judges as those who condemned them at Marsh's sale?
Mr. HOGAN
It is a rather long story, but the position is that there are about twenty or thirty inspectors inspecting bulls through the country for the purposes of the Licensing of Bulls Act. Their standard cannot be kept absolutely uniform, but I am prepared, at the same time, to accept their recommendations and to give licences to bulls which they recommend. If any bulls, on the other hand, are taken to shows such as those of Messrs. Marsh or the Royal Dublin Society, and if any senior inspector of the Department, seeing the bulls and examining them for premiums, decides, even though they were passed by one of the inspectors temporarily employed for that purpose through the country, that they are not up to standard for a licence, it is open to the inspector to make a recommendation that the licence should be withdrawn, and there is power in me to withdraw such licence.
Are these bulls now to be considered as licensed or rejected?
Mr. HOGAN
They are rejected. The licences are withdrawn. The point is we would have no objection to bulls on the border line remaining in the district, but we object to bringing them to first-class shows, and, having been purchased by farmers at high prices, sending them to other parts of the country as first-class premium bulls. We give them the benefit of the doubt if the owner leaves them in the district, but if he brings them to first-class shows, where a farmer is likely to buy them as first-class premium bulls and to take them away thinking that he is going to improve the stock in his part of the country, we withdraw the licence altogether.
These farmers bred the bulls for sale. They were bred from registered dairy cows and first-class bulls. I cannot understand how an inspector paid by the Department goes to one part of the country and licenses a bull and when that bull is brought to Cork another inspector rejects it. Is not that rather ridiculous and a waste of public money?
Mr. HOGAN
It is quite common. All through the Act there is an appeal from one inspector to another.
Are you prepared to have the bulls inspected free, seeing that one inspector passed them and another rejected them?
Mr. HOGAN
No. The owners can appeal and pay the fee, and the bulls will be inspected again if the time is not passed within which an appeal must be made.
Is it a fact that one of the inspectors who rejected the bulls in Marsh's is an ex-army man and the other was the manager of a drapery establishment? Can the Minister say how many cobblers are employed as bull inspectors?
Mr. HOGAN
The two inspectors in question are two of the best judges of stock in this country or in England, and there is not a farmer in Cork who knows anything about live stock who would not admit that. When the two Deputies use these expressions, these flippant jeers, they are only showing their ignorance about live stock.
We are showing the incompetence of the judges.