asked the Minister for Agriculture the number of dairies in the country covered by the Milk and Dairies Acts, 1935-1956, the number inspected by health or sanitary inspectors in the most recent 12-month period for which figures are available; and if any prosecutions were brought.
Written Answers. - Dairies Inspections.
188.
The number of such dairies registered by local sanitary authorities on 31 December 1977 was 12,019. My Department does not maintain statistics of the numbers of inspections of these premises carried out by local sanitary authorities or of prosecutions brought by these authorities in this sector. Sixty of these registered dairies were also licensed by my Department in 1977 for the production and sale of special designation milk and were inspected on average about eight or nine times in that year. No prosecutions were brought by my Department.