§ MR. W. J. CORBET (Wicklow, E.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If his attention has been called to the large number of dairy cows recently slaughtered in Dublin by order of Government; whether it is a fact that twenty-one animals, belonging to Mrs. Keegan, of Mounttown, were so slaughtered, thirteen of them being, according to the report of Veterinary Inspector Hedley, who made a post-mortem examination, free from disease; whether be can state what the cost to the ratepayers, consequent on the slaughter of these animals, will be; and, whether the Government will consider the feasibility of establishing a hospital farm, as a sanitarium, somewhere near Dublin, to which cattle that have not shown any symptoms of disease might be removed from infected farms, so as to avoid the useless sacrifice of property and consequent tax upon the ratepayers?
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY (Colonel KING-HARMAN) (Kent, Isle of Thanet)(who replied): It is a fact that 21 animals were so slaughtered at Mounttown, and that 13 of them were found, on post-mortem examination, to be free from disease. The course adopted was rendered necessary by the long-continued existence of disease in the dairy yard in which the cattle were confined. The cost to the ratepayers is about £180; but one-half of that will subsequently be recouped to them from the General Cattle Diseases Fund. The Irish Government do not consider that it would be practicable to establish a hospital farm as suggested.