§ MR. L. P. HAYDEN (Roscommon, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been drawn to a resolution of the Athlone Board of Guardians protesting against the assessment on the union of the sum of £184 9s. 4d. for the expenses of the Board in Dublin under the provisions of the Prevention of the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894, over and above the local expenditure under the Act, as it was not apparent that the disease had been materially checked by this expensive administration; and whether he will have the 540 question of this extraordinary expenditure reconsidered with a view to its reduction.
Mr. J. MORLEYI have been furnished with a copy of the resolution referred to. The assessment complained of was levied off the various Poor Law Unions in proportion to the net annual value of the property in each union, and was rendered necessary by the efforts that are being made to deal effectually with swine fever in Ireland. I am advised that there is no power to alter the amount of the assessment in the case of any particular union.
§ SIR T. ESMONDEI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if the Local Government Board have received complaints of the operation of the swine fever regulations in Gorey Union; what number of swine have been slaughtered, and what number of cases reported there within the past six months; and what have been the fees of the veterinary surgeon, and the total cost to the rates in this union since the Act was passed?
MR. J. MORLEYNo recent complaints have reached the Veterinary Department of the operations of the swine fever regulations in this Union. During the six months ended 23rd February, 1895, 302 pigs were slaughtered in the Union. Ninety-four cases of supposed swine fever were reported by owners during that period, and in 80 of these the animals were slaughtered by the veterinary inspectors of the local authority as diseased or suspected of disease. The fees paid to the two inspectors in the Union since the passing of the Act in November, 1893, amount to £270. The funds voted by Parliament for the current financial year sufficed to meet the expenditure till the close of the year 1894, and in December an assessment at the rate of ½d. in the 1 was made on the various Poor Law Unions for the purposes of the General Cattle Diseases Fund. The amount assessed on Gorey Union was £167 16s. 6d.