§ MR. O'SHEE (Waterford, W.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Department of Agriculture has taken steps or propose to take steps to ascertain the manner of the introduction of the disease epizootic lymphangitis into Ireland, as requested by a resolution of the Waterford County Council; and whether, if it be shown that the disease was introduced by Army horses, compensation will be paid to the owners of horses lost or destroyed by the epidemic.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) The Department do not consider it necessary to make any formal investigation in this matter. The first cases of epizootic lymphangitis in Ireland were notified to the Department by the military authorities in November, 1903, as having occurred in two Army horses at the Curragh Camp. These horses were diagnosed by the Army veterinary officers to be suffering from the disease mentioned and were destroyed. Where horses are compulsorily slaughtered by direction of the local authority, compensation is granted out of the local rate, and one-half of such compensation is recouped to the local authority out of the General Cattle Diseases Fund. There is no power under the Diseases of Animals Acts to award compensation for horses not so compulsorily slaughtered.