HC Deb 12 March 1906 vol 153 cc863-4
MR. EDWARD BARRY (Cork County, S.)

To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether farmers who purchased their holdings on the basis of prices till now ruling for store cattle, and on the immunity from foot-and-mouth and other contagious diseases consequent on the exclusion of foreign cattle, which, if permitted to land, may contain latent germs of undeveloped disease, are to be held to those bargains and compelled to pay their annuities, if by any action of the Government their principal industry is materially injured; and whether steps will be taken to secure a continuance of the conditions under which the purchasers undertook to meet their obligations to the State.

(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The points raised in the Question are matters for argument which cannot be discussed within the limits of an Answer to a Question; but the considerations mentioned by the hon. Member are, together with others, of course, present to the mind of the Government.