§ Mr. JAMES O'CONNORasked the Vice-President of the Board of Agriculture (Ireland) if he is aware that in January, 1908, 833 the Wicklow County Committee of Agriculture requested the Department of Agriculture to adopt a scheme for providing veterinary attendance in the case of farm stock on the dispensary medical charities system in the county Wicklow; that he then promised to give a 12 months' trial to a veterinary scheme in force in county Wexford before introducing it into Wicklow; and whether, seeing that the Wexford experiment has worked satisfactorily and is practically self-supporting, he will now initiate the same scheme in the county Wicklow?
The VICE-PRESIDENT of the BOARD of AGRICULTURE (Ireland) (Mr. T. W. Russell)The request referred to was received by the Department, who replied that, as they had already approved of an experiment in the working of veterinary dispensaries in county Wexford, they would not be prepared to approve of the extension of the scheme until they had gained sufficient experience of the working of the system, and were fully satisfied as to its soundness, particularly with regard to its financial aspect. The experience gained in county Wexford is not yet sufficient to enable the Department to form a judgment as to whether it would be wise to extend the system to other counties. The experiment is being closely watched. Up to the present it has been far from self-supporting, the cost to the county amounting to about£400 for 12 months.