§ Mr. CHARLES CRAIG (for Mr. Lonsdale)asked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that the Armagh County Council Committee of Agriculture have requested permission for a committee of their number to inspect the four Normandy sires now on the Department's farms, and their request has been refused; whether a further application from the same committee to the Department to receive a deputation with reference to 1479 horse-breeding schemes for the county of Armagh has also been declined; whether he is aware that the Armagh County Committee have made many applications for stallions suitable to the requirements of horse breeders in the county without any satisfactory result; and whether he will state the reasons which have induced the Department to adopt this attitude towards the county committee?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Armagh Committee of Agriculture applied on 5th February for permission to inspect these sires with a view to one or more of them standing in county Armagh. The Department replied that it was not proposed to send these sires into the country for service. The suggested visit of inspection was therefore unnecessary. The Department have since arranged that a deputation from the committee shall wait upon the Vice-President in regard to their horse-breeding scheme. The Department have not refused any application for permission to see the Normandy sires.
§ Mr. BIRRELLI cannot answer that question.
§ Mr. CHARLES CRAIG (for Mr. Lonsdale)asked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that the committee of agriculture of the Armagh County Council have passed a resolution, which has been endorsed by other county committees in Ulster, declaring that the scheme for encouraging improvement in the breeds of horses which has been worked in Ulster since the formation of the Department of Agriculture has proved itself totally valueless for the purpose, and that the Department be requested to hold such an inquiry into the subject as will give representative breeders from each of the Ulster counties an opportunity of expressing their views; and whether it is intended to hold such an inquiry?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI understand that some Ulster county committees have adopted the resolution referred to, and that others have not. The Department make a practice of having an annual inquiry as to the views of all the county committees on their horse-breeding schemes, and they will do so this year as usual. The views that have hitherto been expressed by the Ulster county committees do not correspond with the statement in the resolution.
§ Mr. CHARLES CRAIG (for Mr. Lonsdale)asked the Chief Secretary whether the Department of Agriculture, Ireland, imported other Normandy sires previously to the four now on the Department's own farm; whether he will state how many of these animals were purchased and give the dates when they were imported, state the price paid for each of them, the proportion of thoroughbred blood claimed for them, and where they are now standing?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe only Normandy sires imported by the Department are the four recently purchased.