§ 57. Mr. JOYCEasked the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture (Ireland) whether his attention has been called to the fact that steamships discharging cargo at Irish ports from Continental countries often have as dunnage or packing for their cargoes straw or other material of much the same kind, and that quantities of this straw are thrown ashore on the quays or wharves at Irish ports and are taken up to be used for manure; and whether, seeing that there may be danger of infection in the shape of animal diease from this practice, his Department will make a general Order to have all material of this kind either burned or otherwise destroyed in order to prevent the risk of infection from those causes?
§ Mr. T. W. RUSSELL (Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture, Ireland)Existing regulations already require the destruction on board vessels of dunnage straw brought from a foreign country. The Department will take steps to ascertain as to the observance of this procedure at the different ports, but, up to the present, no facts have come to light giving ground for supposing that the requirement is being infringed. A recent complaint that such material was being allowed to be scattered about the docks at Limerick was, on investigation, not substantiated.