HC Deb 07 October 1909 vol 11 cc2338-9W
Mr. JEREMIAH MacVEAGH

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether his attention has been called to the protest made by the Loughbrickland Co-operative Dairy Society against the demands made under the Dairy and Cowsheds (Ireland) Order, 1908, on milk suppliers to the Loughbrickland Creamery by officials of the Newry (No. 1) Rural Council, in requiring them to make expensive alterations in their byres and cowsheds, notwithstanding that these farmers have already, at their own expense, provided an effectual safeguard to the public health in the pasteurisation of all milk supplied to that creamery, and that the inspectors of the Department of Agriculture have reported most favourably as to the cleanliness of the creamery and the milk delivered at it; and whether, as this Order exempts the sellers of home-made butter and buttermilk, which is not pasteurised, he will have the Order so varied or modified as to place milk suppliers to creameries where the milk is pasteurised outside the more expensive requirements of the Order, and thus save an important Irish industry from unnecessary penalisation and ultimate destruction?

Mr. BIRRELL

A protest against the administration of the Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milkshops (Ireland) Order of 1908 in Newry (No. 1) Rural District has been made by the Loughbrickland Co-operative Dairy Society on the ground of the excessive demands of the local veterinary inspector. The rural district council, who are the authority responsible for the execution of the Order in the district, were unanimously of opinion at their last meeting on the 25th ultimo that "the requirements of the veterinary inspector were reasonable and necessary improvements in the interests of the public milk supply." It further appears that, with one exception, every dairy owner in the district had complied with the council's requirements. The partial exemption in favour of milk suppliers to creameries, suggested at the close of the question, would be impracticable. Apart from other objections, there would be no guarantee that the pasteurising plant, if provided, were systematically or effectually worked.