§ Mr. JOHN O'CONNORasked whether it is the intention of the Irish Government to introduce Bill to give power to the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction to make regulations to give effect to the findings of the Departmental Committee on the Irish Butter Industry; whether any and what steps are intended to be taken to insist on the appointment only of creamery managers who possess technical and commercial qualifications for the office; and whether any and what steps are intended to be taken to encourage winter dairying in Ireland?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Report in question was only issued the other day, and the Department have not as yet come to any decision as to what action they will take in regard to it. No appointments are made to the position of dairy inspector save of persons possessing the requisite knowledge and qualifications for the office. Steps have already been taken to encourage winter dairying in Ireland, as, for instance, by guaranteeing price for winter milk and by experiments in the North and South of Ireland with dairy herds to show the cost of producing winter milk. The first184W reports on these experiments have already been published in the Department's "Journal." The question of winter dairying in Ireland is, of course, intimately connected with that of the extension of tillage, which the Department are doing all that is practicable to encourage.