asked the Minister for Agriculture if in the interest of producing first quality bacon for the export trade he will consider erecting a modern bacon factory in West Cork where pigs would be rested for three or four weeks before slaughter.

The Department of Agriculture does not engage in the business of bacon-curing, but, apart from that, since the capacity of the bacon factories in this country is more than sufficient to deal with the supply of pigs, no useful purpose would be served by the erection of a bacon factory in West Cork.

Is the Minister aware that, as a result of an Order made recently by his Department, pigs must be rested four hours before slaughter and, furthermore, as a result of regulations made by the bacon factories that pigs must be in the factory before 10 a.m., the pig industry in my constituency will be seriously affected? The constituency is 100 miles long and farmers cannot possibly have their pigs in the factory before 10 a.m. I understand that they are not——

This supplementary question seems to be 100 miles long, too.

If they are not in the factory before 10 a.m. they are kept until the following day when there will be a serious loss to the farmers. Will the Minister do anything about that?

The provision of a rest period has nothing to do with the question which is on the Order Paper.

You would not put a bacon factory where there are pigs.