View report page

NEW LEGISLATION
1. The Slaughterhouses (Hygiene) Regulations, 1958 and the
Slaughter of Animals (Prevention of Cruelty) Regulations, 1958
came into force on the 1st January, 1959.
These regulations deal with the hygienic construction, layout
and equipment of slaughterhouses and the practices to be observed
therein.
2. The Milk and Dairies (General) Regulations, 1959, came into
force on the 8th March, 1959 and re-enact, with amendments, the
Milk and Dairies Regulations, 1949 54.
Amongst the principal changes are
(a) the registration of distributors is now required to be effected
only with the local authority in whose area the premises from
which the milk is distributed are situated;
(b) provision is made for the local authority to pay compensation
to a person who sustains damage or loss through being debarred
from certain employment connected with cows or with milk
because he is suffering, or has been in contact with a person
suffering, from a disease liable to cause infection of milk;
(c) there are new provisions as to personal cleanliness, precautions
against contamination or infection of milk, and the provision
of first aid equipment.
3. The Ice-Cream (Heat Treatment etc.) Regulations, 1959, came
into force on the 27th April 1959.
These regulations consolidate and amend the previous regulations
made between 1947 and 1952.
They require that ingredients used in the manufacture of icecream
are to be pasteurised by one or other of three specified
methods or sterilized and thereafter kept at a low temperature until
the freezing process is begun.
The regulations make it an offence to sell ice cream which
has not been so treated but they exempt from the requirement the
pasteurisation or sterilization of certain types of water ice and
ice lollies which are sufficiently acid to make such treatment
unnecessary.
4. Housing (Underground Rooms) Act, 1959.
Since the passing of the Housing Act, 1935, conditions in
underground rooms have been governed mainly by Regulations prescribed
by the Local Authority and defining adequate standards of light,
ventilation and protection against dampness and effluvia.
In a case heard in 1957 a Court of Appeal expressed the view
that, by virtue of the wording of the Housing Repairs and Rent
Act, 1954, the Regulations were no longer operative and that
conditions in underground rooms were instead governed by general
standards pertaining to all dwellings and now found in the Housing
Act, 1957.
The above new Act has restored the position and Regulations
made by the Local Authority are once more operative.
Existing Regulations are under consideration by the Minister
of Housing and Local Government for revision and it is expected that
5