Expenditure for the eradication of diseasesN.I.
3.—(1) Without prejudice to any power conferred on it by any other enactment, the Department may, with the approval of the Department of Finance, expend such sums as the Department thinks fit with the object of eradicating or, so far as practicable, preventing diseases of animals and poultry in Northern Ireland.
(2) Without prejudice to paragraph (1), the Department may by order made with the approval of the Department of Finance, make a scheme under which the owner of any herd of cattle in Northern Ireland may be paid such sums as the Department thinks fit to be expended with the object of securing so far as practicable, that the herd will be free from tuberculosis.
(3) With a view to promoting the breeding and distribution of stocks of poultry free from disease and without prejudice of paragraph (1), the Department may, with the approval of the Department of Finance, make arrangements for persons carrying on, at any premises in Northern Ireland recognised by the Department for the purposes of this paragraph, the business of breeding and distributing stocks of poultry or of producing and distributing hatching eggs, to be afforded, free of charge, facilities for having poultry, whether alive or dead, inspected, tested and examined with the object of determining whether the birds are free from disease, or from what cause they have died.
(4) In this Article “disease” is not restricted by its definition in Article 2 (2).