asked the Minister for Agriculture (a) what compensation, if any, he proposes to give to farmers who suffered severe losses of live stock during the past year due to fluke; (b) the nature and extent of such compensation; (c) failing such compensation if he will give loans free of interest to all genuine applicants to enable them restock their lands.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Compensation of Farmers' Losses.
I do not propose to recommend the payment of compensation in such circumstances as those outlined by the Deputy. The policy of my Department in regard to outbreaks of fluke, parasitic worms, hoose and similar conditions is not to wait until havoc has been wrought and then return to count the dead and pay compensation for a catastrophe that should not have been allowed to occur; but rather to take preventive measures in good time as was recently done in the Loop Head area of the Deputy's own constituency, with the gratifying result that whereas these diseases accounted for 853 deaths of cattle in that area between September, 1947, and February, 1948, only six cattle were lost from similar causes between September, 1948, and February, 1949. I shall be glad to furnish the Deputy with full particulars of all the circumstances of this undertaking if it would be of interest to him.
Is the Minister aware that when similar losses were experienced in years gone by, the then Government provided loans free of interest to enable farmers who were thus hard hit to restock their lands, and would the Minister consider the advisability of making loans free of interest to those men who, he himself admits, suffered severe losses as a result of epidemics?
During the previous Administration catastrophies of this kind were recurrent, and frequently devastated large areas. It was then necessary to outlay large sums of money for the purpose of rescuing people from the disaster which was permitted to come upon them, but I assure the Deputy that, as far as I am aware, in any areas where the threat of such havoc manifested itself last autumn, effective measures were taken to avert it and the Deputy will, I think, agree that in the Loop Head area which, traditionally, for the past 15 years, has been a centre of such disaster, no such disaster supervened between September, 1948, and spring of this year, and none will recur if suitable notification is given.
Is the Minister not aware that the prevalence of this disease is due to waterlogging of land and heavy rainfall, and that it recurs during years of heavy rainfall? It is not quite correct to say that it has been continuous for the past 15 years and, by inference, to say that it never occurred before and will never occur again.
If the Deputy would care to have full particulars of the methods now employed by the Department of Agriculture to deal with this problem, I should be very glad to furnish them in person or by memorandum, and I think I will be able to satisfy him that it is better to prevent animals from dying than to wait for them to die, bury them and compensate their owners.
I shall be very glad of any information I can get.