asked the Minister for Agriculture whether his attention has been drawn to the losses sustained by farmers as a result of livestock being killed by lightning; and whether he will consider drafting a scheme to provide an insurance fund to cover all farmers against this catastrophe.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Livestock killed by Lightning: Insurance against Losses.
23.
I have recently seen reports of cases in which some livestock were killed by lightning. The question of an insurance scheme to cover the various diseases and other risks of livestock has been the subject of much consideration for many years, but, so far, the difficulties involved in devising a satisfactory scheme have not been solved.
Would the Minister not consider it a perfectly simple and practicable scheme to ask the county committees of agriculture to raise a rate of one halfpenny for one year to allow a fund to be administered, either by himself or by the central body of the county committees, in the confident anticipation that the proceeds of that very small rate would provide a sum which, if invested, would meet all the charges which would come in course of payment and protect individual farmers from crippling losses against which there is no other means of protection?
It is possible to suggest all forms and types of schemes here by way of Supplementary Question, but I would imagine that in the 50 or almost 60 odd years, during which this whole subject has been discussed by many bodies, something would have emerged if this matter were as simple as the Deputy's Supplementary Question would appear to suggest. It is all very well to say in relation to losses from lightning that we should have a scheme administered through the county committees of agriculture, but that would mean, as the Deputy has suggested, an additional rate. The loss to stock owners from lightning is not considerable when compared to other losses and, if one were to think in terms of an insurance scheme, in my view it should be a scheme that should be all embracive. The quotations which it is possible to get to cover risk from fire and lightning I believe would not prove attractive to herd owners, if they were to be asked to participate in any insurance scheme of that kind.
Surely this is a classic example of the best being the enemy of the good? Of course, it would be desirable to insure against all forms of animal mortality but, as the Minister knows, that is quite impracticable, but here is one form of catastrophe that can cripple one small farmer if his stock should be struck. The fund requisite to protect that individual, from the national point of view, would be microscopic. One levy of a halfpenny would, perhaps, meet the whole thing. Perhaps, the Minister would consider that restrictive matter with a view to reform now, pending gradual reform hereafter?
It is all very well for the Minister and the Department to consider this but there are many rural organisations that are naturally and genuinely interested in this problem. If consideration is to be given to a problem of this nature then one would think and expect that that consideration should first come from those who have, as I indicated, been discussing this problem for a long time. I admit that in some isolated cases losses from lightning can be heavy for a limited number of individuals but, looking back on the records I have, the total losses are not great.
But for the individual they are disastrous.
Anyway, as I say, we have many rural organisations now and I suppose that sometimes they do not have such a terrible lot of work to do. If consideration is to be given to such a subject as that, I would expect they should initially run over the course and see what sort of machinery or scheme they could devise.
Would the Minister even consider submitting the problem I have now put to him to these rural organisations, if he feels himself incompetent to act without their prior sanction?
The Department of Agriculture has been considering this matter since 1901——
I never heard of it.
——and that was the year in which I was born. It is a good while ago.
And the Minister is content to go on considering it.
I have been referred to the subject many times since.
Go and discuss it with the Taoiseach——
Why did the Deputy not do something himself when he was Minister?
Yes. Why did the Deputy not do something himself?
That would be catastrophic. Lightning would be nothing compared with it.