asked the Minister for Agriculture when he will declare County Laois to be fully accredited under the Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication Scheme, as many farmers in the area are seriously affected in their sales of livestock under present circumstances; and if he will declare the county to be fully accredited immediately.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Bovine TB: Laois as Accredited Area.
26.
The attestation of Laois is bound up with the attestation of Counties Dublin and Wexford, and the Deputy may be assured that, when the time is ripe, I shall need no urging to make the necessary declarations in regard to all three countries.
Surely the Minister is aware that farmers are experiencing great difficulty in disposing of their stocks?
The Minister is aware of every problem the farmer has——
The evidence today is that the Minister is not and that he does not even know that the farmers exist. From his speech at Mullingar it appears that he is only concerned with aliens.
——and is very actively engaged in remedying them.
There is a number of these farmers who have no further feeding for these cattle and are suffering big losses and it is no advantage to the Minister to withhold attestation standards from them.
It is all very fine to urge me in this matter but I have been very intimately interested in this problem and I have a fair idea of the problem as far as feeding is concerned this season not only in the non-attested areas but in the attested areas too. The Deputy can be assured that the pleasure will be all mine when I can decide the date when attestation will cover the areas with which he is most actively concerned.
Why not have individual attestation for these people?
For reasons into which I do not intend to go, when clearance measures apply in any county we do not want to waste the time of our veterinary staff trotting around after individual attestation. They were given a chance and the chance has been there for a number of years and those who have not taken advantage of the opportunity are not going to be allowed to interfere with the progress of the scheme for their own selfish needs.
He is going to call on the aliens for a bit of help.
(Interruptions.)
Deputy Flanagan will please allow business to proceed.