asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will consider allowing farmers under £30 valuation who transfer from milk to beef the grant under the beef incentive scheme without excluding the first two units in their herd.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Beef Incentive Scheme.
27.
As the Deputy is aware, significant improvements in the rates of grant under the beef cattle incentive scheme have already been announced this year. The new rates are of special benefit to the smaller herdowners. In these circumstances I do not propose to amend the terms of the scheme in the way proposed by the Deputy.
Can the Minister state why two units were fixed in the first instance? Why not one unit?
Does the Deputy mean a cow or a unit?
The word "unit" is used in the question; it is not my word.
The Deputy means a cow. The reason is that a person owning two cows could not seriously be considered to be a milk supplier. I think it will be obvious to the Deputy that the milk from the first two cows in the herd, no matter how small the herd may be, is likely to be used for domestic purposes.
No. One cow would be sufficient for such purpose.
Furthermore, the Deputy may not be aware of the large number of people who keep a cow for domestic purposes; in many cases the owners are shopkeepers, solicitors and so on. The purpose of the scheme is to draw off excessive supplies of milk to creameries.
Is the Minister aware that there are in west Cavan, west Cork and many parts of Ireland farmers with five or six cows and it is quite wrong that such people should be deprived of the benefits of this scheme on the basis that two of the cows are supposed to be used for supplying milk for the family? There are many families for whom one cow is more than sufficient for this purpose.
Two cows yield six and a half gallons of milk a day.
Is the Minister aware that Deputy O'Donovan got his Master's degree in economics for a book dealing with the economics of the cattle trade in this country?
I did not quite catch what Deputy Donegan said but Deputy O'Donovan was quite wrong when he said that people owning five or six cows in west Cork are being deprived of the benefits of this scheme because of the way it is operated. This, of course, is not so. I wish to repeat to Deputy O'Donovan, so that he will remember, that the purpose of this scheme is to draw off excessive milk supplies for milk manufacturing purposes. It is not realistic to say that the first two cows in anybody's herd contribute in any way to this excess.
I know what the Minister has said, but may I ask the Minister——
I want to enlighten the Deputy.
Nobody from County Kilkenny could enlighten me in any way about cows. Is the Minister not aware that the scheme was not operated properly in the first instance and that the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries did not have enough faith in this scheme?
I am not so aware. I consider it an excellent scheme and it is working well.