asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he is aware of the high mortality rate among cows due to late inspections under the beef cattle incentive scheme which entailed retaining calves until spring.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cattle Mortality Rate.
18.
I am not so aware. The vast majority of inspections under this scheme were completed before Christmas.
Is the Minister aware that there were many instances where the owners of herds were obliged to retain the calves over a long period of the winter, right into January in some cases? Will he not admit that this resulted—during a winter when feed was scarce—in a mortality rate among calves?
The Deputy, I am sure, will also be aware that, as a result of the representations made by many Deputies in this House, I extended the normal date for applying by six weeks last year. You cannot have this extension at one end and not have it at the other. Having regard to the enormous increase in the number of inspections that had to be made last year—where we spent more than £10 million for the first time ever—I think a first class job was done. Of course, somebody had to be last and the number that passed Christmas was very small indeed.
Unfortunately, I found that it was the people who could ill afford it who were last. There was a man who had to come to me twice to get his inspected—it was in January—and he had to sell them immediately for want of fodder. He sold them at the ridiculous price of £35 to £40.
Deputy Callanan is making a statement rather than asking a question.
Would the Minister not agree that a deputation made representations to him to permit calves to be sold off before the second inspection for this same reason?
This creates a whole lot of problems.
This was representative of the IFA organisation.
I would like very much if I could get away with one inspection and be sure that people would not side-step a whole lot of things by evading them.