Vol. 278 No. 3
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if, in view of the fact that the European Commission have expressed a readiness to consider the abolition of monetary compensatory amounts, he will indicate the steps he has taken to bring about such a step.
128.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if, in view of the fact that monetary compensatory amounts now stand at the same level as in April, 1974, when beef exports to the Continent practically ceased, he will indicate the steps he has taken to have them reduced by a further change in the reference rate for the pound.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 127 and 128 together.
As the Deputy is no doubt aware I have this morning secured as part of the compromise on the 1975-76 prices proposals the agreement of the Council of Ministers to a further reduction of 5 per cent in the representative rate for the Irish pound. The Council has also agreed to make adjustments to the representative rates for certain other member states and to reduce the remaining MCA's in the case of depreciated currencies by 1.25 per cent. The over-all effect of the monetary package is that the rate of Irish MCA is reduced from 12 per cent to 5.75 per cent. The Council has also authorised the Commission to reduce further the level of the remaining MCA on beef when the market price is below intervention.
While we welcome this it does not answer my question, and it really has nothing to do with the previous question.
I do not want to go back on the previous question, but this was part of Britain's agreement to this morning's proposals, I presume, that the UK is enabled to pay the premiums as indicated in the reply to Question No. 126.
This is the very point I want to get. Even though agreement has been reached I do not know what the package is. If it is fair for Britain to have the deficiency payments why do we not have them?
This was a compromise and we are in the compromise.
We do not have deficiency payments.
The Council have agreed to make adjustments to the representative rates "for certain other member states and to reduce the remaining MCA's in the case of depreciated currencies by 1.25 per cent."
While we welcome this, it does not answer this question. It is relevant to the last question.
I do not want to go back on the last question. The overall effect of the monetary package is that the rate of Irish marketing compensation amounts was reduced more than 50 per cent, from 12 per cent to 5.5 per cent. This is a give and take effort. The Deputy will appreciate that it was 6.30 this morning when the Ministers concluded their meeting. The information I have given to the House is a summary we received from Europe just a while ago.
