: As Deputy Bruton has rightly said on Committee Stage Deputy Fitzpatrick suggested that the Schedule was very difficult to understand and perhaps did not properly convey what was intended. This Schedule sets out the method of computing exporters' monthly fees. I have since re-examined the text and arranged for the parliamentary draftsman to look at it.
We find the text is in order. I should explain that the Schedule must be read in conjunction with section 6. This section provides that the exporters' monthly fees must be calculated according to the rules laid down in the Schedule. Rule 1 in the Schedule specifies that the rate of slaughter fee payable by holders of meat exporters' licences shall be prescribed by the Minister and the rate is referred to in the rule as the "appropriate sum". The rate of fee is fixed by order of the Minister and approved by the Houses of the Oireachtas.
Rule 2 specifies that holders of exporters' licences shall pay a minimum amount per year in slaughter fees and the emphasis here is on the word "minimum". In the case of beef and pork this minimum is £50 and in the case of any other meat it is £25. These are the figures below which the calculated fees cannot drop. The reason for specifying a minimum is that, no matter how small the number of animals handled at a plant in any month, a certain basic inspection service has to be provided.
Rule 3 requires factories to give monthly returns of the number of animals presented for veterinary examination at their premises. The number is described in the rule as the "appropriate number". There is of course, a veterinary examination of all the animals handled by the factory and so the appropriate number is the full throughput.
Rule 4 specifies that the fee—that is, the appropriate sum prescribed by the Minister under rule 1—is multiplied by the number of animals, that is, the appropriate number as indicated in the returns under rule 3. The result of the multiplication is the fee for the month payable by the exporter. This fee cannot, of course, be less than the minimum required by rule 2 when applied to a whole year.
The difficulty mentioned on Committee Stage may have arisen from a mistaken belief that the figures quoted in rule 2 form part of the mathematical calculation in rule 4. As I have explained, this is not so. All rule 2 does is to set the floor below which the fee emerging from rules 1, 3 and 4 cannot fall.
