I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the following regulations in draft:
Pigs and Bacor Act, 1935 (Part II) (No. 8) Regulations, 1982 and Agricultural Produce (Fresh Meat) Act, 1930 (Exporters' Licences) (Fees) Regulations, 1982.
Veterinary Inspection Fees: Motion.
These proposed regulations would increase the fees payable in respect of cattle, horses, sheep and pigs presented for veterinary inspection under the Fresh Meat Acts and the Pigs and Bacon Acts. The present rates of fees are quite inadequate to meet the cost of the veterinary inspection service provided by my Department and it is necessary that they be brought more into line with that cost. It is proposed to raise the fee for cattle from £1 to £1.75 per head, for sheep from 17p to 30p per head, and for horses from 5p to £1.75 per head. In the case of pigs the increase would be from 0.01p to 50p per head.
Hitherto no charge has been made for the veterinary inspection of live animals before export. That inspection and the veterinary inspection at export slaughtering premises are both carried out by my Department's veterinary service and it is appropriate that both trades should contribute equally to the cost of the inspection facilities provided. Accordingly, in order to ensure that there is equivalence of treatment between the export trade in live animals and that in meat I have introduced an identical fee in respect of the veterinary inspection service provided by my Department for animals exported live by sea or by air or across the land frontier for export from Northern Ireland.
Up to 31 December 1980 the fee for pigs was 25p. At that time the pigmeat industry was going through a difficult period and the Government decided that they would reduce exceptionally the level of fee from 25p to 0.01p per pig for the years 1981 and 1982. This represented an annual relief of about £500,000. It was envisaged that the industry would co-operate in centralised marketing through the Pigs and Bacon Commission and would pay to that body an administrative levy of 65p per pig. However, following on a decision by the Court of Justice in Luxembourg and a Supreme Court decision here, which ruled against the charging of a statutory levy, the commission were effectively left without a source of revenue to enable them to function.
The Government remain firmly of the opinion that centralised marketing is essential in the long-term interests of the pigmeat industry. Because of the reasons I have outlined, however, this can be done only on a voluntary basis. I am pleased, therefore, that the industry itself has decided to take over completely the running of the Pigs and Bacon Commission since 5 April. To enable the restructured organisation to get off the ground with a clean slate, the Government for their part have taken over responsibility for the accumulated deficit of some £5.6 million of the old Pigs and Bacon Commission and I will be introducing a Supplementary Estimate later to provide for this. In undertaking to clear this deficit the Government made it clear to the industry that a fee for veterinary inspection services would be reimposed on pigs and hence the draft regulation now before the Dáil.
The cost of providing the veterinary inspection service at meat export plants has increased steadily over the years. This is mainly attributable to increased salaries and inflation as well as to some expansion in the industry generally and increased diversification. The cost has risen steeply in the past few years and the position now is that the present fees are much less than adequate to meet the cost of the service.
The new rate of fees are expected to bring in £3.1 million in a calendar year while the cost of the meat inspection is estimated at £4.4 million. When they are viewed in the context of the present-day values of livestock the rates of fees are very modest. The veterinary inspection service is a vital element in our meat export business. Without satisfactory veterinary supervision and certification our products simply will not be accepted abroad and as major meat exporters we must ensure that our products meet the highest standards of hygiene demanded by the customer. It seems only reasonable that these interests which benefit directly from the service should bear the cost.
I propose to bring the increase into effect on 31 May 1982. The proposed increases have been cleared by the National Prices Commission.
I wish to say at the outset that we support the proposals put forward by the Minister of State. These are matters we intended to bring forward during our period in office and for that reason I concur with the reasoning outlined by the Minister. However, I would like to add something to the very brief outline he gave of the reasons for taking this action.
In relation to the pig industry, the levy now proposed at 50p per head is reasonable and the revenue from that in a full year at our present level of slaughterings would be in region of £1 million, which I understand, would not be sufficient to cover the total cost of the veterinary inspection at the piggery factories. It appears that in spite of the fact that this levy is being applied, the full cost of the veterinary inspection is not being borne by the industry and to that extent it still represents a measure of support for the industry which I agree is justified in the present circumstances.
The Minister also referred to the efforts being made in a sense to rationalise and update the position of the Pigs and Bacon Commission. He referred very briefly to the fact that decisions of the European Court in relation to the collection of fees have created difficulties for that commission and for its financing through traditional channels. I am very glad the discussions have proceeded and I gather from the Minister that they have been brought to a very wide measure of agreement as to how we approach this problem. I remember that at the time when Bord Bainne were turned into a co-op having been a State sector organisation before that, the transformation was made because it was believed — and I think rightly — at the time that the status enjoyed by Bord Bainne and the methods by which they were financed were no longer fully in keeping with the rules and regulations of the European Community. It has been very clear since Bord Bainne became a co-op that they retained all the dynamism they had shown up to then, retained their ability to deal in a very adequate, in a very positive way with the requirements for exporting one of our major products.
At the time there was some discussion as to whether we should not do the same thing about the Pigs and Bacon Commission. It was decided for a number of reasons that it would not be appropriate to adopt the same approach. Personally, I regretted that because I felt that the same logic applied to the Pigs and Bacon Commission. Unfortunately, this was one of the cases where hindsight would prove those who held that opinion to have been right, because there is no doubt that over the last three years there have been serious difficulties in running the Pigs and Bacon Commission which call for a major change in the approach to running and financing the commission. That is why I took the particular approach that is now being followed by the Minister. I hope that the arrangement he has outlined here — I can understand why he did not wish to go into it in a great deal of detail for very obvious reasons — will prove possible and that it will work out on the lines we have planned.
On the beef side, we have a proposal to increase the veterinary inspection levy to £1.75, that is the levy that already exists in the beef factories, and also to apply the same level of levies in respect of veterinary inspection of live cattle exports. As the Minister said, that will remove an anomaly which exists in the trade at present under which a fee is payable in respect of cattle slaughtered at meat export premises but no fee is payable on similar cattle exported live. This has been one of the irritants in the trade which has led to the claim that live cattle exports are being more favourably treated than exports of carcase meats or processed meats, There is, as the Minister said, a case for ensuring that some part of the cost of providing the service is met by the industry in question. There is an external pressure on us in that it is becoming more and more the practice in the European Community to insist that the cost of such services be borne by the products concerned. The figure of £1.75 per head on the figures which the Minister has presented would not seem to be entirely adequate to cover the total cost of the veterinary inspection, but to the extent that there is a difference I think it is justifiable in present circumstances that the State should continue to bear part of the cost.
I welcome the fact that in the application of levy to live exports we have removed one of the areas of discrimination which had been felt as an obstacle by the meat factories. I would also say — I hope the Minister will follow this line — that we have removed one of the possible tangents in the argument, because the Minister is well aware that this is one of the reasons brought forward by the meat industry for saying that it is in a difficult position, that it is being discriminated against in terms of competition. I would never have felt, and I think the Minister would agree, that this particular difference was a major source of irritation; but now that we have equality of treatment I hope we will be able to focus the discussion of that important problem on the real issues involved which seem to me to have very little to do with veterinary fees.
In conclusion, I repeat that I support these measures for the reasons I have outlined and I hope the Minister will be able to pursue to a successful conclusion the action being taken on a wider basis on the Pigs and Bacon Commission.
I thank the Deputy for his acceptance of this measure which was in preparation, I understand, before we took office. I have always felt, like the Deputy, that the levy did not have a great bearing on live exports. Now, that the difference is removed at least there they will not have that excuse any longer. It is true that the increase in fees will not meet the total cost but it will go a long way towards it and that is important. I thank the Deputy for his co-operation.
Question put and agreed to.