Before the debate was adjourned on the last occasion I had been asking the Minister to increase the amount of headage payment grants in the severely-handicapped areas. Substantially more money is required under this heading apart from the 50 per cent recoupment from the EEC. I appeal to the Minister that in the reclassification of areas so as to bring them into the severely handicapped category, he would include an area that is close to his heart as well as to mine. I refer to all of County Roscommon, an area which is severely handicapped. It suffers on one side from the major problem of flooding from the Rivers Shannon and Suck. There are many small farmers in the county and their incomes are low. This area together with part of east Galway is the only area north-west of the line from Dublin to Galway not included in the severely-handicapped category.
I would ask the Minister, too, to reexamine the situation regarding the classification of farmers, because once a farmer has been put into a specific category it is very difficult for him to be removed from that category and put into another. If, for instance, a farmer in the development category wished to be reclassified into the other high category, it would be almost impossible to make that change. In other words, classification is similar to a jail sentence in terms of being taken out of any one category. The rules should be more flexible in this area so as to allow farmers who wish to change for whatever reason to another category to be in a position to do so. A farmer put into the development category might find that through, perhaps, bad health or lack of finance, he was unable to carry out his programme and might wish to be reclassified as other high.
Another matter that I should like the Minister to give attention to is the calf premium scheme, a scheme that is not operating as I should like to see it operating. There are many complaints about this scheme. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the number of complaints in this regard is greater than has ever been the case in respect of any other scheme. I appeal to the Minister to request his officers to be sympathetic and flexible in the matter of issuing what are known now as birth certificates for this year's calves, those calves born after 20 May. Farmers have told me that their three-week old calves have been rejected for this scheme. That is not good enough.
Another point relates to headage payments and to the cow suckler scheme. We very often see circulars that have been sent to farmers from the Department informing them that they must establish legal documentation to the effect that they are the owners of the holdings on which the animals are. This is a ridiculous situation. Once a man can establish that the stock are his, that should be sufficient. Ownership of the land should not be the criteria used. Very often, particularly in the west, such a farm might be registered as owned by the occupier's grandparents. For differing reasons it may not have been transferred down the years, and this is causing problems. I hope the Minister will investigate this and ask his officials to ignore that clause. If they are satisfied that the occupant is the owner of the stock then that applicant should be paid the grant without further question.
Disease eradication has caused tremendous problems in the farming community, never more than now. Major outbreaks of disease occur in different parts of the country. The compensation being paid for this to the farming community is ludicrous, and I appeal to the Minister to examine that compensation with a view to having it increased. He should also increase the price being paid for reactors by £50 per head as this price has not been adjusted for years. I would like the Minister to increase the qualifying weight for the hardship fund from 100k to 200k and to reduce the qualifying limit. At present 20 per cent of a herd must be reactors before the owner can qualify for the hardship fund. This figure should be reduced to 15 per cent. I seek also the removal of the £2,500 limit which at present is the maximum amount one can get from the hardship fund. The man who qualifies for more has suffered the greatest degree of hardship. I know it is difficult for the Minister to find the necessary moneys, but we have seen moneys made available for different projects overnight. The Talbot car workers were able to get their share and Clondalkin Paper Mills got a good bite of the cherry, but compensation for reactors has not been reviewed for a number of years and at all times we hear the excuse that the money is not there.
With regard to the removal of animals from locked-up herds, I do not see any reason why permits cannot be given for the removal of those animals from the farm to the boat, just as permits can be issued for the removal of those animals from the farm to the factory. I appeal to the Minister to have this facility made available to farmers whose herds are locked-up. A farmer with store cattle may have one reactor and he cannot sell his cattle. Perhaps he has no finance to go out and take grass and has no feeding for his stock. Such farmers face financial ruin. I appeal to the Minister to introduce a system of permits for shipping.
I realise that not too much time is available to me and that there are other speakers. I do not wish to detain them, but I appeal to the Minister to see what he can do in regard to the farmers who were caught in the Tuohy affair. Very many of them face financial ruin because they sent in their year's supply of cattle and were not paid for them. I appeal to the Minister and his colleague the Minister for Finance to make money available interest free to those farmers so that they can restock their farms before they have to sell out. This is a very serious matter in which the Government must help.