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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 30 Nov 1989

Vol. 393 No. 10

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Horse Industry: FEOGA Aid.

12.

asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the sectors of the horse industry which have been assisted by FEOGA aid in 1989; and whether any proposals for marketing centres have been sent to the Commission for approval this year.

Phase one of a project for a horse marketing centre at Millstreet submitted by Millstreet Horses Limited was approved for FEOGA grant aid in June 1989 by the EC Commission. Applications for aid on phase two of this project and for a horse marketing centre at Nenagh were submitted to the EC Commission in April 1989. These two projects are at an advanced stage of development.

Proposals for centres at other locations are also being considered by my Department at present.

What were the criteria for the Department recommending the Nenagh marketing centre for FEOGA aid?

In Nenagh and Millstreet, the two areas where applications have already been sanctioned, developments were well under way. The Deputy will see from even the most casual visit to either of the two centres that there are very significant buildings and developments in both centres. In respect of others where ideas were mooted, including Ennis, things were not pursued with the Department. The difference is that in the first two cases action was taken to implement grants by the people concerned. In other centres ideas were being considered but no action was taken.

I refute the Minister's claim that nothing had been done in the Ennis centre. Some £20,000 was expended producing a plan. The Minister and the Department have ignored the huge horse population in Wexford, west Cork and Clare when allocating grants. While the Minister has now included Millstreet, the Clare area has been totally ignored even when appointing people to the review committee the other day. Would the Minister say it is because he is at present located in Nenagh that the Nenagh centre has been approved for this FEOGA grant?

I do not think anybody in this House would say that because the Minister happened to come from a particular part of the country that part of the country should be penalised. In regard to the other areas——

They are penalised.

No area is being penalised. A number of ideas have been suggested in various parts of the country. There is a range here and when they are at a certain stage, like the first two I mentioned, of course the Department will, under the scheme I have introduced, want to give active and supportive consideration to them, but they have not reached that point yet.

The Minister said the Ennis submission had not reached the Department.

No, I did not say that. Perhaps the Deputy misunderstood that.

I would like to understand what the Minister said because the people down in Ennis are very irate. They believe that because of the Minister's post, the Nenagh project leapfrogged over the one in Ennis.

We are having statements now.

I want to assure the Deputy that I did not, in any way, intervene to influence the application from Ennis, a town I know and love well, having spent five years in college there.

The information available to me in respect of Ennis is that the centre there was mooted earlier this year but was not pursued with the Department by the people concerned. In case the Deputy has any illusions, he will note from the grants coming from FEOGA that Ennis has this year done well and will probably later this year do remarkably well, so I am not trying to give the impression that we are discriminating.

(Interruptions.)

Question No. 13, please.

It looks as if the Minister is going to care for his own child first.

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