Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 27 Oct 1993

Vol. 435 No. 1

Written Answers. - Blue Cards.

Seymour Crawford

Question:

27 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the way in which he intends to compensate farmers who have not, as yet, had their cattle cards returned following the premium application deadline of 1 July 1993.

Robert Molloy

Question:

131 Mr. Molloy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if his attention has been drawn to the grave dissatisfaction among farmers arising from the necessity to submit blue cards to his Department's offices in Dublin to claim beef premium payments and to the effect this is having on the ability of farmers to sell their animals at the most opportune time in view of the delays in returning the cards; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry (Mr. J. Walsh)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 27 and 131 together.

In order to qualify for payment of the special beef premium, applicants are required, to submit their cattle identity cards to my Department's special beef premium unit which was set up in June of this year especially to operate this scheme. This unit is now operating from Portlaoise. A total of 84,000 applications, covering over half a million animals, was received for the June-July application period. Applicants were required by EC regulations to retain the animals in question on their holdings for a minimum period of 2 months from the time my Department received the applications.

The procedures adopted for administering this scheme involve,inter-alia, the checking of the applications against the cards submitted. Where the details on both the card and the application agree, cards are returned promptly to the applicant. Unfortunately, a considerable number of queries regarding card details arose in the most recent scheme, for example, where the card number did not coincide with the tag number listed on the application or indeed where female cards were submitted for what is a male animal scheme. In addition many applicants submitted cards separately from the application, without indicating the relevant herd number or similar indication of ownership and the “matching” of these cards with the correct application is a time consuming process.

The current position is that of a total number of over half a million cattle identity cards received in June-July approximately 1 per cent is still retained by my Department pending the satisfactory resolution of queries. The farmers involved are being contacted by my Department in order to resolve these queries. The question of compensation for farmers does not arise.

In applying for aid under the special beef premium scheme and indeed under all premium and headage schemes, it is essential that farmers exercise extreme care thus ensuring smooth processing of applications and compliance with the various conditions laid down by the EC for these schemes.