At this time of open Government and ethics in Government I wish to make my position clear. I run a dairy farm which supplies the liquid milk market. Deputy Leonard referred to the Town of Monaghan Creamery of which he was a former member of staff. I am a board member and, therefore, I have some knowledge of the liquid milk business at both producer and processor level. I represented my area on the liquid milk committee of the Irish Farmers' Association for a number of years. Deputy Leonard said last night that he was pleased this matter was now being speedily dealt with. However, this matter was discussed nine or ten years ago when I was involved with this issue. Successive Governments failed to address this matter. At least we are now discussing the implementation of this Bill.
Many changes have occurred since the demand for this Bill was first initiated by the liquid milk group of the IFA. They occurred because of EU regulations under which the Cork and Dublin District Milk Boards were considered illegal and had to be disbanded. People in Monaghan also consider the operation of those boards to be illegal. I am sure the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry, who was involved in Clona Dairies, Clonakilty, which was outside the control of the district milk boards, would also have experienced some difficulties with those boards in the past.
Deputy Leonard referred to the difficulties experienced by the Town of Monaghan Creamery in liquid milk production. In 1985-86 milk was supplied from across the Border and extraordinary measures had to be taken to make that impossible. While the people in Northern Ireland wished to supply milk to the South, they under their laws refused to accept milk from the South. I joined with others to ensure there was free and fair trade. We ensured that Northern milk suppliers did not supply milk to the South when they did not accept our milk. Much has happened since then and I do not intend to cover the ground covered by Deputy Leonard in respect of the legal problems and efforts to solve them.
In view of the changes since then one wonders how relevant is this Bill. Our party do not intend to oppose it because a large sector of the farming community requested it. However, it does not take account of milk produced north of the Border.
I take this opportunity to welcome the loyalist ceasefire announced today. It opens up huge possibilities for co-operation in farming, tourism and in other areas. However, the problems that will cause for liquid milk suppliers and sales people along the Border areas cannot be ignored. Section 5 (2) clearly states that milk produced outside the Twenty-Six Counties cannot be questioned. Milk legally imported into the State is specifically excluded. That makes this Bill irrelevant to the northern part of the country. Ireland is a small island subject to European Union rules. There is free movement of goods, including milk. My co-op in Monaghan is extremely worried about this and considers it is not equitable to subject processors of milk produced in the Republic of Ireland to the regulations of the Bill if they do not apply to milk producers in Northern Ireland.
The establishment of the milk boards reflected the high level of milk consumption here. The role played by the milk boards contributed to this country having the highest level of milk consumption in Europe. That is important not only from the point of view of farmer-producers and the milk industry, but also in respect of health. Recently medical people raised health concerns about the excessive consumption of milk and milk products. That view has now been turned on its head and greater efforts are being made to encourage a higher consumption of milk. The main reason for our high consumption of milk was the structures set up. The work of the milk boards cannot be ignored. I take this opportunity to thank the staff of the milk boards for their good work and all those involved in milk recording, AI service and so on. We all recognise that the Minister and his staff experienced difficulties in finding ways to wind up those boards and this is a traumatic time for all those involved.
The Minister said yesterday that in certain circumstances the terms and conditions of employment of staff include a right to return to employment in the public sector. I hope for the sake of the employees in the Dublin District Milk Board this is correct. Maybe the Minister knows something I do not know about the regulations governing the return of staff to employment in the Civil Service. I have sought to make representations on behalf of numerous people who will be affected by the proposed closure of the milk boards to give them an opportunity to return to work.
Yesterday I received a letter from the Minister for Finance in which he said he was satisfied that the practice of reinstatement must be terminated as he could not continue to operate a scheme which had been declared to be discriminatory, contrary to both national and European law, and that, accordingly, a line has been drawn on 23 July 1993, the date on which the Labour Court issued its determination, after which no applications for reinstatement could be considered. Perhaps the Minister would check that from the point of view of his own legal situation and that of his employees.
In regard to the disposal of the milk boards, who will be the buyer? How will the Minister deal with the sale and disposal of the assets, because this will have major implications down the line for the farming community? There is great anxiety also among farmers, particularly in the northern part of the country, about the implications for our national herd of importing breeding stock from other parts of Europe.
This Bill is supposed to guarantee farmers' incomes and the supply of milk to the main areas of population over the next few years. There is no doubt that the milk board has relevance to the supply of milk to Dublin and Cork. However, areas like Monaghan and many other parts of the country have never had a problem in producing the necessary supplies outside the regulation. It must be remembered that Monaghan and other areas have at least a six months winter and animals must be fed quite liberally through that period. We were, therefore, justified in having an all year supply and did not have the same difficulties in keeping up our quotas for lack of milk production as other counties. Although we suffer the severe disadvantage of a six months winter we are still not declared severely handicapped. Perhaps that might be rectified in another forum.
Under EU regulations inspectors visit farmers to ensure implementation of the regulations. Could matters not be streamlined to avoid introducing another layer of inspectors? People in the industry are tied up in red tape. We appreciate the need to make this work, but could there not be some degree of cross-use of inspectors to avoid the time of personnel in these industries being taken up with unnecessary form-filling and bureaucracy? The EC introduced enough red tape, let us not produce more. I beg the Minister to take that into account.
I now come to the levy of 0.25 pence. Will the Minister give an assurance that this will be the permanent level or will this levy be introduced in 1995, increased in 1996 and thus be just another means of extracting money from farmers? We often hear complaints from the PAYE workers. I know complaints are justified from the amount of tax deducted from my salary every month. However, farmers pay a lot of levies for services relating to disease eradication etc., and such levies have increased enormously. Often an animal that is put down because of brucellosis or TB is worth little more than the levies paid for services at factory level. I want an assurance that this levy is not the start of a roller-coaster which will cause enormous problems for farmers in the long term.
The question of the election of the board is also of interest. I note that boards can nominate members and that there will even be elected members at producer level. I agree with all this and congratulate the Minister on it. However, in the case of boards like CBF and An Bord Bia which have real decision-making powers, there were political appointees. It is strange then that having gone to all this trouble — and I applaud him for it — in regard to An Bord Bia, to which farmers pay enormous sums of money, the Minister had to have complete control and no producer or other member of the industry could be allowed to represent their sector on the board; they are represented on the auxiliary boards but not where it really counts. Perhaps even at this late stage the Minister will reconsider the method of electing board members in the future to take account of the payments made and services rendered by those board members. Much can be learned from the discussion on these issues.
Last night Deputy Leonard mentioned our difficulties in County Monaghan when Premier Dairies and Dundalk and District Milk Board decided to dump their surplus in Monaghan and we were not allowed to fight back legally. At that time there were major discounts to Dunnes Stores etc. It is unfortunate this board seems to have little power in that area. This could mean that all the areas I covered earlier such as roundsmen could be eliminated if these stores decide, as they did in the past, to undercut the price of milk, to use it as a leader to bring in customers to the cost of the long term structures of the industry. There is nothing in the Bill to cover that.
There are very good structures in this industry. Most milk produced, for liquid milk consumption or otherwise, is of a very high quality. Deputy Leonard mentioned the production of Bailey's. There is also Emmet's cream which is produced in the Cavan-Monaghan area. These products are leaders not only in the milk market but in the Irish export field. We are doing extremely well in the American and other markets. Tribute must be paid to the producers.
I hope this Bill, when passed, will be used in a reasonable manner. The Northern Ireland milk supply should be taken into account. The town of Monaghan uses much of that milk for manufacturing purposes and I have no doubt much of it goes further south during the winter to supply liquid milk markets. There are implications and the Minister will have to be very vigilant that the Bill is used in a proper fashion and does not act against the best interests of farmers and the processing sector.