Vol. 456 No. 7
40 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry his views on the payment of £23,381 to a higher agricultural officer working in a meat plant in view of the fact that the hours in question were outside normal working time; and if he intends to place a levy on this plant regarding the cost of overtime. [14281/95]
The normal work practice at the meat plant concerned is that sheep slaughtered throughout the day must be loaded and exported outside normal working hours to meet export shipping deadlines. An officer of my Department must be on hand to supervise such exports. The officer concerned is not obliged to work overtime and does so on a voluntary basis. The other officers of the plant are not prepared to work the same hours. A charge of £5 per officer per hour worked is currently being levied on all plants engaged in overtime loading of sheepmeat.
