The Minister thanks Deputies Smith, Keaveney, Crawford and McGinley for bringing this matter to his attention. Coming from a Border county as well, it is also a matter of concern to me. In 1996 two pig slaughtering plants closed in the Cavan-Monaghan area when management took a commercial decision to cease operations in both cases. The two plants concerned were McCarrens of Cavan and Dawn Pork and Bacon, Coolshannagh, County Monaghan, which between them were slaughtering 9, 000 pigs per week.
Since that time, there has been no reduction in slaughtering capacity in the pigmeat industry south of the Border. In fact, some EU approved slaughtering plants have come into production taking back some of the capacity lost in 1996. Information given to the Department of Agriculture and Food from its veterinary officers based at EU approved plants indicates that delays may sometimes occur, but they are attributable, in most cases, to plant machinery breaking down or suppliers bringing pigs for slaughter outside of the allocated delivery time. Slaughterings at EU approved pigmeat plants in 1997 amounted to 2.76 million head, an increase of nearly 7 per cent over the 1996 figure. The industry was able to cope with this increase without any difficulty.
Towards the end of last year allegations were made in the press that there was a lack of slaughtering capacity at pigmeat plants. The Department of Agriculture and Food at the time carried out a survey of EU approved pigmeat slaughtering plants and found that the level of slaughterings, which I already said were running about 7 per cent higher than in 1996, were adequately catered for. There was spare capacity. Similar independent surveys carried out around the same time by both Forbairt and the Irish Association of Pigmeat Processors, confirmed the Department's findings that current slaughtering capacity at EU approved pigmeat plants is adequate to meet demands.
In recent days, a fire destroyed a large pigmeat slaughtering plant in Northern Ireland, which was sourcing some of its supplies south of the Border. So far there is no indication that this will cause difficulties for slaughtering plants in the South. There are a number of other large slaughtering plants in Northern Ireland which may intervene and increase slaughterings but, as I already indicated, there is spare capacity in the South, which will be capable of dealing with increased slaughterings if necessary.
The closure of McCarrens and Dawn Pork and Bacon in 1996 has, however, meant that the north and the north-east parts of the country do not have a slaughtering plant. The area has a very long tradition in pig production and producers in some cases have to send their pigs long distances to the factory.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food fully recognises that this is not an ideal situation and his Department, in liaison with Forbairt, has made all its resources available to try to encourage a resumption of operations at the plants concerned. Regrettably, Dawn Pork and Bacon will not reopen. As far as McCarrens is concerned, the position is not clear. Some discussions between McCarrens management and Forbairt have taken place in the past, but with no positive outcome. The door remains open to McCarrens if it wishes to discuss resumption of operations of the plant, but the final decision on re-opening rests with management which must make a commercial decision in that regard. It is not open to the Minister for Agriculture and Food to intervene directly in the matter. The Minister is encouraged, however, by the fact that a long standing industrial relations dispute with the unions at the McCarrens plant has recently been resolved.
Under current EU rules, it is not possible for member states to give direct national aid to assist the setting up of slaughtering facilities in the pigmeat sector. I assure the Deputies, however, that the Minister for Agriculture and Food will continue to monitor the situation and will keep in contact with Forbairt about its efforts to restore the processing capacity in the Border region to a satisfactory level. Ultimately, however, the setting up of new slaughtering facilities, or the resumption of operations at existing ones, rests in the commercial field.