It appears that the Department of Agriculture and Food makes up the rules as it goes along. This environmental scheme came like a bolt from the blue. It is widely believed that many hills are over-grazed but this scheme is a very blunt instrument. I am sorry the Minister for Agriculture and Food is not here this evening to hear what I have to say.
The scheme applies to hill sheep farmers but a number of lowland sheep farmers received letters this week telling them they too must dispose of their flocks. Farmers are being asked to shed 30 per cent of cull ewes. Many of these ewes have been in lamb for some considerable time and it is most insensitive to ask farmers to kill ewes when they are heavy in lamb. Why did the Department not announce this scheme six or eight weeks ago?
Next year, under the framework programme, it will be authoritatively decided whether each hill is overgrazed and farmers will be told exactly what stock they may carry. The Minister has given an undertaking that farmers who are obliged to cull 30 per cent of their ewes under the current hill ewe scheme will be allowed to increase their stock if next year's framework programme decides they may carry a larger stock. However, I do not think any farmer will ever see the return of a quota once it has been lost.
A grant of £10 is being made available for every carcase condemned by veterinary inspectors at the factories. Once more, factories will make most from this arrangement. Factories will receive £3 for killing each ewe categorised as a boning-out ewe and farmers will receive the commercial value of the carcase. Most farmers will want their carcases to be placed in the condemned category rather than in the boning-out category.
The 30 per cent figure is based on the 1998 quota for hill sheep farmers. I was briefed on this matter by the Department on Tuesday. However, I read in today's Farmers' Journal that the Department is changing the ground again. It is now saying that if some sheep were sold in the intervening period between the time one received the quota in 1998 and now, that will be taken into account. I accept that, but farmers cannot expect that this is the final word on the matter. It is obvious that the Department is changing its mind every day.
We talk about environmental purpose and I am as much an environmentalist as anybody else, but there is a price for all this. A farmer in Tour-makeady, County Mayo, in County Kerry or anywhere else with 300 ewes who has built up his flock and handling facilities will lose 100 sheep in the coming weeks. He will receive £10 each for them and the remaining 70 per cent, so he will get £2,000. Next year, however, he will lose the ewe premium, which is worth £20 a head and £10 headage on the 100 ewes that have gone. Therefore, he stands to lose £3,000 every year. He cannot be too happy about that.
I do not know whether the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, or Deputy Healy-Rae in County Kerry will handle this matter. Someone should get back to the Minister for Agriculture and Food about those issues, however, because the hill sheep farmers are not happy.
