Paul Connaughton
Question:232 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he will provide cattle price information (details supplied) in both graphic and tabular form. [3458/00]
Written Answers. - Cattle Prices.
Paul Connaughton
Question:233 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he will provide the actual prices paid on a weekly basis for the different categories of livestock, steers, heifers and cows purchased by named meat plants on graded EUROP grid basis. [3459/00]
Paul Connaughton
Question:234 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he will provide a weekly print out of the actual EUROP grades of livestock, steers, heifers and cows on a percentage basis from each of the named meat plants operating. [3460/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 232, 233 and 234 together.
Commencing last week, I have arranged for the publication on a weekly basis of the prices paid by named meat factories for steers in the previous week on the basis of the EUROP classification grid. Prices for heifers and cows will be published on the same basis in the near future.
The weekly cattle price information for individual factories for the period 1990 to 1999 was not collected or processed in a form suitable for publication. In addition, there is a considerable volume of information involved. For these reasons it is not practical to publish such information at this stage.
As far as carcass classification results are concerned, it is my intention to publish information on the percentage classification grades achieved in individual factories. The timing and the format of this information have yet to be finalised.