I have asked to raise this issue on the Adjournment because things are becoming urgent in livestock breeding and on dairy and suckler farms in particular. I have made a submission to the Minister and have asked him to give it to the expert committee in place in his Department so that consideration can be given to resuming AI services at the earliest possible opportunity. It is something which has so far been advised against if not banned outright by the Minister and his Department for reasons which I fully understand and support. Although I am at one with the Minister in counselling caution in what we do in this area, we need to have a well-informed view on what we can do to permit the resumption of normal activities on farms to the extent that that is possible without running unnecessary risks. I proposed to the Minister that we should allow the resumption of AI services under controlled conditions by registered operators. My submission proposed that operators should have adequate disinfection equipment to be used when arriving at and leaving a farm. I proposed also that each farm visit be logged so that we can keep track of the movements. I proposed that each farmer using the service would be required to keep on farm a stock of single use protective clothing for the use of operators to be donned when the operator arrives and left on the farm when the operator leaves so that it can be disposed of in a proper way with the disposable equipment that the operator has used on visits to farms. In that way any risks involved from the kind of indirect contact between farms that would be in question here would be reduced.
The position has become urgent. We are well into the normal breeding season when farmers are beginning to think of getting their cows in calf and if operations are not resumed at this stage this could have an impact on the level of production for the coming year in the new milk season and in the suckler cow sector. I am encouraged in the proposal I have made by a submission from the AI Managers Association of Ireland. They have proposed a rigid system of controls, one of which is that farmers requesting the service would delay the call until it is absolutely necessary and that they have adequate disinfection procedures in place. They have proposed also that each inseminator would operate only in a defined geographical area to ensure we can keep track of the movements involved. They proposed that in addition to the normal disinfection procedures each inseminator would have with him portable disfection procedures to be used before and after each visit. They have proposed also that visits would not be made to farms where disinfection procedures on the farm of personnel and vehicles are not adequate. They have proposed that on each farm requesting a visit disposable anti-infection clothing would be available and that there would be an increased supply of approved disinfectant.
The fear is, and this has been expressed to me and I am sure to the Minister also by many farmers, that if action is not taken now to resume these services under controlled conditions, these services will be provided and taken under uncontrolled conditions, perhaps by the DIY operators in the sector and by those operating in the black economy. That would be an undesirable development. I am sure the Minister will agree that if these services are to take place it is best that they should take place under agreed strict control conditions.
It has been announced this evening that it is the Minister's intention that these services should resume as from Easter Monday onwards. I do not know whether that is accurate but I hope it is. If we provide for the resumption of these services under properly controlled conditions we can keep the risk to the minimum level with which we can feel comfortable. I have asked that the expert committee carry out a risk assessment in a hard-headed way. I recommend to the Minister, and he may have done so already and in which case I congratulate and support him and ask for details, that this be carried out under strictly controlled conditions. If that is done and if we can take sensible controlled and well-judged measures to allow normal operations to resume, to the extent that that is possible under conditions with which we can feel comfortable, the Minister will find a ready response within the dairy industry generrally and the suckler industry.