I am sure everything that can be said about this Bill has been said, but I want to add my welcome to the Bill. Some people may say there is no need for it, and they may be half right, but the Bill is not going to do any harm. There is a very small percentage of people — I do not know the percentage, and maybe I am fortunate that I do not know any of these people either — who do not look after their livestock well. This Bill talks about three things: housing, ventilation and feeding and drinking. In 1984 and in years past most people involved with livestock did an excellent job. In these times people cannot afford to do anything but a first class job. There are many people who depend on livestock — mainly cows and cattle — for their livelihood. I do not see a great need for the Bill, but if there is a small percentage of people who feel that this Bill is necessary and that it will be a deterrent to those people who do not look after their livestock properly, then it is welcome.
There are many different ways of housing livestock. There has been a welcome change over the last number of years whereby people spent vast sums of money housing their livestock and most people opted for the slatted units. Maybe there is no figure to substantiate this, but one can say that most cattle slatted units do not look as comfortable as the old bed of straw of bygone days, but people rearing greater numbers of cattle, catering for bigger numbers of cattle, had to move in that direction because in certain counties straw is quite scarce and has become quite expensive. When we talk about livestock we are talking about profit margins at the end of the day and all farmers and livestock owners tend to think and have to think in terms of profit.
A few people who realise that this Bill is going through mentioned that they are concerned about a few matters in it. Two of the things they are most concerned about — and I can add my own voice to this — are the type of people we may appoint as inspectors and the time of inspections. Anybody could walk into most farms throughout the country at different times of the morning and find that cattle did not look as well catered for as they should. You cannot feed or bed all your stock at the same time. I am concerned that there might be an invasion of privacy of land owners by people inspecting their stock perhaps at a time when they were not well looked after.
I would not be too concerned if I felt these inspectors were qualified, if they had a knowledge of livestock and the way these jobs were done, but I would not be too happy if I thought that people who might get these jobs did not understand how livestock are looked after, the type of sheds needed or the routine for dealing with this type of job. As I said, it is not possible to feed all the livestock at one time, and when one gets to the last animal, it can look quite uncomfortable. If an inspector arrives before all the cattle are fed or bedded, he might think they look neglected. That type of thing concerns me. We are not trying to put jobs in the way of veterinary people because they have enough to do in their own field, but I hope the inspectors will have a knowledge of all types of livestock and that they will not report somebody for a petty offence.
Almost every farmer realises the importance of feeding his stock well. We have arrived at the stage when we cannot afford to do otherwise because the margin of profit is very low at present, and has been for many years. The margin of profit on buying and selling can be very small. Every farmer realises that he must feed his stock the maximum amount of food to get the maximum amount of profit. For that reason I would not be too concerned about the feeding of animals. When we talk about housing and the move forward that there was in recent years, with many farmers spending tens of thousands of pounds improving their farmyards and houses in general, we must remember that many people still feed their cattle outside. Ministers in the past encouraged most of these people to spend money and provided decent grants for farmers to erect very modern accommodation for these animals. Good land will not stay good if the cattle remain on it for a whole winter in atrocious conditions.
When one is driving through the countryside on a snowy evening, one might see animals outside, up to their knees in muck, eating out of a round feeder. If an inspector did not know his job, he could regard this as cruelty to animals. This is happening in many parts of the country still; I have seen it myself. It is possible that these farmers cannot see their way to getting these cattle off the land, because of financial or other considerations. Under this Bill these people might run the risk of being brought before the courts for not treating their animals properly. There is always a possibility that that could happen. That would concern me very much.
Senator Quealy spoke about the intensive units and about pigs, a subject on which he is an expert. I am talking a little more about the cattle, which I know more about. In many parts of the country there is nothing but these units. It has been said to me — I do not know if it is true — that the performance of cattle is not as good in these units as in the old type lean-to in which they were bedded in straw and were very comfortable. Nonetheless people have to move in that direction. If inspectors visited some of these slatted units at a certain time of the day before the animals were fed, perhaps they might look uncomfortable.
I seem to be emphasising the risk to farmers of being penalised or punished in some way for not looking after their stock properly. I am sure we are not trying to create more jobs for the veterinary people but it would be true to say that most of them have long experience of the livestock industry. They see animals in all types of conditions and of course animals have to be in certain types of condition. For example, as Senator Quealy said people could be caught napping, so to speak, during strikes — ESB or otherwise. If animals are fed by certain machinery which is worked by electricity it might mean they would have to wait much longer than usual for their meals. If an inspector appeared on the scene at that particular time people might find themselves in trouble. That is perhaps the part of the Bill I am most concerned about. From my own experience, and that is quite a bit because I have been quite a while in the game, I see no reason for the Minister to be concerned about the feeding and the housing of the cattle. The majority of farmers at the moment have proper sheds, proper slatted units and the type of buildings they need.
However, there is still a section who are concerned about having their livestock outside and would love if the Minister, in the days and years ahead, could see his way to bring back certain types of grants. There are some people who would like, if they could get generous grants, to get their cattle off the land. Perhaps they are people who were moving somewhat more slowly but everybody could not move at the same time. There are some people who did not avail of the reasonably generous grants which were available some years ago and they now find themselves in the position, with the limited amount of cash around and with high interest rates, that they are unable to do this job. I would appeal to the Minister to use his good offices to see that more generous grants are introduced. My main concern about the Bill, welcome as it is in many other aspects, is the type of inspectors we are going to have and the times of inspection.
