I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I congratulate him and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development on the wonderful work they did in ensuring the foot and mouth disease outbreak was contained. It was a great achievement and the farming community appreciates the work that was done.
It was decided earlier this month that farm to farm movement of breeding bulls would be allowed. Prior to that there was only movement of cattle from farms to slaughtering factories for which permits could be obtained from the local Teagasc office. For farmers in my area to move breeding bulls from farm to farm one had to obtain an application form from the local Teagasc office and send it to the south-western cattle services office in Bandon, County Cork, which would issue a permit by return post. Every precaution had to be taken to ensure there would not be a recurrence of foot and mouth disease and that rogue dealers would not cause problems. However, breeding bulls are moved between farmers who are very conscious of taking every precaution to ensure there is not an outbreak of disease.
Farmers have experienced difficulties because breeding bulls must be blood tested and tested for TB and brucellosis, and they often have to wait for nine or ten days to get the results. A farmer cannot do anything until his bulls have passed the TB and brucellosis tests. He must then send his application form to the south-western cattle services office in Bandon and wait until he receives a permit to move the bulls. Breeding bulls are very important to beef production. At this time of year farmers are anxious to get their cows in calf as early as possible and, therefore, the delay in the granting of permits for breeding bull movement created hardship for both the purchasing farmer and the seller.
One farmer told me he sent three application forms to Bandon on a Monday and received two back on the Friday. He rang the office in Bandon, but it was difficult to get through, which was another problem experienced by farmers. The farmer was told the form had to be forwarded to the DVO in Limerick. He rang that office and said he would call there to collect the form but he was eventually told that the office had posted it to him and as a result it was a week before he obtained the third permit. Meanwhile, the farmer to whom he had sold the breeding bull was extremely anxious to get his bull.
I compliment the Minister for allowing the applications for permits to be sent by fax as they could only be issued by post initially. I am aware of a farmer who sent in three application forms via fax but only received two back. When he inquired about the third application, he was informed that it did not arrive.
I do not know what will happen with regard to cattle movement on 18 June when marts re-open, but I am sure the Minister of State will inform me. The south-western cattle services office in Bandon is over-burdened as it is also responsible for calf birth registration. I have an envelope addressed to the Department of Agriculture and Food, Farm to Farm Cattle Movement Notification Agency, Freepost, Kilfinane, Kilmallock, County Limerick. It was originally decided that the farm to farm movement agency would be based in Kilfinane. Since the office in Bandon is over-burdened a better service might be provided if the agency was located in Kilfinane, although I am open to correction.
The permits could also be granted through local DVOs because prior to this all one had to do was provide the identification number of one's animal, the herd number and the purchaser's number. The purchaser and the seller would send forms to each other, which were kept, and that sufficed. It was understandable that the Department had to go to extremes following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease and the fear of its spread and take the precautions it did, but at this stage the restrictions could be eased and cattle movement permits expedited more quickly.
