asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the total amount paid to date under the heifer subsidy scheme, and the estimated number of extra cattle in the country because of the scheme.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Heifer Subsidy Scheme Payments.
22.
The total expenditure on grants under the Scheme of Grants for Calved Heifers up to 30th June, 1966 was £6,362,625.
Figures recently issued by the Central Statistics Office indicate the cattle population of the country has increased from 4,860,000 in June 1963 to 5,620,900 in June, 1966, a net increase of 760,900 in three years.
Would the Minister inform the House if he has any plan to deal with the surplus of young cattle now available?
That does not arise on this question. It is a factual question.
There are one quarter of a million cattle——
There may be. That does not arise from the question. Question No. 23.
May I ask a supplementary question? Does the Minister realise — I think he does — that in receiving this £6 million odd under the heifer scheme, as a result of the reduction of approximately £20 a head on the increased half million the farmers have lost £10 million?
The logic of that piece of mathematics escapes me.
It is a literal fact.
The heifer scheme has succeeded in its objectives. It has succeeded far better than anyone could have anticipated. When one recalls that Deputy Dillon said it could not be done, the fact that we have succeeded in increasing our cow numbers from a static figure of 1,300,000 at which they had been for many decades, to a figure of 1,600,000 now——
Is a lot of bull.
——proves that the scheme succeeded in bringing about the expansion in our cattle production programme intended.
(Cavan): Can the Minister say if the quality has gone up in the same proportion?
That is a separate question.
Or the price?
I would say the quality has not deteriorated.