asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries why it is taking so long to introduce a proper cattle testing and milk recording scheme.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cattle Testing Scheme.
26.
Consultations with the various interests concerned in this important issue are still going on and a further meeting with the AI stations was held yesterday to get agreement on progeny testing arrangements. As a result, I hope to get improved arrangements in operation for the coming year.
Does the Minister not agree that this is going on now for about two or three years; that it has been promised on several occasions, and new dates fixed for it, and that we are still where we were?
This has a history.
Indeed, it has a long history. The Minister is right.
If you had an arrogant Minister and an arrogant Government that did not consult with all the various bodies involved, we probably could have had an instant solution in August, 1967. That not being so, there have had to be a succession of meetings and discussions and, indeed, a change in the form of the scheme that has now finally come to fruition and which I hope will be in operation, in an amended form, in the coming year.
Early in the coming year.