asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if there has been a change of policy concerning the exportation of calves and young cattle; and if, in view of the present monetary compensatory amounts and the import levy of 9.6 per cent on young cattle, he is satisfied with regard to the availability of markets for this produce.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Export of Young Cattle.
8.
Last year at the request of Italy a more favourable import regime was applied to certain calves and young cattle than to adult cattle but this was counter-balanced in our case by a higher monetary export charge on calves and young cattle than on adult cattle.
Since May last the import regimes for young cattle and adult cattle have been placed on the same level and so have been the rates of our monetary export charges on young cattle and adult cattle.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary say if there is now a levy on the young cattle we export which was not there earlier in the year if we had a mind to export them?
I understand the question of charges does not relate to this question. It would be an average of about 9.6 per cent. Deputy Collins, Deputy Crinion and others were allowed——
The Parliamentary Secretary should answer the question he has been asked.
The Parliamentary Secretary should not be covering up.
There is no page 2 on the Parliamentary Secretary's script.
The Deputies are long enough in this House to know that some questions cannot be answered by a simple "yes" or "no".
The Parliamentary Secretary some years ago maintained that they could be answered in that fashion. Does the Parliamentary Secretary remember the turkeys? Where are the turkeys now?
The Deputies on the other side are only a mob.
Deputy Meaney must desist from further interruptions.
The Chair should tell Deputy Coogan the same.
(Interruptions.)
If Deputy Meaney persists I shall have to ask him to leave.
Deputy Coogan is embarrassing his own people.
Deputy Coogan is exempt because he does not understand.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary say when it was decided to allow the export of young cattle?
The Deputy asked me about the duty on young cattle. Since May last the duty on all classifications of cattle would be 9.6 per cent. The next question deals with young cattle.
Is it not a fact that, while our cattle exporters are liable to pay these duties going into Italy, third countries like Austria and Yugoslavia can send in such cattle duty free if they are under 300 kilograms?
This is all part of the Minister's business. At present he is in Brussels to try to prevent that type of position from obtaining.
It is obtaining.
It is the former Government who negotiated the Treaty of Accession and a great deal of repair work has to be done on it. We are against the importation of cattle from third countries if at all possible but we have only one voice in nine.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary say if we were exporting young cattle for the past 12 months?
If Deputies require information on specific items the way to obtain it is to put down a parliamentary question relating to these items. Deputies should not ask supplementary questions which are not relevant to the question being discussed.
The Parliamentary Secretary is showing a complete disregard for parliamentary business.
The Parliamentary Secretary, I am sure, will agree that as I was the person who highlighted this matter last year I have a right to ask him a supplementary. I want to know now what effort will be made to see that there will be no levy and, if the veto is to be allowed, will the Minister take serious action? I am speaking for the people who produce the small cattle in the west.
I can assure Deputy Callanan that the Minister is taking serious action and will take serious action because this is a very big and important question so far as Irish agriculturalists are concerned. I know very well that Deputy Callanan is one Deputy in this House who is mindful, so far as his own people are concerned, of the position of our young cattle trade. On occasions here he had some very telling facts which were not far off the mark.
On a point of order, that information was not asked for. Would the Parliamentary Secretary not use the time at his disposal to answer the questions put to him?
May I draw your attention, Sir, to the fact that the Parliamentary Secretary is consistently refusing to answer the questions put to him?
That is not a point of order. The Chair has no control over Ministers' or Parliamentary Secretaries' replies.
What are we supposed to be here for?
Is this question time or is it a laugh?
On a point of order——
These are spurious points of order and the Deputy knows it.
Would you inform us, Sir, what your responsibilities are so far as parliamentary questions are concerned?
The Deputy ought to know his Standing Orders.
I would like to hear it from you, Sir.
Not now.
Not now, and seemingly the Parliamentary Secretary does not know what his responsibilities are.
9.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries whether it would have been possible to sell young cattle last spring without the payment of the import levy of 9.6 per cent.
Prior to May, 1974, the customs duty on imports of young cattle into the EEC continental member states from Ireland was 2.4 per cent ad valorem on calves up to 80 kilos weight for fattening, 4.8 per cent on young cattle between 220 kilos and 300 kilos for fattening and 9.6 per cent on calves between 80 kilos and 220 kilos. Since May last the customs duty on all young cattle has been 9.6 per cent. The lower customs duty for certain calves and young cattle prior to May was however counterbalanced by a higher Irish monetary export charge.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary give the reason his Minister, his Department and himself refused to allow our people to sell young cattle when there was not a levy to be met as there is at present? There was a market then; there is hardly any market now.
Neither the Department nor the Minister precluded people from selling young cattle. I am aware that Deputy Collins, Deputy Gibbons and Deputy Crinion, as spokesmen for the Opposition, were completely against the sale of young cattle and calves. So much so, that Deputy Crinion and Deputy Gibbons raised it on the Adjournment here last year to try to get the Government not to do what they say now should be done.
We did not think that even you would get us into this mess.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that we could not sell our young cattle in the period we are talking about because the Department did not officially seek a health derogation from importing countries? Would the Parliamentary Secretary care to comment on that?
Of course that statement is not correct.
For God's sake have sense.
If Deputies seek information they should do the Parliamentary Secretary the courtesy of listening to his reply.
Listening to what?
Would the Parliamentary Secretary agree that the Department and the Minister were wrongly advised and that it is from the like of us they should be asking advice and not from the so-called experts?
It is a pity you were not advising your own people.
I advised the House.
10.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries why young cattle were not exported for the past 12 months; and whether an official application for a health derogation from importing countries has been made.
As regards the first part of the question, some exports of young cattle did in fact take place during the past 12 months but there were no special incentives for such exports as compared with adult cattle and beef.
As regards the second part of the question, official applications for derogations from certain requirements of EEC brucellosis directives have been made to continental member states, some of whom have indicated their willingness to give derogations. One is not willing to do so and a reply is still awaited in one case.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the information he has just given completely contradicts the information he gave us in reply to a supplementary question on the last one? Can the Parliamentary Secretary say whether it was possible to export our young cattle without this health derogation certificate from importing countries?
That seems to be a separate question.
The brucellosis requirements are the main obstacle to exporting breeding or store cattle to any continental member state which might be interested in such imports. The requirements are thus, so far as derogations are concerned: Germany is not prepared to give derogation, Netherlands will give limited derogation for castrates, France will do the same. Belgium is quite willing to do so and Italy, which was interested in the import of calves, was not formally asked for derogation until recently. No reply has been received so far from Italy.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary say when the applications for these derogations were made to the individual countries?
I have not got the date when the applications were made so I cannot give it.
The Parliamentary Secretary did say that application was made to Italy in recent times. Would he have that date?
No.
But it was not made last May or prior to last May? Now who is codding the House?