I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £14,907,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December 1979, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Agriculture including certain services administered by that Office, and for payment of certain subsidies and sundry grants-in-aid.
The main Estimate for Agriculture for 1979, amounting to £132,815,000, was passed on 17 July. This Supplementary Estimate brings the total net provision for the year to £147,722,000.
I should now like to refer briefly to some of the main items.
Under subhead A.1 provision is made for a further £3.2 million to meet the cost of the relevant pay elements of the 1979 national understanding for economic and social development, as well as some other miscellaneous increases in pay and allowances. The increases under subsidies B.1, B.2, B.3, B.4, B.7, B.9 and J amount to over £2 million and these also are mainly due to the implementation of the national understanding by the agricultural faculties at the universities, the agricultural colleges and such bodies as An Foras Talúntais and the county committees of agriculture. An extra £250,000 is being provided under subhead A.4 to meet the cost of increases in travelling and subsistence allowances which were decided on during the year.
Originally, provision was made for expenditure of some £4,000 in respect of animals slaughtered because of leukosis infection. Tests had disclosed leukosis in a number of herds which contained either imported Canadian Holstein stock or animals which had been in contact with such stock. In all, 13 herds were found to have a total of 55 infected animals. All these infected herds have been restricted and because of the nature of the disease the period of restriction has had to be prolonged for two years or more. In these circumstances it was necessary to make special arrangements with a number of herdowners who had serious problems of overstocking. At subhead C.4 an extra £300,000 is being provided as compensation in respect of animals slaughtered to relieve this overstocking situation. All the infected herds have been subjected to regular testing and the latest results seem to show that any leukosis infection traceable to imported animals has effectively been eradicated. There is continuous surveillance of carcases at meat factories and down through the years no evidence of the disease has been found in the indigenous herd.
The additional sum of £0.8 million required for the consumer subsidies on milk and butter is made up of an excess of £1.4 million on the milk subsidy, partly offset by a saving of £0.6 million on the butter subsidy. The excess on the milk subsidy is due to higher than expected consumption and a carryover of payments from last year. The butter subsidy saving is due to some fall in consumption compared to the very high level in 1978.
The increase of £4.9 million being sought for the M.6 subhead is due to the higher interest rates being paid by the intervention agency for its funds since the middle of the year as well as to higher levels of intervention stocks. The increase is to an extent offset by a related increase of £2.75 million in the receipts under subhead N.19, leaving the net increase at £2.15 million.
In the area of animal health there will be a saving of about £500,000 in the amount provided for the eradication of bovine TB. The round of testing which commenced at the beginning of May 1979 got off to a slow start because of the postal dispute and did not get fully under way until around the middle of the year. This resulted in payments for reactor cattle and fees to veterinary surgeons being somewhat less than expected. Payments under the brucellosis scheme, where there is a saving of £5.5 million, were also affected by the late start on the full programme of testing. However, the greater part of the saving under this heading arises from a lower than estimated level of participation in the voluntary pre-intensive brucellosis scheme which was aimed at encouraging herdowners to get rid of brucellosis infected animals before full compulsory eradication measures are extended to all areas of the country. The previous voluntary scheme has now been terminated and, with the recent introduction of a compulsory element into the pre-intensive scheme, I am confident that significant progress will be made in reducing the disease incidence in the counties covered by the scheme.
The original Estimate envisaged receipts of £9.5 million from farmer contributions towards the cost of eradicating bovine diseases. This was based on farmer contributions being collected over about ten months of the year. However, because the necessary legislation was not enacted until August, receipts under this heading in the current year are not now expected to exceed £1 million.
The shortfall of £200,000 in receipts under the Fresh Meat Acts and the Pigs and Bacon Acts can be attributed to slaughterings at beef export premises in the early part of the year being lower than expected and to collection difficulties due to the postal dispute. The shortfall of £175,000 in respect of fees payable by creameries and pasteurisers to meet the cost of the inspection service provided by my Department is due mainly to the fact that the necessary legislation increasing the fees was not enacted until July.
We are providing for shortfalls in respect of receipts from the EEC in respect of the farm modernisation scheme, aids to less favoured areas and certain other schemes. Most of the money involved has in fact been approved for payment to us but it is not expected to be received until after the end of the year.