Vol. 398 No. 9
10 Mr. McGahon asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will accept the findings of the special committee currently discussing the plight of the beef industry and in particular the problems associated with winter beef fattening; if the report will be published; and if he will bring the recommendations of the committee to the Government.
33 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he has received the report of the beef policy review group; if it is intended to publish the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 33 together.
The group set up to examine the beef industry have not yet completed their work. When this is done, they will submit their views on the industry to the policy review group which I set up in December 1989 to review policies in the agriculture and food industry generally. The question of publication of the beef industry report does not arise until it has been considered by the overall policy review group. I expect that group to report to me during the summer.
The group includes representatives of the following organisations: the Department, Teagasc, CBF, IFA, ICMSA, ICOS, IMPA, CII, IDA, Shannon Development, and Macra na Feirme.
When the findings of this committee are passed on to the policy review group, do I take it that the Minister will act on their recommendations?
The whole purpose of having a committee like this, comprised of a very representative group, is that they would analyse the position in very great detail and make recommendations to me. The Deputy surely cannot expect me to state in advance what I will do before I even know what they will propose?
Will the Minister act on the recommendations contained in the report?
I do not think any Minister in any Government, and certainly not in this Government, is just going to be a rubber stamp. That is not the function of a Minister in Government. A Minister has a vital responsibility. In deciding what I should do as Minister for Agriculture and Food I can assure the Deputy that I will take full account of their recommendations and will be very glad to meet the interested parties concerned. I think their contribution will be significant.
Should the beef policy review group indicate that the national cattle herd is at its lowest since 1983, that there is in fact a greater concentration of the kill in a limited time, that half the national kill is taking place within a ten week period, and that the seasonality problem is getting worse, will the Minister tell us what steps he proposes to take if the indications are as bad as that?
I am absolutely confident that the beef policy review group will not find, as the Deputy suggests, that the cattle herd is at its lowest since 1983 because that is clearly quite contrary to the actual facts. The cattle herd has recovered very significantly since that period so they will not reach that conclusion. The rest is speculation. I do not know what will arise when they make their recommendations.
Would the Minister agree that, until the meat plants put a contractual system in place and we have a scheme similar to the calf to beef scheme, we will not have a properly structured killing programme? Would the Minister further agree that the contractual system would eliminate a lot of cattle movement and would help to eradicate TB? Is this area not worthy of detailed examination?
The House will agree, not alone the Deputy, that as I have stressed many times the best guarantee for prices for the producer and the industry generally is to concentrate on the market. That is the reason the group are so representative, not only of producers, but advisers, CBF, the CII, the IDA. I hope we will get a dynamic enterprise approach from this group in relation to this very important sector of our economy.
I agree with the Deputy that we need to take all these factors into account and, in particular, we have to eliminate the seasonality problem, which is essentially within the hands of the industry.
In the three years since he became Minister for Agriculture and Food surely the Minister has some ideas of his own on how to deal with the problems facing the winter fattener producers so as to ensure that what has happened in the past three years will not recur in the spring of 1991.
I can assure the Deputy that the management of the Commission system in the meantime is such as to deal with acute problems and the Deputy will be glad to know — and I am too — the problems for winter fatteners will not be as acute this year as they were last year.
We heard that before.
Come back and live in the real world.
In view of the fact that 68 per cent of the national kill is going into intervention and private storage, is the Minister worried that the outbreak of the mad cow disease in this country and in Northern Ireland may lead to a huge number going into intervention? May I ask the Minister what he is doing to reassure the beef eating public about the safety of the product?
The Deputy has said mistakenly and, I might add, imprudently that there was an outbreak of the mad cow disease. There has been no outbreak of mad cow disease in this country. It is outrageous that any Deputy should suggest to the contrary.
Over the past two years, since we were first notified, we have taken the lead in the European Community that this should be a notifiable disease and that any animal that contracts the disease anywhere in Europe should be slaughtered. Since then, 19 cases have been identified out of a total cattle population of seven million. Of those 19 cases, at least ten have been identified as having come across the Border and others have been identified as coming from herds that were imported because they were special category herds; in three cases we were able to trace the cause to imported feed. Let me assure this House — everybody wants to know this — that of all cases there is certainly not even a trickle in Ireland and that is a very important status to us.
On the question of the beef crisis, would the Minister accept the views expressed in a statement by a very senior EC official that he saw no reason to change the beef regime in so far as intervention and APS are concerned?
No, I do not. In fact, I have already had a commitment from the Commission to give special emphasis to management of the instruments available to them in the interests of the Irish beef industry and, secondly, to reviewing the industry overall. I do not accept the statement of any senior official in the Commission that there is no need for this or that.
He is a very senior official.
He speaks for himself, but I am not bound by what he says.
In view of the importance of the beef industry to the country and in the light of the reference the Minister made to the outbreak of the mad cow disease, specifically BSE, does the Minister accept the report from his own food advisory committee who reported to him and the Minister for Health that 13 cases of BSE had been recorded in the Republic of Ireland up to December 1989?
Of course.
The Minister indicates that there was no case recorded.
What I said was that out of a total cattle herd of seven million 19 cases have been recorded and we can actually identify each case. Most were close to the Border and, of the four or five animals that were not, we can identify how they contracted the infection, either from imported feed or because they were part of a herd that had been specially imported.
Is the Minister satisfied with the standards?
Our standards are recognised throughout Europe as being the highest possible.
