Vol. 403 No. 10
15 Mr. Sherlock asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of officers engaged in field inspections in regard to cattle headage schemes at the latest date for which figures are available; the numbers engaged on the same date in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I have set out in a tabular statement which will be circulated in the Official Report, the number of officers engaged on field inspections under the cattle headage schemes on 21 September 1990, the date on which this year's inspections ended, together with the number of officers so engaged on that date in each of the years 1985 to 1989 inclusive. Since, however, inspections do not start and finish on the same date each year, these figures are not comparable on a year-by-year basis.
The following is the statement:
Staff engaged on cattle headage inspections on 21 September.
|
Year |
Nos. |
|
1985 |
176 |
|
1986 |
196 |
|
1987 |
186 |
|
1988 |
255 |
|
1989 |
201 |
|
1990 |
199 |
Arising from the reply or rather the non-reply given by the Minister on that very important question, I know now why the EC Court of Auditors accused this country of sloppy management.
The Deputy has entered into another area altogether. The question asked the number of persons engaged in this activity. Policy does not arise.
One cannot apply the spending rules unless one has the personnel. Would the Minister agree, arising from the figures issued by his Department in 1989, that £165.7 million was spent on such grants and that the saving, as a result of full inspections, was £14.5 million on sheep and £9.9 million on cattle? Would the Minister agree by reason of the fact that the number of inspections are reduced considerably for most of the year and are not at all for another part of the year that this is leading to the complaint made against the State by the EC Court of Auditors? Will the Minister correct that and give me the figure for those employed?
I should point out to the Deputy that the reply to the original question is by way of a tabular statement. The supplementary questions we had on Question No. 9 dealt adequately with the various procedures in place on the matter of inspections.
I want to deal with Deputy Deasy's Question, No. 16. The time is almost up.
