The House will now hear one minute statements on matters appropriate to the Minister for Agriculture and Food and to the Minister for Industry and Commerce. I propose to call on Deputy Pádraic McCormack, Deputy Dinny McGinley and Deputy Bernard Allen to make one minute statements appropriate to the Minister for Agriculture and Food in the first instance to be followed by a statement appropriate to the Minister for Industry and Commerce by Deputy Bernard Allen. The Deputies are entitled to one minute in respect of each matter and the two Ministers or Ministers of State, have five minutes between them to reply and they may utilise that time as they think appropriate.
Adjournment Debate. - Agriculture and Food and Industry and Commerce Matters.
A problem has arisen in Connemara with ewe premium inspection which started only today, 14 days behind the usual starting time. As the hill flock in Connemara begin to lamb in the second week in April it will be impossible to gather flocks after that date for inspection. With 25,000 ewes in Connemara I expect that, unfortunately, only about half the flock will be inspected by that time. If so it will mean a loss of the subsidy because those farmers could not then collect their sheep. Unlike lowland flocks with small lambs, it is impossible with flocks of 200, 300 or 500 to collect the sheep with the lambs. The lambs would be separated from their mothers and would die as the result. Farmers will not be able to collect their flocks for the inspections. Therefore, I am appealing to the Minister, in respect of hill flocks not inspected by the second week in April, to pay the owners on application. If not about £250,000 in subsidies will be lost.
I thank you, Sir, for allowing me the opportunity to raise this matter. The administration and disbursement of EC free beef has left a trail of grievance and a sense of injustice throughout the country. A long litany of social welfare categories such as old aged pensioners, contributory and non contributory, widows and orphans, blind pensioners, people on disability benefit and invalidity benefit, deserted wives and DPMA recipients to name but some have been omitted. Only four categories have been included, those on long term unemployment assistance excluding small holders, pre-retirement pensioners, long term supplementary welfare allowance recipients and FÁS trainees who are long term unemployed excluding smallholders before starting with FÁS. Why has there been discrimination against smallholders who are excluded in every case even though they may be in receipt of the full rate of unemployment assistance? When one considers the surplus of beef in the EC, much of it almost given away to countries outside of the Community, it is impossible to understand why so many deserving categories have been overlooked. Will the Minister explain what criteria was employed when deciding on who should be included and who should be left out?
I compliment the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for undertaking the distribution of the beef on a voluntary basis. They do the job with the discretion and sensitivity that only their personnel with their vast experience of such work could achieve.
I thank the Chair for giving me the opportunity to raise the question of the closure of Rathduff cheese factory which is located in the rural part of my constituency, with a projected loss of 80 jobs. This closure is occurring because of the rationalisation moves by the parent company. The rationalisation is because of the amalgamation between Ballyclough and Mitchelstown Co-ops. I regret the loss of the 80 jobs as a result of this amalgamation. There has been a serious conflict as between the evidence put forward by the co-operatives and an attempt has been made to make Cork County Council the scapegoats on the basis of effluent discharge. I am not trying to blame the Minister. I am appealing to him for the sake of the 80 jobs in Rathduff to intervene. It would be a tragedy for the area which has high levels of unemployment if those jobs were lost. Most of the people who will lose their jobs will find it very hard to find replacement jobs.
Will the Deputy now make his second one minute statement?
I would ask the Minister for Industry and Commerce to remove the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over the Irish Steel plant in Cork. Will the Minister spell out exactly the present position with the talks that have been going on between the Government and the German group who are interested and tell us also what the status is of the talks that have been going on with the US group? Cork had a 5 per cent increase in unemployment in the last year and it cannot tolerate further job losses. There is widespread fear and anxiety among the families of workers in Irish Steel because of the uncertainty over the last 12 months. Out of respect for the families the Minister should tell us exactly what is happening. Talks took place between the unions and the Minister last week. We were told that there would be 86 jobs lost and that there would be an investment from the Government, but the House deserves an explanation for the sake of the people in Cork.
With the permission of the Chair and the agreement of the House I would like to give half a minute of my time to Deputy Dan Wallace who also represents the Rathduff area, to make a brief comment on that matter.
The closure of the cheese factory in Rathduff would devastate the local community. The workers and suppliers have given long and loyal service to Ballyclough and it is not acceptable that because of the merger they must now be sacrificed for economic reasons. The Minister and the board should ensure that fair play is given to workers. We talk about preserving rural Ireland and rural communities. This is an opportunity for the co-operative and the Minister to respond in a positive way to a genuine need. The Minister should take this matter seriously and in consultation with the co-op should ensure that fair play is given to the workers.
The proposed closure of Rathduff cheese factory within the context of the amalgamation of Ballyclough and Mitchelstown Co-ops can be viewed as part of the rationalisation process which the Irish dairy sector is currently experiencing. The necessity for this reorientation in approach has been recognised by the ICOS in their 1987 document "A Strategy for the Irish Dairy Industry" which recommended the establishment of three milk processing units. The IDA — Department of Agriculture and Food paper "A Future in Food", also published in 1987, has similarly emphasised the importance of rationalisation to the future prosperity of the industry. The amalgamation of Ballyclough and Mitchelstown Co-ops has to be judged in this context. The reorganisation of the industry now taking place should facilitate the creation of new employment opportunities in the medium term on the basis of a more competitive processing structure within the industry as well as securing the jobs which currently exist.
I will now move to Deputy McGinley's question in relation to the supply of intervention beef to the most deprived persons in the Community.
Each year a specific financial allocation is made for each member state under this scheme and the quantity of beef available is strictly limited in line with this allocation.
Ireland's allocation for 1990 was £3.3 million which covered some 100 tonnes of beef to be supplied to hostels/day centres run by voluntary organisations and some 650 tonnes of beef for distribution to social welfare recipients.
To include all social welfare recipients would not be possible, so in consultation with the Department of Social Welfare specific beneficiaries are identified. The decision was made to restrict the scheme in 1990, as in previous years, to recipients of long term unemployment assistance excluding smallholders; recipients of pre-retirement allowance; recipients of long term supplementary welfare allowance; and FÁS trainees who were in receipt of long term unemployment assistance immediately prior to doing their courses.
With the very considerable co-operation of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul some 120,000 of the most needy — identified using objective economic criteria — received food which they would not have otherwise obtained. It is planned to continue the same method of distribution for beef in the future.
I will now take Deputy McCormack's question in relation to the problem of the inspection of the mountain ewe flock for premium payments and the difficulty this presents for a number of flock owners in Connemara.
The position here is that this scheme is 100 per cent financed by the EC and they can lay down all the rules and regulations governing it as they see fit. When the proposal requiring notification within ten days of each loss or sale of ewes was brought up at the Sheepmeat Management Committee, Ireland accepted that it might be a reasonable requirement in member states where only relatively small percentages of flocks are inspected, but argued forcefully that it was totally unnecessary in a situation where every applicant's flock was inspected each year without fail. What was the point, we asked, of getting in a mountain of paper notifications when we would in any event discover all sales and losses at inspection in every case? We asked for a derogation from the notification requirement for any member state carrying out 100 per cent field checks but unfortunately the committee simply took the majority view from all the other member states who have partial inspections only and put through the regulation without our suggested amendment. Even if they had accepted our amendment, a derogation from the need to notify losses or sales up to the inspection date would not have released flock owners in Ireland from the need to notify us of losses or sales between the inspection date and the end of the 100-days retention period on 9 June. It is important to note that notification of losses must be within ten days of discovery of the losses rather than within ten days of the losses themselves. This EC provision recognised the difficulty facing mountain flock owners in reporting losses within ten days.
We are very anxious to get various messages across to sheep owners this year about changes in the schemes — the fact that if they apply on more ewes than they have, they will be ruled out of two years' schemes, the fact that they cannot sell eligible ewes during the 100-day period, the fact that they must notify us in advance if they wish to change their sheep grazings and so on. We want to get these messages across to them to save them from making mistakes and losing premiums. I can assure the Deputy that we are doing everything possible at European level to simplify this scheme but we have to abide by Community regulations.
Irish Steel are trading satisfactorily in a very difficult international environment. Following years of loss making, the company made modest profits during the past two financial years and it is hoped a profit can be returned in the current year also.
Regarding the question of a sale of the company, the Government are still convinced that the viability of the company, especially for the longer term, can best be ensured by association with a strong external partner. Efforts to find a suitable partner have not so far proved successful but these efforts are continuing.
Quite separate from the question of sale, it is of course essential that the company take all necessary steps to maintain and improve their competitiveness. To this end, the company are proposing a package of rationalisation measures covering reductions in costs, including payroll costs, more flexible working arrangements and more appropriate pay arrangements. This package includes proposals for 96 voluntary redundancies. There will, of course, be full consultations between the company and the trade unions in relation to these proposals.
The Dáil adjourned at 11.15 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 21 March 1991.