Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 25 Oct 1995

Vol. 457 No. 5

Written Answers. - Guarantee Bonds.

Desmond J. O'Malley

Ceist:

95 Mr. O'Malley asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry in respect of the export refunds and intervention schemes in each of the years from 1987 to 1995, the amount of guarantees held by his Department; the amount of guarantees called up in each such year; the amount of such guarantees released in each such year; and the current amount of guarantees still in existence. [15740/95]

Desmond J. O'Malley

Ceist:

96 Mr. O'Malley asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the reason the Government, at its meeting on Tuesday, 17 October 1995, released to Goodman International a sum of £17 million pounds in guarantees relating to Beef Intervention and beef export refunds; and the reason these guarantees were not kept in existence in view of the imposition of proposed fines totalling almost £110 million pounds on the Exchequer in relation to, inter alia, irregularities over a period of years in the administration and operation of these schemes. [15741/95]

Desmond J. O'Malley

Ceist:

97 Mr. O'Malley asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the reason he overruled the decisions of his predecessors since 1987 not to release £17 million guarantee bonds to Goodman International in respect of export refunds. [15742/95]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry (Mr. Yates)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 95, 96, and 97 together.

The statistics requested are not available in the format specified. However statistics relating to export refund payments made and amounts recovered in respect of refunds and intervention for the FEOGA years in question are given in the following tables together with the information on amounts of guarantees currently being held.

For advance payment of export refunds the relevant EU Regulations require the lodgment of guarantees with the intervention agency to ensure that the stipulated conditions are fully compiled with. Once this is the case the guarantees are releasable.

The detailed processing and assessment of the export refund payments in accordance with the regulatory provisions has now been completed relating to a substantial block of guarantees which covered beef exports in the late 1980s. Guarantees against which no liability has been established are releasable. As the processing work has just been completed on these files recently no decisions on these matters were taken by any of my predecessors.

It is the clear legal position that guarantees obtained against specific performance of the obligations involving export refund and intervention trade and in relation to specific trading contracts cannot in any circumstances be used to cover any other liability or potential liabilities which may arise.

The proposed disallowance of FEOGA expenditure is a totally separate issue and arises mainly from an inquiry into the operation of beef intervention in 1990 and 1991. This matter has been submitted to a conciliation process in Brussels which is at present in train.

Table A1

Beef Export Refunds — extract from FEOGA Annual Account.

FEOGA Year	Amount of Export* Refund Payments	Amounts Recovered**
	£	£
1987	135,897,490	963,476
1988	133,781,858	832,341
1989	311,072,087	1,743,039
1990	206,795,171	2,794,815
1991	120,644,568	8,004,877
1992	124,050,535	3,612,909
1993	254,704,357	1,000,308
1994	437,503,666	1,655,764

Securities held at 23/10/1995 — £310,421,187.

Table A2

Milk Export Refunds — extract from FEOGA Annual Account.

FEOGA Year	Amount of Export* Refund Payments	Amounts Recovered**
	£	£
1987	85,556,422	799,122
1988	68,920,981	4,370,271
1989	81,313,215	669,888
1990	70,176,325	849,065
1991	65,791,821	639,889
1992	97,635,722	307,013
1993	97,107,309	455,603
1994	66,211,502	587,271

Securities held at 23/10/1995 — £53,741,843.

Table A3

Other Export Refunds — extract from FEOGA Annual Account.

FEOGA Year	Amount of Export* Refund Payments	Amounts Recovered**
	£	£
1987	38,068,768	212,827
1988	52,570,787	16,662
1989	35,412,196	28,711
1990	29,321,224	36,695
1991	36,707,093	171,786
1992	42,780,182	695,307
1993	34,231,659	289,211
1994	34,371,742	485,870

Securities held at 23/10/1995 — £2,785,935.

* Amount of guarantees held against advance payments would be 115 per cent or 120 per cent of the amounts paid depending on the specific scheme involved. In the case of `other' refunds i.e. processed products, cereals, pigmeat and eggs, guarantees are not required for most export refund payments.

** Amounts are recovered where regulatory provisions are not fully adhered to and, in addition, in the case of beef, where a change in destination results in qualification for a lower export refund rate than that advance paid. In most cases guarantees are not called upon as repayments are made directly by the companies involved. Amounts forfeited which are the subject of on-going legal proceedings are not included in these figures.

Table B

Intervention Schemes

Amounts recovered and credited to FEOGA

FEOGA Year	Dairy Product	Cereals	Beef
1987	47,309	10,739	17,505
1988	139,197	—	295,556
1989	173,031	14,637	279,754
1990	647,642	—	116,635
1991	149,939	—	125,525
1992	339,636	—	396,221
1993	249,652	19,798	160,534
1994	138,561	—	172,970

Intervention Securities held at 23.10.1995:

	£
Beef	28,302,360
Dairy Products	625,650
Cereals	132,928