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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 3 Jul 1996

Vol. 468 No. 1

Written Answers. - EU Assistance to Beef Industry.

Bertie Ahern

Ceist:

211 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the discussions, if any, he has had with the EU Commission in regard to the use of money from Ireland's recent CAP fine to assist the Irish beef industry in view of Spain's permission to use a similar fine of £230 million to alleviate the effects of drought. [14597/96]

At last week's Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting a total package of £700 million was agreed to compensate EU beef producers for the effects of the BSE crisis. Of this fund I have succeeded in securing £70 million for Irish producers which will go a long way towards meeting the current and projected losses because of the crisis in 1996. The Council also agreed to the continuation of the deseasonalisation premium for 1997 which is worth £16 million, bringing the total compensatory package to £86 million.

Moneys disallowed by the European Commission in the clearance of accounts procedure must be credited by member states to the EAGGF Guarantee Section of the EU budget. They may be withheld to fund other schemes. Spain was not given permission to use a penalty imposed on them for non-application of the superlevy system to fund a scheme to alleviate the effects of drought there. The drought scheme referred to was agreed to on its merits, following discussion at the Council of Ministers.

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