The matter I propose to raise could, if it is not brought under control, lead to a disaster for the cattle industry if there was to be another outbreak of foot and mouth disease or a wider expansion of BSE. The key issue is the disposal of meat and bonemeal which, as the House is aware, was considered to be a causal factor of BSE. The current situation is that a subsidy is being paid to the rendering industry to dispose of them. This subsidy is €250 per tonne in the Republic. A subsidy of €190 per tonne is being paid to a Northern Ireland renderer for getting rid of bonemeal from the South in Northern Ireland. The difference is €60 per tonne. However, the Northern Ireland renderer is allowed under Northern Ireland regulations to dispose of this meat and bonemeal in a landfill site.
As we know, landfill is much cheaper than incineration. The difference in the cost factor between the Southern rendering industry which has to incinerate its waste and the Northern renderer who does not and can dispose of it by landfill is somewhere in the region of €150 per tonne. The difference in the subsidy is only €60 per tonne. Furthermore, it is not open to renderers in the Republic to import offal from Britain or Northern Ireland to keep their plants going. While offal can be exported to Northern Ireland, it cannot be imported. As a result, the rendering industry in the Republic is in severe financial difficulty and, despite the very large investments made, runs the risk of going out of business unless this inequity in competition is resolved.
The encouragement of the export of offal to Northern Ireland and ultimately to Britain also is not wise from an animal health point of view. This material is potentially very infectious. One does not have to be a veterinary surgeon to contemplate the seriousness of it travelling either across the Irish Sea or the length and breadth of Ireland to be rendered in Northern Ireland. It is not appropriate that we are encouraging a trade in offal. We should endeavour to have it rendered and disposed of close to its point of origin but the current arrangements are having the opposite effect. They are encouraging long distance traffic in offal.
Apart from this, and more importantly, the differential in the subsidy and the different regulations in Northern Ireland which allow disposal by landfill will ultimately cause the destruction of the industry here. My understanding is that from 1 June the subsidy will be abolished but that will not solve the problem. At that stage, in the absence of subsidies, the situation of Southern renderers will get even worse because the entire difference will be €150 per tonne due to the respective methods of disposal available to Northern and Southern renderers.
The solution is to stop exportation of offal from one jurisdiction to the other altogether or, alternatively, for uniform regulations to be introduced in regard to disposal, North and South. In other words, incineration would be required in the North just as it is required here. The present situation is clearly in breach of EU competition rules. If the matter was to be brought to the attention of the EU authorities in either the agriculture or competition directorates, they would find the current arrangements to be both unwise from a health point of view and in breach of competition rules because they represent unfair competition between persons involved in the same business across borders. As the Minister of State is no doubt aware, this is illegal under Article 86 and other articles of the current EU treaty. I hope he will be able to give me a clear response as this is a matter of considerable urgency.
