Vol. 574 No. 2
183 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if flocks currently restricted with CLA will be fully slaughtered out and paid full capital value on both their pedigree and commercial flocks and full income loss compensation for the losses they will incur as a result of this depopulation; and the date on which his Department intends to have all eight flocks currently under restriction removed. [26647/03]
My Department does not have a compensation scheme for affected flockowners. However, in the past, and in the context of a regime which prohibited the sale of breeding and commercial stock from affected flocks, my Department from time to time made ex gratia payments in respect of the depopulation of sheep to pedigree flockowners whose primary business was constrained by such restriction. In this context, and having received the views of farmer representative bodies, my Department is at present considering the question of making similar ex gratia payments to the flockowners in question. I expect that my Department will be in a position to issue letters of offer to those concerned very soon. I do not believe that there is a basis for paying compensation in respect of commercial flocks; nor do I envisage establishing a scheme of compensation for claimed income loss.
