Vol. 467 No. 1
307 Mr. Moynihan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry his views on whether the EU ruling, under which herdowners who included a small percentage of friesian cows in their 1995 suckler cow premia applications are being denied suckler cow premium for both 1995 and 1996, is excessively severe; and the action, if any, he intends to take to have this rule rescinded. [12755/96]
Under the 1995 suckler cow premium scheme non-beef breed cows such as friesians were not eligible for premium. This followed a transition period of two years (1993 and 1994) during which friesians were acceptable for premium in certain circumstances.
The position in 1995 was that where an applicant for the premium openly declared friesian cows on his/her application form the animals in question were simply deleted from the application and payment was made only in respect of meat breed animals.
However, in a small number of cases applicants declared cows in 1995 as belonging to a meat breed while the same cows were declared as non-meat breeds in 1994. In all such cases the animals were inspected. Under the terms and conditions of the 1995 scheme the penalty for declaring a non-meat breed as a meat breed was non-payment under the 1995 scheme and exclusion from the 1996 scheme. Anyone penalised in this manner had an opportunity to appeal the decision following which the animals in question were again inspected by a different inspecting officer. I had my officials discuss the level of penalty in these cases with officials of the Commission but the change in declaration of breed was considered serious enough to warrant such a penalty.
