Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The submission does not say that. I take it that is what is meant.

The federation states how the system is built. On the one hand, Mr. Coughlan refers to fertility. That is understandable because one wants as much fertility as possible. Mr. Coughlan also referred to milk quality, which is also understandable. He then said all types of land are factored in. He is the expert and I do not know that much about this but I do know that while lowland sheep, for example, tend to have much higher fertility and lambing rates than mountain sheep, there is not much point in putting a lowland sheep up on a mountain. The poor creature would not survive a wet week there. With cattle, if one wants a lot of milk one brings in Friesian breeds, dairy crosses and so on. However, how suitable are such breeds to very marginal land? How does one achieve the right milk and fertility while suiting all the different land types at the same time? How are all the calculations produced?

The delegates state that, on average, 50% of calves are male and 50% are female and, therefore, one has to genotype 50%. One should remember, however, the requirement is to genotype 50% every year, which presumes that one calf must be produced per 12-month cycle. I understand that farmers do not achieve this rate. The money is being paid on the number of female cattle one has. The witnesses might explain how the system will operate in practice.

This leads to another question. Even as we stand, the take-up under the scheme is low. The take-up on the previous genomic scheme, even at 15%, was low. There will be a high level of genotyping among those in the scheme. The delegates are the ones who produce the figures. If 50% of people join the scheme and 60% of the animals are genotyped, that is 30% of the total herd. On the other hand, if we could get 70% of the farmers to join the scheme and they had to genotype only 40%, it would result in a rate of 28%. There is not very much difference, give or take a percentage point here or there. Based on the figures the Minister gave me in the Dáil yesterday, there seems to be a drop in the interest in the scheme by comparison with last year, particularly among smaller farmers, although the payments are higher. This seems to suggest the high level of genotyping required and the associated cost are quite burdensome for the farmer. It is great for the federation because it will make a pile of money out of it. Perhaps if the federation had set the bar lower and attracted more farmers to the scheme, it would have got as many cattle genotyped and spread the money. It would be more expensive for the Minister but better for the farmers. The money would be spread a lot more fairly around the country.

Did the federation think of saying that in respect of small herds, of 20 or 30 cows, which comprise 78% of the herds in the country, it would accept genotyping at a rate of 30% or 40% because the farmers with small herds are the ones who find the process difficult? It would have got them into the habit of recording and so on, thus reducing the costs and increasing the profit. Did the federation think about that?

Did the federation discuss with the Minister and the Department the difficulty this scheme will cause on offshore islands such as the Aran Islands, Inishbofin, Tory Island, Clare Island, etc.? Bere Island does not pose such a difficulty as it might be possible to do artificial insemination there. There is a good boat service there, which takes ten minutes. On the real offshore islands, however, artificial insemination is not feasible. The difficulty now is that if the farmers do not want inbreeding among the cattle, their only practical option is to swap around the bulls. Is the scheme just not practical on an island at present? Would it impose an enormous cost on farmers? Even if a four-star or five-star bull were introduced and it were shared by all, it would have to be moved on fairly fast or there would be an awful genetic mess. Would the delegates be willing to propose to the Minister that he rethink the rules for islands because artificial insemination is not an option on an island? By the time the artificial insemination man or woman could get to the cow on the island, the cow would not be in heat anymore.