Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the gentlemen for their attendance and it is good to have this discussion. I definitely welcome the scheme in general, in that it will mean a payment of €52 million per year to beef farmers and more than €300 million over the lifetime of the scheme. I have a couple of specific questions without repeating what has been said earlier. If a bull that is bought this year or next has a four-star rating and that star rating drops to two or three stars, I understand that it will be accepted that the farmer bought it in good faith and, consequently, it will still be taken as a four-star down the line and the farmer will not be penalised. However, what about the progeny? If that bull ends up having heifer calves, they will end up with three or three and a half stars. I acknowledge there will be a mid-term review and it will be important to keep an eye on this but are members satisfied there is a sufficient number of safeguards in place to avoid ending up in a position in the final year or two whereby farmers will go mad trying to outbid each other in marts to fight for the last few four and five-star cows? This is to ensure an environment is not created in which all the money farmers get probably ends up being spent on cows simply to avoid running into penalties in such a situation.

As for the rule specifying that 50% of the maternal animals cannot be born before 2013, is the date of 2013 rigid or is there flexibility in this regard? Why will cows then be tested that will not be counted as part of the 50%, if cows are now being tested that will not be counted at the end because, obviously, they were born before 2013? Seven years is quite young and while one does not want cows that are 20 years old, one could have a good cow that is eight, nine or ten years of age. Why was the age of seven years picked?