Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the presentation and the presence of the delegation here this evening. They were here for the previous presentation. They will find I will not be any different to anyone else here in that my questions to them will be more related to the earlier presentation than that of Mr. Coughlan. I would like to hear answered some of the questions that were raised by the previous delegation and an explanation as to how the star rating in the example given could have changed so dramatically over a three-year period.

The point was made that the ICBF is taking into consideration food performance as opposed to just food intake or a combination of both. Why has the crossbred bull situation arisen? What was the thinking behind it? Every scheme and situation should be afforded a teething period. Now that the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation and the scheme are up and running and established does Mr. Coughlan think the star rating should be money related, and that it would be a dynamic of the scheme that farmers have to meet a percentage of a star rating? As was explained during the previous presentation, this is resulting in farmers going out and buying dairy bred heifers to keep their star ratings up.

We heard the questions asked by the previous delegation but they must be asked of the ICBF by us. While I am not ignoring Mr. Coughlan's presentation, and many of the facts in there are positive, but mainly the questions he will be asked will be to answer the accusations or questions raised in the previous presentation, and I would like to hear answers to them.

A side issue that is raised with me a lot, and has happened to me personally, is why testing tags or buttons cannot come out when the cattle are in the sheds. Does the ICBF have a satellite looking down at farmers letting out cattle? The cattle are in the sheds for five or six months, and in the case of this year seven or eight months, and the farmers get the buttons the week after they leave them out.