Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 15 July 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Independent Mink Farms: Discussion

Photo of Michael FitzmauriceMichael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

From the documents I read, I understand that, as with other types of farming, there is a seven-year cycle. There could be a few good years and a few bad ones. That is why the witnesses are going for the ten-year system. That way, they can pick up a couple of good years in the middle, along with the bad seven years. Is there an investment or allocation from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine? For example, in cattle farming, one person might have a shed for 20 years. Another person might have borrowed from the bank for a shed only two or three years previously. I am trying to make a comparison between cattle farming and mink farming. What sort of infrastructural upgrades would be done in mink farming? Is there an allocation in the Department's agreement? Are they compensating the witnesses for those? Some of the witnesses may have spent a good few quid and may have borrowings. Now, however, they have been told to get out. If the witnesses could show that they had extra infrastructural spending over the past three or four years, would the Department’s compensation scheme cover that?

That is my last question because I want to let the other members in as well.

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