Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

This is an important issue and this section and the next section are probably of most concern to farm organisations. For this reason I am keen to clarify several things. Let us consider the case of a farmer with a reactor in his herd or who must have his herd destroyed in an effort to prevent disease spreading because of a bio-security risk. That farmer will be compensated and such a person need not feel threatened by this legislation. There must be some flexibility, however, for a Minister with regard to laying down in legislation and the requirement to pay compensation. For example, if someone steals an animal and the animal turns out to be diseased and has to be destroyed, should that farmer be compensated? If a person has imported animals illegally and they infects his herd, should the person be compensated or given full compensation? These are the possibilities we are trying to cover in the legislation.

Section 35 deals with the abatement of compensation.

The House will note "the Minister may reduce or refuse to pay an amount of compensation to an owner in respect of a farm animal ... if in his or her opinion, the owner..." has done X, Y or Z. We can look at that list on Report Stage and again in the Dáil if the Senator feels the list is inappropriate, too restrictive or too open. However, a Minister has to be able to make a refusal to compensate in certain circumstances where somebody either should not have the animal, has deliberately spread disease and there is proof of that, or if downright neglect has resulted in animals being diseased. Again, the 99% of farmers who go about their business and who are sometimes hit by disease through no fault of their own, or where there is a fault and they still deserve to be fully compensated, will still be compensated.

I am glad we are spending less money on TB controls than we have spent in a very long time because TB is affecting Irish herds less than at any time since the 1950s, so far as I know. We are also making steady progress in regard to BVD. The control measures are working reasonably well. The compensation that goes with that is not going to change but if we are inserting in up-to-date legislation a requirement on the Minister to pay compensation, there has to be some flexibility if it is clearly not appropriate that compensation should be paid. That is all we are doing.