Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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261. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the price being paid at present for reactor cattle by his Department; the way this relates to the price in 2014; the method by which this price is calculated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8754/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The main compensation scheme for farmers whose herds are affected by TB is the On-Farm Market Valuation Scheme. Under these arrangements, compensation is payable for cattle removed as reactors. This compensation is based on “Market Value” being the equivalent price that might reasonably have been obtained for the animal, at the time of determination of compensation, from a purchaser in the open market if the animal was not affected by TB. My Department pays to the farmer the difference between the market valuation (determined by independent, qualified valuers) of the animal and the price, known as the salvage price, which he or she receives from the slaughter plant.

In the first 2 months of 2015, the average valuation of TB reactors slaughtered was €1,156 (compared with €1161 for the same period in 2014). The average salvage value received by farmers for the same period in 2015 was €482 (compared with €425 in 2014). Thus, the average amounts paid by my Department (being the difference between the market valuation and the salvage price received by the farmer from the slaughter plant) for reactors to-date in 2015 was €674, compared with €735 in 2014.

I am satisfied that, taking account of the payment from my Department and the price received by the herdowner from the slaughter plant, a farmer, at any given time, receives total compensation which adequately reflects the market valuation of the animal as if it were not affected by bovine TB.