Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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983. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his view on of his Department’s approach to issues with live valuation scheme as laid out by an organisation (details supplied). [34789/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Animals removed as reactors under the TB Eradication programme are valued by independent Valuers appointed to a panel following an open framework competition run in accordance with EU procurement guidelines. The farmer experiencing the disease breakdown chooses a Valuer from this panel and my Department provides the Valuer with weekly guideline summary prices.   It is important that Valuers have access to up-to-date prices for use as a reference when valuing the current market value of animals. Under the terms of the TB Eradication Scheme, for purposes of livestock valuations of reactor animals “Market Value” is defined as the equivalent price which might reasonably have been obtained for the animal at the time of determination of compensation from a purchaser in an open market if the animal was not affected by TB or was not being removed as part of a depopulation under the disease eradication programme.

The prices compiled for breeding stock, both pedigree and non-pedigree, are based on prices collected by my Department officials at premier, dispersal, reduction and other special sales throughout the country.  Each animal is evaluated individually and all of their details including age, breed, lactation number, pedigree, milk yield, overall merit (quality) etc, and their price is recorded and entered into a database to generate the weekly summary prices. Guideline prices for non-breeding/non pedigree beef stock are based on prices collected by Department Officials at 7 representative marts throughout the country (Bandon, Ennis, Kilkenny, Tullamore, Roscommon, Carnaross and Balla).  The main factors affecting the quality of these types of animals are conformation, breeding, growth rate and development for age and as in the case of breeding stock, the details are recorded into the database used to generate the weekly summary prices.

An appeals process exists that provides for a second valuation to be conducted, by a different Valuer, where the first one is rejected by either the farmer or my Department.  In cases where this appeal valuation is itself rejected by either party the case may be referred to an independent Arbitration Panel for final ruling. The relatively small number of valuations appealed by farmers annually indicates that farmers are satisfied that they were getting the correct market value for their cattle.  In 2016, 3,958 individual valuations were carried out and of this only 59 (1.4%) were appealed by herdowners.

My Department reserves the right to and indeed we are obliged to monitor the performance of these Valuers to ensure that all valuations carried out are in line with the prices for similar animals being offered in the market place. This is to ensure that both exchequer and EU funds are properly disbursed.   Officials of my Department refer to the Valuers Code of Practice to deal with the small number of Valuations which are non-compliant with the guidelines of the scheme.

An EU audit of the financial transactions under the TB Eradication Programme found that the prices being paid for reactor animals were fair and were in fact, in line with market prices.  It should also be noted that for high merit animals the Valuer has discretion to value an animal above the guideline prices as long as the Valuer can justify and support the decision with sufficient documentary evidence.

My Department is continuously evaluating the efficiencies of the scheme to ensure we offer the most accurate market price information.