CALF SUBSIDIES (UNITED KINGDOM) (VARIATION) (No. 2) SCHEME 1974 (Hansard, 17 July 1974)

§ LORD STRABOLGI
My Lords, I beg to move that the Calf Subsidies (United Kingdom) (Variation) (No. 2) Scheme 1974, a draft of which was laid before this House on July 1, be approved. The effect of this Variation Scheme is to apply the £10 increase in subsidy rates which was recently approved for calves born in Great Britain to all calves bora in the United Kingdom. In other words this Variation Scheme provides for calves born in Northern Ireland to become eligible for the £10 increase. The original intention was to exclude calves born in Northern Ireland from the increase because when the first Variation Scheme bringing about the increase in. Great Britain was drafted a beef marketing subsidy, broadly equivalent in value to the £10 increase in the calf subsidy rates for calves born in Great Britain, was in operation in Northern Ireland; its purpose was to prevent distortion of trade across the Border as a result of the difference in the guide price in the Irish Republic and the United Kingdom. The situation has since changed. Following agreement reached in the E.E.C. Council of Ministers on June 17 and 18 last the guide price in the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic became the same from July 1; the special subsidy in Northern 1195 Ireland ended on that date, and the intention is that, subject to Parliamentary approval, the £10 increase in the rates of calf subsidy will become payable in Northern Ireland forthwith. The proposed Variation Scheme No. 2 will give effect to the increase.
As a result, calves born anywhere in the United Kingdom on or after October 30, 1973, and certified live—which is Stage A—will until further notice be paid a subsidy of £18.50 a head if male, or £16.50 a head if female. When carcases of other animals which have not already qualified under Stage A are presented for certification—which, of course, is Stage B—the effect will be that carcases certified anywhere in the United Kingdom on or after December 16 next will until further notice be entitled to the same increased rates of subsidy. The cost of applying the increased rates in Northern Ireland will be about £5 million a year. I do not think I need take up more of your Lordships' time in explaining this small but important change in the calf subsidy arrangements which I feel sure will meet with your Lordships' approval.

EARL FERRERS
My Lords, we are grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Strabolgi, for introducing this Order and for explaining it. I should like to ask him only one question. As he explained it, this subsidy refers to Northern Ireland and it is going to cost £5 million in a full year. Is it not a fact that it replaced the scheme which was originally devised by the right honourable gentleman the Minister of Agriculture after his meeting in Brussels in March, whereby the farmers disposing of fat cattle in Northern Ireland were to receive a subsidy of £1.76 per cwt., whereas those in England were to receive an additional calf subsidy? I think I am right in saying that that was the case, and the difference then was the fact that those people in Northern Ireland who disposed of their fat cattle, in fact, therefore received about £20 per animal subsidy, because a 10 cwt. beast at £1.76 comes to a subsidy of about £17, whereas now they are to receive the relatively reduced 1196 sum of an extra £10. I think that this is so and I appreciate the reasons why this has taken place. I am grateful to the noble Lord for having explained what this Order refers to.

§ LORD STRABOLGI
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Earl for his welcome of this Order. He mentioned the original arrangements in Northern Ireland. Of course, with the alignment of our guide price with that of the Irish Republic on July 1, payments under the beef marketing scheme have ceased and instead the increase of £10 per head in the calf subsidy will apply. This represents a slightly lower overall return and is injected at an early stage in the production chain instead of at the point of slaughter. However, Northern Ireland producers will benefit from a stronger market as a result of the guide-price increase, and they had no guarantee that payments would be guaranteed at a level of £l.76p for the duration of the beef marketing scheme. I hope, therefore, this gives the noble Earl the assurance for which he has asked.

§ LORD BALERNO
My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord one question. Does the subsidy to bull calves apply irrespective of whether they are castrated?

§ LORD STRABOLGI
My Lords, I regret I have not the answer to that, but: I will undertake to find out and write to the noble Lord about it.