§ Mr. Conlanasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give details of the latest estimate he has made of expenditure in 1975–76 by the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce under the Common Market organisations of the EEC, together with comparable figures for the preceding year.
§ Mr. PeartFollowing are the details of the latest estimates for the financial year 1975.76, together with comparable figures for the outturn in the financial year 1974–75.
EXPENDITURE BY THE INTERVENTION BOARD FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE Latest estimate of outturn 1975–76 Actual outturn 1974–75 £m. £m. Cereals 50.3 13.4 Beef and Veal 116.0 63.7 Pigmeat 41.2 24.1 Sugar 38.8 45.7 Herbage and field bean seeds 1.5 1.1 Hops 2.0 — Processed products 3.7 14.1 Milk products 48.7 35.8 Others 2.6 1.5 304.8 199.4 Expenditure by the Intervention Board includes the beef premium schemes, refunds on imports and exports, certain production subsidies, aids for private storage and animal feed, the net costs of intervention buying, and the special import subsidies on sugar. Of the estimated outturn for 1975–76, £246.9 million is expected to be financed from the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund and the Food Aid Title of the Community budget, the balance being financed from Exchequer funds; in 1974–75 £169.6 million was financed from the EAGGF. Some of the expenditure shown above benefits consumers rather than producers.
Consumer subsidies on social beef and general butter, which are paid through the Intervention Board, are not included. In 1975–76 expenditure on the social beef subsidy is estimated at £9.5 million, of which £4 million will be financed by 647W the EAGGF: expenditure on the general butter subsidy is estimated at £106 million of which £87 million will be borne on the Vote of the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection, the balance of £19 million being financed from the EAGGF.