Mr. Win. Rossasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what further arrangements has he made to support the meat industry in Northern Ireland: and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MasonOn 19th October I announced the introduction of a scheme on the lines of the former Meat Industry Employment Scheme to enable pig and beef processing plants to compete with plants in the Republic for available supplies of live cattle and pigs in Northern Ireland and to remove the incentive for smuggling. At that time I decided that the scheme should initially run for a period of four weeks.
The evidence from this initial period is that the scheme has safeguarded supplies to the plants and unemployment in the industry has been avoided. I am satisfied that for the present it is necessary to continue these arrangements in order to safeguard the employment 260W situation. The scheme will therefore continue for a further three months.
There will, however, be some modifications primarily to avoid the risk of upsetting the normal flow of cross border trade in the future. Until now, imported beef animals eligible for payment must have been in Northern Ireland for at least 13 weeks prior to slaughter. This minimum qualifying period will now be extended to 20 weeks. Additionally, as a consequence of changes recently instituted by the EEC for intra-Community trading in pigmeat there will be a reduction in the payment on pigs under the scheme from 31p to 25p per score. There will also be an abatement in payments to take account of pigmeat exports from Northern Ireland to the Republic.
I shall, of course, be keeping these arrangements under continuous review by monitoring the relevant trade and employment figures.
The modifications outlined will take effect for both cattle and pigs from Monday 22nd November.