asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if, having regard to the declining size of cattle herds and the consequential drop in available factory supplies, he will state the steps the Government have taken to maintain present employment levels.

I expect the levels of slaughterings at beef export factories in 1976 and 1977 to be only a little below the then record level of 1974. I cannot therefore agree that these factories are facing a shortage of cattle.

The second part of the Deputy's question therefore does not arise.

Could I refer the Parliamentary Secretary to the current issue of the CBF Irish Livestock and Meat Bulletin in which the estimates for Irish beef exports were given: 1975, 414,000 tons; 1976, 340,000 tons —that is a drop of 18 per cent——

Quotations are not in order at Question Time.

——and an estimated figure of 280,000 tons, a total drop of 33 per cent. Does the Parliamentary Secretary not agree, in view of these figures published by the CBF, that there is going to be a drastic drop in the employment of Irish workers in meat factories, especially since the Government have done nothing about the three-kilogram rule?

I most certainly do not agree with any such contention. I have here figures for slaughtering in the three years, 1974, 1975 and 1976, to the end of the first week of November in each year. In 1974 the slaughterings were 838,785; in 1975, 1,154,185; and in 1976, 802,753. Therefore the figures for 1974 and 1976 more or less coincide. Everybody knows that the processing plants were, to use a term that is now used in some quarters, overworked in 1975, and we had Deputy Crinion here telling us about all the profits they were making as a result of the surplus supply. The position has now levelled off, and I cannot see any justification for the implications in Deputy Gibbons' supplementary question.

According to the CBF, Córas Beostoic agus Feola, there was a drop of 18 per cent in the throughput of Irish factories.

The Deputy is imparting information rather than seeking it.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that there is a drop of almost one million in the size of the cattle herd, and, how in these circumstances, can we keep the throughput up?

I have given the figures. We had a big sale of what one might term old cows in 1975, when the number sold exceeded——

You destroyed the herds——

Order.

Of course the Deputy was telling the people, through this House, that the dairying industry was finished. Possibly some were foolish enough to take the advice and sell off their cows. What happened subsequently——

Order. No. 15.

My name was mentioned and I think I should have a chance of asking a supplementary question.

I will facilitate the Deputy. A brief question, please.

Would the Parliamentary Secretary say that in 1974-75 the meat factories did not make excessive profits at the expense of the farming community?

We are entering into another area altogether. The profitability of the enterprise does not arise.

What I said was that the supply was in excess of requirements and that it was difficult for the factories to handle all the——

No. 15.

15.