asked the Minister for Agriculture the amount of money lost to Irish farmers by the delay in price fixing in the European Economic Community this year.

3.

asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will consider payments to farmers, particularly dairy and beef farmers to accommodate the losses sustained by them with the delay in farm price fixing in the EEC for 1983; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 and 3 together.

The delay in reaching agreement on prices for 1983-84 was the result of a combination of factors beyond my control but despite the delay the date of settlement was, in fact, the second earliest of the past six years. Moreover, the agreement reached at the Council meeting of 17 May included — beyond the benefits to Ireland that were already on the table — a commitment to a further 1.2 per cent devaluation of the Irish green pound and an increase of 3.3 per cent in the buying-in co-efficients for intervention beef here. Together these improvements are worth some £25 million to the Irish farm sector in a full year as against an estimated cost of some £20 million from the delay in settling the price package.

I estimate that directly as a result of the measures negotiated in the package the Irish farm sector will benefit by £255 million in a full year.

I object to this line of answering. My question asked what was the amount of money lost to Irish farmers by the delay in price fixing. I did not ask what benefits would accrue. The Minister did not reply to my query about the amount of money lost.

As I stated in my reply, the estimated loss is £20 million.

My second question asked the Minister if it was his intention to consider making a refund in respect of those losses.

There is no provision made for any compensation because of delays. As I pointed out in my reply, this was the second earliest settlement in the past six years. In none of those years was compensation paid and I am afraid that our appeal for compensation was not received with any great enthusiasm by the Commission. I would point out that this year the settlement on prices was reached on 17 May. Last year it was 18 May. In 1980 it was 30 May, in 1979 it was 22 June and in 1978 it was 22 May.

Will the Minister state what proposals he has for next year to ensure that prices will be fixed at a far earlier date in view of the fact that £20 million was lost this year.

I have repeatedly made the point at Council meetings that there should be a review of the mechanism for the fixing of prices so that they would come into effect on 1 April. The new President of the Council, the German Minister for Agriculture, also considers a change is necessary and I hope he will put proposals to the Council in the coming months.

(Limerick West): Is the Minister aware that the devaluation of the green pound has cost this country and the farmers a substantial amount? Will he agree that the farming community have suffered a net loss rather than a net gain of £5 million?

Questions Nos. 2 and 3 deal with delay. The Deputy is raising a separate question.

(Limerick West): I put it to the Chair that the Minister introduced material other than what was stated in the question. Surely, in that event, we are entitled to ask him supplementary questions?

It is not advisable to follow stray hares.

Will the Minister not agree that Irish farmers are hit to a greater extent than other farmers by delays in price fixing? Therefore, does he not consider that the initiative for earlier price fixing should come from him and that he should push this very strongly?

The initiative did come from me.

With what success?

I am calling Question No. 4.