asked the Minister for Agriculture further to the concession which he granted to herdowners in disadvantaged areas, that is, that cattle disposed of direct to meat factories and sold through marts by herdowners prior to inspection for cattle headage schemes be included in the cattle headage subsidy scheme, if he will extend this concession as well to herdowners in disadvantaged areas who sold their animals direct to registered butchers on presentation of slaughtering certificates from the butcher for the animals concerned.

Departmental officers working at marts and meat factories are in a position to verify particulars of any cattle sold or slaughtered at these premises. It is not possible to apply the same level of control at registered butchers' premises and for this reason I regret that the concession cannot be extended to them.

(Limerick West): Has the Minister any proposals in his Department to alter that situation and to ensure that there would be monitoring at slaughtering houses?

The Deputy will be aware that two years ago I brought forward this proposal to help people with the condition that farmers would not have to hold on to their cattle until the read would take place. This was acknowledged as being a very important factor in helping to offload cattle onto the market without creating a glut in the autumn as they used to have to. This is the second year of this scheme.

One problem in extending the matter further is that we have about 30 meat factories for beef, we have 121 marts, and the Deputy is only too well aware that those are staffed by officers of my Department all the time. That is part of the operation. The trouble is that we have well over 1,000, perhaps 1,200, butchers registered for levy purposes up and down the country and that would place an enormous strain from an inspection point of view. At the moment I cannot accept that the problem warrants that type of programme.