Calf Subsidies

Part of Schedule 13 – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 25 June 1974.

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Photo of Mr Norman Buchan Mr Norman Buchan , Renfrewshire West 12:00, 25 June 1974

I beg to move

That the Calf Subsidies (United Kingdom) (Variation) Scheme 1974, a draft of which was laid before this House on 10th June, be approved. When the main Calf Subsidies (United Kingdom) Scheme was introduced in the House on 22nd March I said that if it were desired at a later date to change the level of the subsidy rates, steps could readily be taken to produce a simple scheme to do this. As the House will recall, following the March meeting of the EEC Council of Ministers, my right hon. Friend the Minister announced that the Government had informed the Commission of their intention, subject to parliamentary approval, to increase the calf subsidy rates in Great Britain by £10 per calf. The purpose of this increase was to safeguard the position of beef producers in Great Britain following the agreement reached in the Council of Ministers in Brussels last March. That agreement allowed us to exercise the option of not taking beef into intervention and allow the consumer to benefit from increased supplies rather than take beef off the market at prices which housewives cannot afford.

The object of the draft scheme for which I now seek approval is to give effect to the £10 increase proposed last March in the calf subsidy rates for calves born in Great Britain.

I turn now to Northern Ireland, about which there is some interest and where the position as regards calf subsidy is a little different. When informing the House of the proposal to increase the subsidy rates for calves born in Great Britain, my right hon. Friend the Minister also announced that special arrangements, in the form of a beef marketing subsidy broadly equivalent to the £10 increase in calf subsidy, were to be made for Northern Ireland. We know the reason for it. The aim was to prevent any distortion in trade with the Republic arising from the differences in guide prices prevailing as a result of the agreement, and the problems that this would have created on each side of the border.

Therefore, the draft scheme provides for the rate of subsidy to remain unchanged for calves born in Northern Ireland. This was the scheme which we brought in to deal with the situation as it then prevailed. However, since the draft order was laid, things have happened. The Minister has announced that, following the agreement last week, the guide prices in the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic are to be the same as from 1st July. As a result, an increase of £10 in the calf subsidy rates for calves born in Northern Ireland will be necessary, because we no longer need the special arrangement. It will be replaced by the 10 addition to the subsidy in Northern Ireland, as in the rest of the United Kingdom. A further draft variation scheme to do this will be laid as soon as possible. This will ensure that there is no gap in the return there. It will apply as from 1st July, and it will be brought in, I hope, in about a week.