Duffy blasts animal collection fiasco

Local farmers are being faced with rip-off prices for the collection of dead animals after the Government abolished the Fallen Animal Scheme. Farmers are being asked to shell out nearly 200 euro to have cows collected and we a faced with an environmental and economic disaster according to local Fine Gael election candidate John Duffy.
"The Government have created a situation where there are only four plants in the Republic that can deal with this material. While the Fallen Animal Scheme was in operation at least farmers were protected from the high costs associated with the system," said Duffy.
"The proof of this rip-off is that farmers in Northern Ireland are paying only half the level of charges. The blame for this situation rests squarely with the minister."
Duffy also highlighted the dangers of animal being uncollected with the Animal Collectors Association reporting an 80 per cent reduction in collections in some cases. He called on the Government to change the rules on delivering animals to rendering plants and to consider the ICMSA call to allow farmers to bury some animals.
"We are looking at a crisis in the collection of fallen animals which is entirely of the Government's own making. We now have the usual policy of the Government claiming that they will deal with the problem despite them having made the decisions which caused the problem in the first place. They are making it up as they go along"