Goodman shares €18m payout for rendering 'fallen' cattle: ThePost.ie


TCH Archives > Sunday Business Post > 2004/02/01 > Goodman shares €18m payout for rendering 'fallen' cattle

Goodman shares €18m payout for rendering 'fallen' cattle
Sunday, February 01, 2004

By Simon Carswell

Three rendering firms, including Larry Goodman's Waterford Proteins, shared €18 million of taxpayers' money last year for disposing of 'fallen' and `depopulated' cattle.

Fallen cattle is the term given to animals that die naturally on farms. Depopulated cattle are diseased animals or animals in an affected herd that are culled. To prevent the spread of disease, fallen and depopulated cattle are rendered into meat and bonemeal and incinerated abroad.

The other two companies who hold lucrative state contracts to collect, render and dispose of cattle are Monery By-Products in Cavan and Premier Proteins in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, which are owned by IAWS; and College Proteins in Co Meath, which is owned by the Gilroy family.

Goodman, the Co Louthbased beef baron, operates two rendering factories, at Cahir, Co Tipperary, and in Waterford. Both plants fall under the control of his company, Munster Proteins. His Waterford-based rendering business trades asWaterford Proteins.

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture said the most recent contracts to destroy fallen and depopulated cattle were awarded last August and expired at the end of last year.

He said contract documents would be issued this week for a new tender. It is thought that the drafting of the new documents was initiated after an inquiry from The Sunday Business Post.

The department confirmed that the three companies were still receiving taxpayers' moneyfor renderingfallen and depopulated cattle, even though their contracts expired on December 31.

The department refused to provide a breakdown of the total figure showing the amount of public money paid to each renderer, saying that the information was "commercially sensitive".

The total pay-out last year comprised €15.7 million paid out for the rendering of fallen cattle and €2.36 million for the destruction of depopulated herds.

In addition to this, €8.5 million was paid to 39 knackeries, which, last year, collected 220,554 fallen bovine animals and transported them to the rendering companies.