Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 November 2023
924. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the €330 million CAP emergency fund provided by the EU; if his Department has sought or received funding from it; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47986/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraCommission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1465 was adopted on 14 July 2023 and provides for emergency support for the agricultural sectors affected by specific problems impacting on the economic viability of agricultural producers.
It is the third emergency aid package in 2023. The first two emergency aid packages were introduced in April and June 2023 and provided aid to Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia for the disruption caused to their domestic cereal and oilseed markets by imports from Ukraine.
The third emergency aid package provides for the allocation of €330 million from the EU Agricultural Reserve to the twenty-two Member States who did not receive any financial aid from the first two emergency aid packages. The package was introduced to provide financial assistance to farmers in the most affected sectors in 2023 resulting from lower output prices, high energy and fertiliser costs and adverse weather.
In recognition of the difficulties experienced by the tillage and horticultural sectors this year, I secured €9.53 million from the EU Agricultural Reserve of which €7.147 million will go to support the tillage sector and €2.382 to the horticulture sector.
The tillage allocation will be distributed as a one-off flat rate payment of €28 per hectare on the area of oilseed rape, winter and spring barley, wheat and rye as declared under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability Scheme (BISS) in 2023. The minimum area for payment will be five hectares and will be capped at 100 hectares per grower.
The horticulture allocation targets ‘high-wire’ protected glass house producers of tomatoes, cucumber and peppers, field crop growers, brown mushroom growers, heated strawberry growers, vertically farmed greens and commercial apple growers.
It is expected that payments to tillage and horticulture growers will be made in January 2024.
