asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason farmers with bovine TB and brucellosis reactors have to endure such undue delays for payment from his Department.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Payment of Reactor Grants.
2.
The delays which are occurring in the payment of reactor grants are being caused by the temporary dislocation of work involved in preparing for the decentralisation of certain sections of my Department to Cavan. Additional staff for the relevant payment duties are now being trained and it is expected that the period required for processing payments will be substantially reduced in the near future.
I welcome the Minister's reply. It is interesting to have the matter clarified here today because many farmers have been frustrated by the lengthy delays and I am sure every Deputy finds contacting the Department at present a frustrating experience when told that all that is available is one senior accounts person and two trainees who administer an accounts function for the entire country. If extra staffing is required that is a priority because farmers who suffer the emotional trauma of their stock having bovine TB with the consequent financial loss have enough on their plate without waiting an excessive time. The Minister will have to reduce that time and I think he is taking the measures to do so. Is it true that no money is available at present for FDS? If that is the case, is any funding available at present to pay these TB grants?
Money is available for these TB grants. The Deputy might not be aware of that because he has not been here previously and I do not say that in any sense of comment that he would not have full knowledge. We have increased the rate of Government and taxpayers support for ERAD to an unprecedented level. It is the only area of Government service where there has been a guaranteed payment over four years. It is a matter for ERAD as to the level of compensation grants they pay. Last year they increased the level of grants — they recommended to me that that be done and I did it.
I appreciate there is a delay and accept that that is a hardship, but we have now installed a fully computerised programme that will be available to deal with these things quickly. A feature of the ERAD programme has been that last year and this year we have the most comprehensive round of testing ever undertaken. One of the natural consequences of that is that you will turn up more reactors than you would if you did not have a comprehensive round of testing. We are dealing with it expeditiously and the computerisation programme will be a great help in this.
I contacted the Department of Agriculture and Food today in connection with a constituent and I have been informed that at present there is no financial funding to cover roadway improvement grants under the FDS but they are hoping for a subvention. Is that true?
I have to tell the Deputy that the question deals with TB reactor grants. It is a different matter entirely.
Everybody welcomes the four year funding programme, but in case it would have got across here that it is only the taxpayers via the Department of Agriculture who are involved, let me say farmers will be contributing much more than the Department, as the Minister knows well. Does the Minister think it proper and correct that farmers who had either a TB or brucellosis stall have to wait six to eight months for their payment, considering they have no income in the meantime? Surely in Agriculture House that should not be allowed. I can give five or six instances of where people were cleaned out by those two terrible diseases and still they have not been paid. Finally, is it reasonable to expect the smallest of farmers who would not have a taxable income in five years, never mind one, to have to produce a tax number to the Department of Agriculture and Food before they get their grant when animal disease has hit their farms?
In relation to the delay of the order the Deputy mentioned, that is undue delay. My information is that in normal circumstances it takes four to five weeks from the date of reactor collection to the date of payment of reactor grants.
It is not happening.
If the Deputy or any other Deputy has indications of delays of the kind mentioned please let me be aware of them and I will take it up.
The Department have been aware.
It is not just my Department any more, as the Deputy knows, who are responsible now. ERAD are responsible. The farmers' organisations are all involved with it. It is a special board set up for this purpose, not the Department. If the Deputy will let me have the information I will pass it on to them.
I want to call in some other Deputies.
I have one brief supplementary. I think it is important. I want to get it clear.
I think we are making very little progress today.
I know, but it is very important.
That may be very true but many Deputies in the House at the moment are anticipating a reply to their questions also.
A brief question.
Very brief.
I have been informed that not enough staff are provided by the Department of Agriculture and Food to issue the cheques. This has nothing to do with ERAD. They have the cheque approved for payment. Is that correct?
Let me make it clear. I am not attributing delay, nor do I propose to do so, to ERAD in this case. They have the primary responsibility for notifying reactors and matters of that kind because that is their role. To the extent that the transmission of payment is a matter of concern as I have indicated, the whole system is being fully computerised. I hope that what is literally a computer programme will deal with whatever problem there is.
I would like to put it to the Minister that if the delays in paying grants are due to lack to staff, 250,000 people are unemployed and are paid by the State to do nothing. Would it not be more logical for the Minister to take some of them on to his staff and pay them to do something?
I am afraid we are having a deviation from the subject matter.
Will the Minister agree he has a limited budget in this regard arising from cutbacks and there is a monthly quota budget for this purpose, and, arising from the fact that the demand is higher than the budget will allow, this is causing cutbacks and nothing short of that?
No, there is no monthly quota. That is totally to misunderstand the position. I acknowledge what Deputy Connaughton has said. This is the biggest budget ever made available and it will last over a four year programme. As Deputy Connaughton has said, it is contributed to a major extent by the farmers themselves. There is no question of a monthly budget. It is a multi-annual programme being implemented by ERAD.