asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will seek funding for the reintroduction of a grant scheme to promote land or field drainage in the disadvantaged areas in Ireland at the 1990 EC farm price fixing talks.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Disadvantaged Areas Aid.
14.
Grant aid is paid, both under the western package and the farm improvement programme, for drainage works of a minor nature which form an integral part of a dry land reclamation project. There are no plans to introduce aid for drainage on a wider basis.
The answer is disgraceful because the Agricultural Institute, now Teagasc, and other agricultural experts and people who look at agriculture have identified field drainage as a major retarding factor in the progress of agriculture, especially in the disadvantaged areas. It is disgraceful.
We are awaiting a question and not having one.
In the 1988 farm talks——
Next question then, a relevant question.
This is the first time in the history of the State that we do not happen to have a natural drainage grant available to farmers as opposed to the dry land reclamation. Is it not the first time ever that we did not have it?
It is not.
I hope the information will be of benefit to the Deputies on the other side of the House. We are talking in the context of the western drainage scheme which came into operation in January 1979. The scheme initially provided for field drainage of 100,000 hectares over a period of five years. Because of the very large number of applications received it was necessary to seek an extension of that scheme. In July 1981 the scheme was extended to cover an additional 50,000 hectares up to the end of December 1986. A grant of 70 per cent of the approved cost of work was available under the scheme and the measure expired at the end of December 1988. Here is the punchline. Under the scheme grant aid of approximately £64 million was paid to farmers in respect of 150,000 hectares of field drainage.
(Interruptions.)
At least 200,000 hectares of land are indentified——
Questions, please, Deputy Connor. I hesitate to interrupt the Deputy.
There are at least 200,000 hectares of land that need field drainage. Would the Minister agree that we need a field drainage policy in view of that problem? Your 150,000 hectares meant a good deal less than dealing with 40 per cent of the problem. What is the Minister going to do about the other 60 per cent of the problem which has been well identified?
The drainage scheme was in operation for quite a number of years and the urgency of that drainage work was not apparent at that stage.
It was.
I am talking about the urgency the Deputy is underlining at this time. I refer him back to the original reply that drainage work that will be passed overall, that will be an integral part of reclamation work on a farm, will be grant-aided under the FIP and the western programme package.
(Interruptions.)
Question No. 15.
Let me make one final plea to the Minister. In view of the problem that has been well identified and of the figures he has revealed in regard to the last scheme, will he please reconsider his decision not to seek grant aid? I am sure that in all the disadvantaged areas or whatever they are called in other EC member states field drainage grant systems operate.
The Deputy has made his point.
The Minister did not reply.
The Minister stated that there was a grant of 70 per cent. I would like to ask the Minister if that is what it will be in the foreseeable future?
The grant scheme has been terminated, as I said in my reply to one of the earlier supplementaries. It finished at the end of December 1986.