asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will outline the various moneys made available from the EC/FEOGA guidance fund for agricultural structures over the next five years; the main parts of the package together with the amounts sought and the amounts granted; and if he is satisfied that the funding is sufficient to finance the full headage payments together with extensions to the disadvantaged areas.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Agricultural Structures Funding.
4.
The total amount to be committed to Ireland from the FEOGA Guidance Fund in the period 1989-1993, as set out in the Community Support Framework which was published on 27 November and is available in the Library, is £509.4 million.
The £509.4 million commitments are broken down as follows— £88.4 million for the control of farmyard pollution; £46.1 million for the western package; £19.5 million for rural development; £46.7 million for forestry; and £308.7 million to implement horizontal Community measures relating mainly to on-farm investment, headage payments and marketing and processing.
The amount sought under the National Development Plan was £668 million. A full breakdown of that amount is given in Table 18 of Chapter 4 of the National Development Plan 1989-1993.
Until the FEOGA recoupment rates relating to horizontal measures have been determined by the Commission in the near future, it is not possible to indicate the amounts available for any one of these measures.
The Deputy may feel assured that within the limits of the funding available from the Community, headage payments will be maintained at the highest possible level in the areas adopted for designation as disadvantaged.
Can the Minister give us a breakdown of the figure of £308 million and inform the House how much he looked for under that particular heading?
As I have informed the Deputy, the amount sought under the total plan in those various sectors was £668 million. If the Deputy wishes, he may ask precisely what amounts were sought under each subhead and he will be given that information. I do not have it available to me now.
It is in the question. I asked if the Minister would outline the amounts sought and the amounts received. The question is very specific.
As I have indicatd, the amounts received are the amounts sanctioned up to this point.
The time for priority questions is almost exhausted, I want to deal with Deputy Stagg's question, Question No. 5.
May I ask one further supplementary question?
Very good, Deputy, but it seems that it would be to the disadvantage of other Deputies.
Is the Minister aware that we received £38 million this year from the Commission in headage payments? Can the Minister tell me how many years this £308 million package will cover? Is it three years, four years or five years? It is very important that we know this as obviously a ceiling is being created.
I think the Deputy is quite right. I did not attempt to suggest anything else. That £308.7 million is going to be made available between now and 1993. That is what I stated in my reply. In relation to headage payments, the Deputy has given the figure for this year, but let me point out to him that the 1990 Estimate, which incidentally we will be discussing later, contains a provision of £67 million in headage payments in 1990.
Can we deal with Question No. 5?
There will be many very disappointed people tonight. It has not worked.
Question No. 5, please, and it must of necessity be very brief. Time is almost exhausted.