I seek the permission of the House to give two minutes of my time to Deputy Kenny.
Adjournment Debate. - Cattle Headage Payments.
Is that satisfactory? Agreed.
Father Christmas will not come this year for thousands of youngsters in rural Ireland unless the headage cheques arrive. That may sound like an over-dramatic seasonal plea but I can assure the House that it is not. Farmers have never been so down at heel or with their backs to the wall as they are at present. Cattle prices are back by over £100 per head and even more so in the disadvantaged areas to which the headage schemes apply in particular. Milk is back from £1.10 per gallon to 78p per gallon by comparison with just over a year ago. Lambs are fetching between £28 and £35. One cannot sell wool. Never before in the history of agriculture have things been so bad. Never before has agriculture been devastated on all fronts simultaneously. Never before have farmers faced such uncertainty. The consequence of the GATT and Common Agricultural Policy talks is that small farmers are being told in particular by implication that there is no role for them any longer. I refuse to accept this. We have to create a role for them. These are not the people who have perpetrated the excesses that international managers are now trying to curtail and regulate.
Things have never been so bad on all fronts. In the past milk prices would be down but beef prices would be up so that checks and balances kept things afloat. When headage, suckler cow grants and beef premiums were introduced they were seen very much in terms of a bonus in order to further augment the farm income. Today they are the only income that farmers receive. Recently a farmer told me he had sold 9 young cattle for less than £100 each. At this stage the man is effectively asset stripping. That man and hundreds of other small farmers are waiting for the postman to arrive.
We are talking here about a clear commitment to £100 million in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress. It is vital that those cheques arrive before Christmas. Otherwise it will be a harsh, bleak Christmas. In the past the Minister, Deputy Deasy, not alone doubled headage payments but paid them in double quick time. In relation to beef premiums, at the moment forms are being discarded for the smallest of mistakes. I implore the Minister to ensure that there is more leniency with regard to the forms. After all, this scheme is 100 per cent funded from Brussels. There is no point in sending money straight back to Brussels because of minor flaws in a very complicated process. I urge the Minister with regard to the £100 million commitment and with regard to the £12 million increase for the old disadvantaged areas to ensure that the payments are made before Christmas. A person with a salary, a professional person, and others get their cheques on time, yet farmers have to wait and do not know when they will be paid. The farmer cannot make any plans at the moment the way things stand.
I support Deputy Higgins. The Deputies from Mayo West and Mayo East met with an official delegation from the IFA yesterday, and this matter was discussed. I would like the Minister in his reply to clarify for the farmers of the west whether or not the commitment of £100 million plus the £12 million increase will be paid. Will the Minister indicate when this will be paid and will the Minister and his senior Minister please see to it that the payments sections of the Department, arrange set times for issuing these payments so that farmers can plan ahead?
A fundamental point at issue is that the headage payments are no longer a bonus, no longer a top-up. They are the income of many thousands of farmers from Donegal to West Kerry. It behoves the Minister on behalf of the Government to see to it that the promise made in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress is honoured that the cheques are sent out so that farmers can meet their commitments. This is important for the social life of thousands of farmers in rural Ireland. I am sure the Minister appreciates that and will ensure that a mechanism is put in place in the Department to establish a specific pay time for these payments. I appreciate that it is important for the Department to keep money in their coffers for as long as possible but in all fairness a commitment was given by the Government and I implore the Minister to see that it is honoured.
I thank Deputy Jim Higgins and Deputy Enda Kenny for raising this matter. I note that there is another Mayo West Deputy and a South-West Cork Deputy in the House who have also brought the matter to my attention. I held a clinic over the weekend at which it was brought to my attention that people would appreciate these payments at the very least as a Christmas box. It is my intention to ensure that as many headage payments as possible are made by Christmas and that whatever payments remain are then made as early as possible in 1992.
So far this year just over £176 million in all has been spent on livestock headage grants. This total comprises a £16¾ million carry-forward from the 1990 disadvantaged areas schemes, a £12 million carry-forward from the 1990 suckler cow premium schemes a £27.75 million carryforward from the 1990 special beef premium scheme, £46 million payable in 1991 under the 1990 ewe premium scheme and £74 million in respect of 1991 ewe premium. In addition to this, it is proposed to spend another £88 million before Christmas to bring the overall total up to £264 million or so. This £88 million will comprise £63.25 million for the 1991 disadvantaged areas schemes, £21 million under the 1990 and 1991 suckler cow premium schemes and about £4 million under the 1991 special beef premium scheme.
With regard to the beef premium scheme raised by Deputy Jim Higgins, I am also aware of application forms with minor technical difficulties, for instance, a wrong tag number or something like that. I have spoken to the headage section in the Department with regard to that matter and they will sympathetically consider applications where it is quite obvious that there is no intention to defraud or to claim money that is not due. In all, some £162.5 million will be paid by the end of 1991 under all 1991 headage premium schemes compared with £148 million paid out under the 1990 schemes by the end of 1990.
Having drawn the general picture in relation to payments this year for Deputy Higgins, I would now like to turn to the specifics of the 1991 disadvantaged areas schemes payments. The £63.25 million to be spent on the 1991 schemes by Christmas will represent just over 72 per cent of all 1991 payments due under those schemes, a percentage that is in line with payments made under them in previous years. Paragraph 13 (iii) of Section VI of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, referred to by the Deputy, did not promise that £100 million would be paid in 1991 but merely stated that “The full benefit of the revised headage scheme payments in respect of 1991 would, on this basis, be £100 million. If the increases contemplated in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress are put in place for 1991, then the cost of the 1991 schemes will indeed rise from the current cost of £87.5 million to the £100 million mentioned in paragraph 13 (iii). A decision on such an increase has been deferred pending a full scale review of the feasibility of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress. Meanwhile payments under these schemes are being made at the current rates between now and the end of the year.
I would just mention that the cost of the disadvantaged areas scheme has risen from £60 million in 1989 to £87.5 million this year without even allowing for the increases mentioned in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress. An increase of over £27 million or almost 46 per cent inside two years is an indication of the Government's commitment to our disadvantaged areas.