The House will now hear two minute statements on matters appropriate to the Minister for Agriculture and Food. I propose to call on the Deputies I have selected in the following order: Deputy G. Reynolds in respect of two matters, Deputy Nealon and Deputy Deenihan. Each Deputy is entitled to two minutes in respect of each matter and each of the statements will be followed immediately by a two minute reply by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food. However, as the second matter raised by Deputy Reynolds and the matter raised by Deputy Nealon are similar I understand it is proposed that the Deputies will make their statements and the Minister of State will reply to both Deputies thereafter. I now call on Deputy Reynolds to make his two minute statement on the first matter.
Adjournment Debate. - Agriculture and Food Matters.
Thank you very much, a Cheann Comhairle. This matter relates to the need for an office in Carrick-on-Shannon to which farmers can go to get their livestock headage administered. County Leitrim is the only county in the country which does not have such an office. Following the dissolution of the Land Commission office space will become available in Carrick-on-Shannon. It is appropriate that a headage office should be opened in County Leitrim.
Over the past few years farmers in County Leitrim have had to travel to Sligo to get their cattle and sheep headage administered. Due to the way the headage payments system has been operated over the past number of years many farmers have run into difficulties in filling in their application forms. Farmers who have made minor mistakes in filling in their forms have been deemed to be fraudulent. Many farmers find it difficult to fill in the application forms. County Leitrim is entitled to a headage office. I appeal to the Minister to adhere to my request to open a headage office in Carrick-on-Shannon.
(Wexford): Currently both the livestock and veterinary schemes for County Leitrim are administered through my Department's office in Sligo. This facilitates farmers as they can obtain information and get queries answered on both matters from the one office. My Department have an office in Carrick-on-Shannon from which farm development and Land Commission functions are carried out. This office is quite small and it would not be possible to accommodate the staff dealing with County Leitrim veterinary and livestock issues in this office. To separate the two functions would be administratively costly and provide an ineffective service to the farming community as frequently both sets of files are consulted when problems arise. Consequently, I have no proposals at present to establish a livestock office in Carrick-on-Shannon.
I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter. Over the past 25 years the Teagasc centre in Ballinamore, my home town, has carried out tremendous research for farm families in poor regions. Unfortunately, when the Government came into office they introduced changes in Teagasc and took away the funding provided for research. It was decided to make the centre in Ballinamore a "transition" or "transmission" centre — no one seems to know what it is meant to be. The nine employees in the centre do not know whether they will have a future in this centre. This problem has been ongoing for the past two years. It is time these people were given proper projects to carry out; much research needs to be carried out on behalf of family farms in poorer farm regions. I think the Government have said that they want to keep family farms in the west alive and viable. They are not backing up this claim by moving research stations to more prosperous regions. I ask the Minister to clarify the position in regard to the Teagasc centre at Ballinamore, to give a commitment that it has a future and that the nine people working there will continue to carry out research and development at this centre over the next number of years.
I first came across the work of the agricultural research centre at Ballinamore, County Leitrim, as a television journalist during the sixties. Since then I have admired the work carried out by that centre, particularly in the area of drainage and improving production in the poorer land in the west. The findings of this centre have made life that bit better for many small farmers. The results of this research have been put to practical use in farms in many countries outside Ireland.
The future of further research in this centre is under threat. I was very glad to learn from the Minister for Agriculture, and Food, in response to a Parliamentary Question put down by me last week, that there was a proposal to establish a forestry grassland project in Ballinamore with EC funding. I would welcome a definite promise from the Minister of State tonight that this project will go ahead and that the grassland aspect will not be submerged or regarded as a token of the forestry aspect.
At present nine people are employed in the research centre administered by Teagasc. This centre may not seem large by Dublin standards but it is very important to County Leitrim. It is necessary to keep some form of farm research in the west to let farmers know that there is an interest and some confidence in what may be regarded by them, at best, as an uncertain future. I am very thankful to the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to make this plea on behalf of the Ballinamore research centre on what I thought would be the last day of the 26th Dáil. Of course, you, Sir, will be back, whatever about the rest of us. I make a special plea to the Minister of State to avail of this relatively historic occasion to guarantee that there will be a future for the Ballinamore research centre, with increased activity. If the Minister does this he will be remembered fondly by the people of that area.
(Wexford): I thank Deputy Reynolds and Deputy Nealon for raising this issue. I hope we will all be back in the 27th Dáil, whenever it is convened.
The structures and activities of Teagasc are currently under examination with a view to providing over the next decade, in a cost effective manner, the most relevant services required by the agriculture and food industry. An efficiency plan was drawn up by Teagasc and approved by the Authority. The plan, which contains a number of elements, is being examined in detail in my Department and in the Department of Finance.
A proposal to establish a forestry-grassland project at Ballinamore with EC funding is being examined by my Department in consultation with the Department of Energy. The proposal aims to demonstrate how forest and grassland-based systems can best be integrated in farm practice. This is intended to complement the forestry measures contained in the operational programme for rural development, such as demonstration farm forests, forestry promotion and publicity and farm forestry training, currently administered jointly by Teagasc and the Forestry Service of the Department of Energy. The proposal is being examined to ensure that it is consistent with the objectives set out in the efficiency plan and it is not possible, at this juncture, to state precisely the future position of Ballinamore pending decisions in regard to the proposal.
To be reclassified from less to more severely handicapped status, an area must be homogeneous, consist of poor land and have the characteristics of low farm incomes and heavy dependence on agriculture. The results of the 50 per cent random survey of farms in these areas carried out by the Department of Agriculture in 1989 indicated that no area in north Kerry which is less severely handicapped met these requirements. The two requirements or criteria that (a) the average income of an area must be under 40 per cent of the average national family farm income and (b) that more than 40 per cent of the population must be engaged in agriculture discriminate against a county such as Kerry. The national average family farm income is estimated at £6,900 a year. Thus the average family farm income in an area must be under £2,760. In a county such as Kerry with a high dependence on milk production, it is very difficult to meet these criteria.
Over 230,000 acres in Kerry are still less severely handicapped. Unless the criteria are changed before the review takes place, it is unlikely that any of this land will be reclassified, resulting in the loss of potential income for many farmers which would ensure their survival on the land. I remind the Minister that over 5,000 farmers have left the land in Kerry over the past 20 years.
(Wexford): My Department are awaiting the publication of data from the 1991 census of agriculture in order to complete their review of the two criteria relating to reclassification. I understand that the Central Statistics Office will be in a position to make the relevant data available to my Department before the end of this year. The results of the departmental review will, of course, be notified without delay to the appeals panel.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.5 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 4 November 1992.