Vol. 498 No. 5
8 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the conditions he will impose for the reintroduced control of farm pollution, the dairy hygiene and the young farmers' installation aid schemes; the number of farmers who will be granted aid under the control of farm pollution scheme in 1999; the estimated number of farmers to apply for this scheme; and when he will seek applications for the schemes concerned. [27934/98]
The Department of Agriculture and Food is in the process of drawing up the details of the new nationally funded schemes for the control of farm pollution and improvement in dairy hygiene standards which will be targeted at those farmers most in need of assistance. Meetings have recently taken place with the various farming organisations to enable their views to be taken into account. The organisations concerned have promised to forward detailed written submissions on the preliminary proposals for the new schemes and these are expected later this week. The terms of the new schemes will then have to be finalised and sent to the European Commission for approval before they can come into operation. I hope to be able to launch both schemes in the first quarter of next year.
As regards the scheme of installation aid, a revised national scheme focused on those farmers most in need of assistance has been approved by the European Commission. The scheme is in line with the previous scheme of installation aid. However, to target the scheme at those most in need of assistance, farming enterprises with a labour requirement of more than three man work units will not qualify for aid. I expect application forms, along with full details of the new scheme, will be available in local offices of the Department within the next two weeks.
Has the Minister or his staff proposed at any stage over the past two to three weeks a minimum viability threshold under the proposed control of farm pollution grants which would exclude farmers with less than 30 to 40 livestock units?
I will give as direct an answer as possible given that I was not at meetings with the farming organisations. It is not intended that a minimum viability clause will form part of these nationally aided schemes.
There has been a dramatic change given what the people who met the Minister's staff last week said. I welcome that because it would otherwise be tantamount to telling 30,000 Irish farmers that there was no use for them, that it would be ensured they would never qualify for REPS and that, worst of all, because of that, they would not be able to meet the environmental thresholds important in the control of farm of pollution scheme.
The Deputy should confine himself to questions.
It is against that background that I am delighted to hear what the Minister said. There has been a major sea change in his Department in a week.
I do not subscribe to the theory that 30,000 farmers would be excluded from a new scheme. No scheme existed before so people could hardly be excluded.
The Minister is playing with words. He understands what I mean.
This is the time for Priority Questions.
It is not in the best interests of consultation if a group consulted issues a scare-mongering press release within minutes of a consultative meeting.
Were it not for the fact that the measure had been proposed by the Department, such a statement could not have been released. There has been a remarkable change in thinking and I know why. It was daft in the first place, whoever thought of it.
Question No. 9 falls as the Deputy in whose name it is in, is not present.
