Vol. 508 No. 4
146 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if his attention has been drawn to the serious difficulties being experienced by sheep farmers, particularly in Donegal; and the measures, if any, he will adopt to address the crisis. [19104/99]
I am aware of the difficulties which are at present being experienced by sheep producers. Prices have been low in recent weeks due, to a large extent, to particularly high supplies of British lamb in the second half of the year.
In response to representations which I made to the EU Commission, a scheme of aid for private storage was agreed at a specially convened meeting of the Sheepmeat Management Committee on 17 September. The objective of this scheme is to take up to 130,000 lambs off the market in Ireland and the UK. I am happy to say that there has already been strong interest in the scheme and Ireland's allocation under this scheme has now been fully taken up. I am confident that this measure will play a significant part in restoring market confidence to the sector.
At my request, An Bord Bia was recently launched a promotion campaign to encourage demand by informing consumers about the positive qualities of Irish lamb. A similar promotion, directed specifically at hill lamb, will be launched shortly.
Headage payments, which will amount to £22 million, commenced last week. In addition, the second instalment of the 1999 ewe premium has been fixed recently and payments, amounting to £25 million, will commence as soon as EU regulations permit. In view of the particular difficulties facing sheep producers at the present time, I had asked the Commission to fix the second instalment at 50 per cent in order to provide an immediate income boost to sheep producers. However, in spite of support from a number of member states, the Commission refused to accede to my request.
The Sheepmeat Forum, which I set up in February 1998, has now submitted its report to me. The report contains a number of recommendations which, if implemented, would help to improve the overall position of the industry including the income of sheep producers. I look forward to working with the industry in successfully implementing these recommendations.
