Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 19 Oct 1999

Vol. 509 No. 4

Written Answers. - Farm Electrification Grant Scheme.

Tom Enright

Question:

120 Mr. Enright asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if her attention has been drawn to the fact that one of the criteria to qualify for the grant under the farm electrification grant scheme is that that applicant must occupy and farm at least three hectares in a disadvantaged area which, in many instances, rules out full-time farmers in disadvantaged areas who are involved in intensive farming in mushroom productions or in the marketing and processing of farm products who have less than the qualifying rate; and if she will change these qualifying criteria in view of the fact that it is excluding many full-time farmers employing people in disadvantaged areas. [20349/99]

Minister for Public Enterprise (Mrs. O'Rourke)

The farm electrification grant scheme was introduced in 1990 and is a carry-over of the EC funded western aid package scheme, FEOGA, which was discontinued due to exhaustion of its financial allocation.

The grant scheme is designed to subsidise the cost of installation of electricity to farms which previously had no supply or where supply is inadequate in those areas of the country which have been designated as disadvantaged.

The eligibility criteria for the farm electrification grant scheme were revised in 1994 to bring them in line with similar schemes administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. To qualify for grant aid, an applicant must practise farming on land owned or held on long-term lease, farming must be the applicant's main occupation and principal source of income and, as the Deputy has mentioned, occupy and farm at least three hectares, 7.5 acres, in a disadvantaged area.

Applicants who do not qualify for grant aid under the farm electrification grant scheme can avail of ESB's deferred payments option. This allows applicants pay a deposit to ESB and the balance over a period of one to five years.

I have no immediate plans to review the terms of the scheme but if such a review takes place in the future the concerns expressed by the Deputy will be borne in mind. In any event the current level of funding available to me for the scheme would not accommodate an expansion of the eligible cases of the type implied in the question.