Vol. 556 No. 5
4 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason 5,000 farmers received letters informing them they would be permitted premium payments only on a certain number of sheep from 1 January 2003 and that they would have only one year to shed the balance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20909/02]
My Department has issued letters to 6,276 farmers notifying them of the preliminary calculation of their permitted stocking levels for the 2003 ewe premium year on foot of the commonage framework plans. In 4,183 cases there was a requirement to destock on existing levels. More than 650 farmers who had previously had quota frozen will have some restored. The remainder will have no further destocking requirement since their frozen quota already constitutes a sufficient reduction in stocking levels. The average net destocking requirement is 20 ewes per farmer.
While letters have issued to a number of farmers requiring them to destock to single figures or to destock completely, I have decided that all such farmers can retain a flock of ten ewes on which premium can continue to be paid.
The freezing of ewe quota on some commonages is the outcome of an agreement between my Department and the EU Commission in 1998, which secured generous REPS payments of up to €242 per hectare to farmers with commonage. This agreement was reached at a time when overgrazing by sheep, particularly on commonages in the west, had reached a point where the Commission had threatened to stop all REPS payments on those areas. My Department had to suspend the processing of REPS applications in the six western counties that included large areas of commonage. As a result of the 1998 agreement with the Commission, however, an additional €7 million per year is now being paid on top of the basic REPS payment to the 3,700 farmers with commonage land who are in REPS. This represents an average annual additional payment of €1,800 per farmer and it brings the total average annual payment for REPS farmers with commonage land to €7,100.
Additional informationUnder the 1998 agreement with the Commission, my Department together with Dúchas was required to have individual framework plans prepared for each commonage. Letters have now issued to farmers with ewe quota because the framework plans have been mostly completed. Individual stocking levels have been calculated with reference to the destocking requirement of the relevant plans together with the data already held in the Department in respect of the farmers concerned. While ewe premium in 2003 will be payable only on the quota now notified to them, farmers will have a year to bring their actual stocking levels into line with these calculations and can therefore choose the most advantageous time to sell or acquire stock.
The destocking arrangements are required to implement measures to protect and rejuvenate commonage areas that may be at risk because of overgrazing. They are an integral part of the agreement which the EU Commission secured in 1998. Any failure to implement them would put in question the generous REPS payments based on that agreement. Farmers who are subject to these measures, if they are not already participating in REPS, must apply during 2003 to join REPS or a complementary national scheme to be operated by Dúchas.
Any change to the 1998 agreement would have to be re-negotiated with the EU Commission. In the context of the consultative process on REPS which I recently announced, the participating stakeholders will have an opportunity to discuss the matter.
I thank the Minister for his reply, but is he aware of the hardship this will cause? I have examples in front of me, which I will come to in a minute. First, in the letters that the Minister sent out, there were inaccuracies and misinformation. Therefore, there is a problem with those 6,000 letters. I have in my possession four examples of people with families in County Mayo who—
It is not appropriate to quote from a document. Perhaps—
I will refer to it off the top of my head.
There are six minutes allotted for the question and if the Deputy who is asking the question takes up too much time in submitting a supplementary question, it means that—
If you will allow me, a Cheann Comhairle, is the Minister aware of the loss of income that will affect those people? I have an example of one person with 236 ewes at the moment and he has to get rid of 81. Will he have an income from the ewes that are left? Will it be a viable family income? Land will also be devalued. Nobody will want to buy land if they cannot have animals on it. I think the Minister is not aware of this issue and I want him to comment on it.
This matter arose because of gross over-grazing in commonage and mountain areas in the west of Ireland. As I said, the Commission threatened the Department with terminating the REPS completely, and following consultation with the farming organisations and negotiating a deal with Brussels in 1998, an additional €7 million per annum is paid to those farmers, bringing their total payment to an average of €7,100 per annum, €242 per hectare.
If farmers with commonages are suffering from hardship the first thing they need to do is apply for and participate in the REPS. The deal that was hammered out in 1998 in respect of commonage framework plans substantially increases the REPS payments to allow for this destocking and to compensate for it.
There are problems with the letters that are being sent out so what is the appeals procedure the Minister will put in place for the people involved?
There is an appeals procedure and people should make an application to the Department of Agriculture and Food in respect of any particular problems they have. Like the Deputy, a number of problems have been brought to my attention and I assume to Deputy Ring as well. We will deal with them as humanely, sympathetically and generously as we possibly can.
