Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 17 Dec 2009

Vol. 698 No. 5

Grant Payments.

Deputy John O’Mahony

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this important issue for the Adjournment debate. What started out as a trickle some weeks ago is beginning to develop into a flood. Farmers have begun to contact my clinics and, I am sure, the constituency clinics of many other Deputies during recent days.

REPS, rural environmental protection scheme, 4 payments and all other REPS payments have always been paid out in November or during the first week in December at the latest. Following contact with Department officials yesterday, I have further cause for concern. They indicated these payments were being processed but that they would not put up for payment.

We are within one week of Christmas. It is no reflection on the Minister of State, Deputy Trevor Sargent, but I am disappointed that the Minister, Deputy Brendan Smith, is not here to answer these questions. I trust the reply that will be given presently will clarify the situation. Those affected are from the farming community that has been decimated as a result of the recent mini budgets and major budgets and all the various cutbacks in payments.

I am not referring to money that will go to bank accounts. It goes towards the repayment of bank loans but it will not be used as savings. It will go straight back into the economy. This affects the farmers that have had farm waste management payments delayed for three years. Many will go to the banks to make repayments with these payments. Many have had child welfare supplements cut or have experienced delays in third level grant payments. The same people are involved in many of these cases. Within a few days of Christmas these people have been told they may not receive their REPS 4 payments. The REPS 4 was withdrawn overnight last May and this has excluded thousands of farmers. It is an important issue in my constituency, Mayo, which has the highest number of REPS farmers in the country.

It is vital that this issue be resolved. In the farming community, incomes have dropped by 28% in 2009, on top of a 13% drop the previous year. This is untenable. These are the farmers who see services being cut in the constituency. Last week, the Teagasc office in Castlebar was closed down and the same thing happened earlier in the year in Crossmolina. The agricultural offices in Claremorris and Ballina are to be centralised. There is a disconnect.

I hope the Minister of State has good news for these farmers and that the money will be paid. There is a window of Monday and Tuesday next week after which it will be too late. I ask the Minister of State to confirm that these payments will be made in the next few days.

Deputy Trevor Sargent

Mo bhuíochas don Teachta O'Mahony as an ceist thábhachtach seo a árdú. I hope to answer the question to the Deputy's satisfaction. He will be aware of the background, namely, that REPS 4 is a measure under the current rural development programme 2007-13. It is subject to stringent EU regulations which require detailed administrative checks, including plan checks, on all applications to be completed before the first 2009 payments can commence. All applications, not only those applications received this year, but also those received in 2007 and 2008, must undergo the comprehensive administrative check required before any payments can issue. This year, the work involved checks on some 28,800 files.

I am pleased to announce this major exercise has been completed in the last few days and my Department has begun the process of paying farmers in REPS 4. The first pay run was started today and covered 10,013 farmers who will receive payments totalling €31.2 million into their bank account in the next few days. The payment represents the first stage of their 2009 payment, which is 75% of the total due to them.

The Department's officials continue to process payments and I expect significant numbers of files to be brought to the payment stage in the next few days. Payment runs will continue to be made regularly so that farmers can receive their entitlements as soon as possible before year end or early in the New Year.

The second phase of the REPS 4 payments for 2009, the 25% balancing payment, can be made as soon as the last on-farm inspection of the year has taken place. This programme of work is almost complete and I hope we will be in a position to start getting the 25% payments out by the end of the year.

Although it is important that the REPS 4 payments have commenced and will continue, I wish to point out that there are some 34,000 farmers in REPS 3 who have got, or will get, payments this year. These payments have been issuing since January and, as of today, we have already paid €209 million this year. Tomorrow, another €8.6 million will be paid to more than 1,500 REPS 3 farmers and these payments, too, will continue to issue as fast as we can clear them.

REPS payments due to farmers this year will reach the highest ever levels and this trend will continue next year. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Smith, recently secured Dáil approval for a Supplementary Estimate for the allocation of an additional €39 million to REPS for 2009, bringing the total allocation for this year to an unprecedented €369 million. The Minister and I are delighted that arrangements to spend this additional funding are under way and that the payments will provide a very welcome boost to many hard-pressed families at this difficult time.

REPS has been one of the most successful schemes operated by my Department since its launch in 1994. It has delivered multiple benefits to the environment in terms of water quality, biodiversity, conservation and landscape enhancement. It has also brought welcome income benefits to farmers, with over €313 million paid out to REPS participants last year, a potential €339 million this year and a total of over €2 billion paid since its inception in 1994.

Notwithstanding the Government's decision to close REPS to new entrants in July of this year — a decision which, unfortunately, was unavoidable, given the state of the public finances — those farmers who are already in REPS will have their five-year contracts honoured. As I mentioned, we still have some 34,000 in REPS 3 and almost 29,000 in REPS 4. There are another 1,600 applications, or thereabouts, that came in between the annual applications deadline of 15 May 2009 and the time the scheme closed in July. They will be processed and, if successful, will begin five-year contracts in 2010 and therefore there will still be farmers in REPS right up to the end of 2014. By the time the scheme finally comes to an end, payments will have topped €3 billion.

When REPS was closed to new entrants in July, the Minister announced he was starting discussions with the European Commission about introducing a new agri-environment scheme in 2010. At the time, the available funding, which came mainly from modulated funds negotiated under the CAP health check, came to some €180 million for the period up to 2014.

Following the Budget Statement last week, however, the Minister announced that the Minister for Finance has agreed to provide for the launch of the new scheme at a rate of up to €5,000 for approximately 10,000 participants, which corresponds roughly with the numbers leaving REPS in 2010.

Outline proposals for the new scheme were sent to the European Commission earlier this year, following an open consultation process. There have been discussions at official level since then, the most recent of those being yesterday in Brussels. We are at an advanced stage in the negotiations with the Commission and I am confident that the new scheme, as part of an amendment to Ireland's rural development programme, can be put to the EU rural development committee for approval at its January meeting.

The Dáil adjourned at 6.30 p.m. until 2.30 p.m on Tuesday, 19 January 2010.