Marian Harkin
Question:56. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the application of PGI status for boxty. [36483/24]
Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions
Food Industry
Once again, I am asking for an update on the application for protected geographical indication, PGI, status for boxty. I put down this same question several times every single year throughout the lifetime of this Dáil. The original application was submitted to the Minister's Department ten years ago. We keep getting the same responses, which are a long explanation of what PGI status is and how you apply for it, but we still have not got an outcome. I am hoping for good news today.
I thank Deputy Harkin for raising this. This is something I strongly support and PGI status would greatly enhance the capacity of boxty to grow in popularity and be understood and develop in new markets internationally. I am glad to report that my Department expects to shortly publish the PGI application for boxty as part of the national opposition procedure required under the relevant EU regulation. This opposition procedure, which is like a public consultation, will allow anyone having a legitimate interest or an established resident in Ireland to make a submission to my Department about the application. If, following that assessment or the results of any oppositions received and any consequential changes to the application agreed with the applicant producer group, my Department considers the regulatory requirements are met, it may take a favourable decision and submit the application to the European Commission. The boxty PGI application is close to reaching this publication stage. Last week I was glad to attend an event at the European Commission marquee at the National Ploughing Championships, which placed a spotlight on Ireland's registered PGI products. It was a very good exposition of how PGI can work to support products. I want to see that happen for boxty as well. I will certainly make sure that publication happens promptly. It has reached the stage where the preparatory work has been completed and facilitated and is taking that next important step.
I thank the Minister. I am pleased to hear that, but to be honest with him, I am looking at various responses he has provided to me over the years. I will go back 12 months. The final sentence in his response to my question on this was:
My Department's scrutiny is almost complete. Once my Department is satisfied that the application is ready [it] can move to the next stage which is the national opposition procedure.
Almost a year later, the Minister is telling me that this is where we are now. I do not doubt his bone fides in this, and I do not doubt his interest or that of his Department, but things are beyond painfully slow. I organised the first meeting on this back in January 2014. Joe Lowe who was, and still is, with the LEO in Leitrim was a huge supporter. He still is. The producers have come together time and time again and yet the whole thing is just painfully slow. I really want to believe that this time we are at the final hurdle.
I understand the Deputy's frustration. I assure her I will keep ensuring every priority is given to this to get it to that point. There has been a lot of engagement with the applicant group and a lot of work on revised drafts of the application types over time. There have also been consultations on the types of ingredients for the different types of boxty included in the application for PGI status as well as the regions to be covered by the product and other technical matters associated with the European Commission regulation rules for product specification. We need to get this to the next stage so it can get moving. We have made good progress in recent years and we have taken a great step forward with PGI status for Irish grass-fed beef which has great potential. I want to see that now for boxty also. I will certainly ask my officials to keep the Deputy updated on what the date will be so we can get this moving and on the road properly.
I thank the Minister for that. As I said, I have raised this issue many times. I have a sense, and I hope I am not wrong, that we are almost at the final hurdle. It has just taken so long but sometimes you get to a point where you can only look forward and you cannot keep looking back wondering why it has not happened before now. There is a huge level of frustration among the producers. They have attended so many meetings. They have complied with everything they have been asked to do. I hear it in what the Minister says and in his voice. I am prepared to trust him on this. I have done this before. The Minister can go back to what I have said in the House before. I have been prepared to listen and to accept he is doing his best. I genuinely believe that maybe we are there now. I will take his bone fides when he says that we are approaching the final hurdle and that within the next two weeks or less this will go to the next stage. Then we will get to the final stage with the application to Brussels.
I have a brief supplementary to support Deputy Harkin on that. I also come from County Leitrim and boxty is something we grew up with from when we were children coming home from school. There was boxty dumpling, boxty loaf and pan boxty. In many parts of country they have not even heard of it but it is a staple diet for many people in that part of the world. It is a tremendous and a really healthy product. Finding this PGI status for it and pushing it forward is something that should certainly be done with haste. It would be useful if the Minister pointed out what the timeframe is on this particular step. If he does go to this next step, how long is that going to take? Where are we going to be? Are we going to be back here in a year's time saying we have done stage 1 and now it is going to take another couple of years to get to stage 2? We need to see progress and a roadmap as to how we are going to get this resolved. As Deputy Harkin has said, it is ten years now since it was first mooted. We certainly do not want to see any more delay in respect of getting this sorted out.
I thank Deputies Harkin and Kenny. The geographical area for the production of boxty in the context of the PGI application is Cavan, Leitrim, Sligo and Mayo. It is a great product. You do not see it in enough counties. It also has great potential particularly in terms of its health and nutrition benefits in the current context where people are looking for products that are not as processed and which have good benefits. It has great potential to grow and the PGI status is something which could really assist with that. At the moment, there is one final legal question arising on which my officials are waiting advice. As soon as that is resolved, the publication can then proceed. After the national opposition procedure has been published and completed, an assessment of the results of any oppositions received will be checked by the Department. Following on from that, an application will be made to the European Commission which will carry out its scrutiny and may consult the Department on matters arising from that. Then if the Commission is satisfied that the regulation requirements have been met, it will publish the application for a third-country member state opposition procedure outside of the country for members to contribute. If, after that process, any matters arising have been addressed, the Commission may proceed then to register the name "boxty" with a PGI.
How long does that take?
It is hard-----
A year? Five years?
Less than that.
Less than that if the legal matter is sorted.
If we look back from the point where we made the application for the grass-fed beef PGI, from memory it was probably 18 months to two years from the point of application to the third-country opposition procedure to it getting final approval. It was about that scale of time. It is hard to be precise on it but those are the steps which have to be gone through.
Further and Higher Education
Jennifer Murnane O'Connor
Question:57. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he can provide further detail on the veterinary degree to be provided by the South East Technological University. [38014/24]
Will the Minister provide further details on the veterinary degree to be provided by the South East Technological University? It is a really good news story.
I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor. First, I congratulate the Deputy and all in the south east on the very successful outcome, which is wonderful news for the region. I know it is something for which she worked very hard with her colleagues and on which we had a lot of engagement. The news has been wonderfully well received in the north west as it has in the south east. It is exciting news indeed. It is a real vote of confidence in our agriculture sector in the south east, in the region and also in the technological university sector. It is a wonderful achievement for SETU with Kildalton College, which has a wonderful reputation as a Teagasc college, now very much at the centre of veterinary medicine education into the future.
I was really delighted to hear the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, make the announcement, which the Deputy attended at the National Ploughing Championships, that this course will be provided will be at that location. There will be 80 new veterinary places annually: 40 for the South East Technological University at Kildalton College and 40 for the Atlantic Technological University at the Letterkenny and Mountbellew campuses. That will mean a full capacity. It is a five-year course. At full capacity there will be 200 veterinary students studying at SETU and at Kildalton College. This has been made possible through a joint capital investment of €25 million from my Department and €25 million from the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. It is unusual for capital funding to be provided outside the Department of further education. Normally, it is entirely funded through that Department but given the absolute importance of needing new veterinary places in the country, I agreed to partner on the capital funding and provide €25 million to be able to deliver these new veterinary places. Until now, we have only ever had one veterinary college on the island, which is the top-class college in UCD with 90 places a year. Now we are adding to those places with a further 80 places a year between the locations I mentioned. I hope going forward it means the many of the young people who have a great passion for pursuing a veterinary career, approximately 100 of whom have been going abroad, particularly to eastern Europe, to pursue their education annually, will now be able to pursue that education not only in our country but in their home regions, particularly in the south east.
I thank the Minister. As he said, I was at the ploughing and was very honoured to be there when he announced this with our higher education Minister. Giving €25 million from his own budget was so important. Everybody was working together. I know Kildalton College well. My son studied horticulture there for over three years but he is now a garda. Anyway, he loved that too. It is a fabulous college. We are so lucky in the south east that it is now a university. I congratulate the Minister and everyone involved through Teagasc and SETU. They have put in all the work into this and it is game-changer for the south east. It is great to know we will have 40 places every year for veterinary students going through our area in the south east, which is excellent. If we look at the figures, we will see that over 20% of the State's agricultural output is in the south east. We have over 12,000 farms between beef, dairy, sheep and bloodstock.
That shows what a big farming sector the south east has. It is welcome and is a good news story.
Pending the registrations and preparations being put in place, the plan is that we will see the first intake of students in the south east, at Waterford and Kildalton, in September 2026, just under two years away. The recruitment and the scaling up of the accommodation and infrastructure that need to be put in place will happen between now and then, although that is not far away. From that point onwards, we will see it grow every year to a maximum of 200 students.
It is the culmination of a very long and thorough process. I congratulate all at SETU and Kildalton for the strength of their application. As Minister, I was very clear that we needed to make sure there was regional balance but also that there was a focus on large animals. There is a particular challenge with regard to underpinning and supporting the farming sector going forward and we need large-animal vets who can support farmers. Both the south-east and north-west applications had a particular focus on that and it will be very important for the farming sector going forward.
I was at the ploughing championships when the announcement was made and a large number of families and students came to ask about this course. As the Minister said, many students left the country to study veterinary but now that we have this course, there are extra places in the south east, and I am only focusing on the south east. Information should be given to students when they are doing their leaving certificate as to when they can apply and so on. It is important that students who are interested in veterinary know this is happening, although I know many do. We need to give out the information through the colleges. This is a great news story and I thank everyone involved. It is another game changer for the south east.
I have no doubt that South East Technological University and Kildalton will make all of the information known and it will become part of the course options available to young students as they complete their leaving certificate. It is an exciting opportunity and it is great to see it happening in a local area. It is prohibitively expensive for young people to go abroad to pursue their passion. We are now almost doubling the annual intake in veterinary, which is a great step forward.
I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor for her consistent backing of this. I know there was strong support from all of our Government colleagues. In the south east in particular, there was a cross-party and cross-county group chaired by Senator Malcolm Byrne, which Deputy Murnane O'Connor was a key driver of. It was a very strong effort. I am delighted to see it come to the point where a date has been set for the intake. It is an exciting and successful outcome for the south east, as well as the north west.
Food Safety
Bernard Durkan
Question:58. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he is satisfied that adequate husbandry and production throughout the food chain, including standards at abattoirs, remains at the highest level, in keeping with EU and national standards; if he is satisfied that best practice continues in all instances, without exception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38137/24]
The question seeks to ascertain the extent to which production, husbandry, slaughtering and checking facilities continue to prevail throughout all areas of the agri-food business sector and that the same standards are applied to food imports for the home market as well as exports.
The value of Ireland’s food, drink and horticulture exports was almost €16.3 billion last year. Agri-food products emanate from every county in the country and we are now exporting to 180 markets and countries around the globe. The fact that our agri-food products are sought after worldwide is a testament to the high standards that apply and the good reputation that Ireland has for food production.
EU regulations require food and feed business operators to ensure that all stages of production within their control comply with both European and national laws. As the competent authority, my Department ensures compliance with EU and national regulations concerning animal health, animal welfare and food safety throughout the entire food chain. My Department works in partnership with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland to ensure consumer protection through the diligent application of official controls. Staff from my Department carry out risk-based controls and inspections at establishments under Department supervision to monitor and verify compliance with European and national animal welfare and food safety law throughout the food chain.
At the farm level, compliance is managed by staff from the 16 regional veterinary offices, who oversee animal health, welfare and the implementation of residue controls in live animals.
Official veterinarians supervise slaughterhouses and meat processing plants. Veterinary inspectors are stationed permanently at larger meat and poultry processing facilities, where their responsibilities include conducting ante mortem and post mortem checks; monitoring hygiene standards; verifying food business operator procedures; inspecting structural and operational hygiene; and enforcing controls on animal welfare, identification and residues. Annual audits of all slaughter plants are conducted by regional superintending veterinary inspectors. Other facilities, such as meat-cutting plants and milk pasteurising establishments, are inspected regularly on a risk-based schedule to ensure compliance with health and hygiene regulations.
Given that we have had a couple of glitches in the past, including the recent past, in the standards that should have applied at abattoirs throughout the European Union, including in this country, is the Minister satisfied that all abattoirs and all areas where food products are prepared are sufficiently alerted to the necessity to keep to the highest possible standards? The Minister referred to the wide markets involved. It is important to ensure that we are at least on par with those standards or ahead of them.
That is critical. I thank the Deputy for putting this on the agenda of the Dáil today. Auditing and regular day-to-day oversight and inspection are crucial to confidence in our food sector. Anywhere where something is identified that is not compliant, it is immediately followed up and taken very seriously. We have put significant staffing resources into this, as well as robust checks and balances, and that is something we will continue with. As I said, in any instance where standards are not as they should be, immediate action is taken by the Department. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue.
I will also mention the existence previously of so-called horse burgers. Have they been eliminated from the food chain? Is the Minister satisfied that no opportunity exists for anybody to bypass the system? The standards that are applicable here also apply to food imports into this country, particularly from third countries. Is the Minister satisfied that the level of inspection is sufficient to ensure the highest possible standards at all stages?
On the first question concerning an issue that arose many years ago, I am absolutely satisfied that the systems and checks in place are sufficiently robust to ensure the integrity of the food system is overseen and there are checks and balances. This country has an exceptional food traceability system for livestock from birth to slaughter, and the product can be traced right back to the farm. Of course, we now have a national programme under way. We will become the first country in the world to genotype the full national herd, which brings this to a whole new level as no other country is on this pathway as yet.
Internationally and at EU level, we are a strong advocate for ensuring that the same standards are applied in any international agreements and that checks are in place. That is something we always have as a key objective with regard to any engagement on trade.
Agriculture Schemes
Cathal Crowe
Question:59. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an overview of the systems his Department has for processing ACRES applications and for making payments to those who are in the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38020/24]
With regard to ACRES, what systems does the Department have in place in terms of processing the applications that came in this year and, in particular, making payment? What is the Department doing about those that are still outstanding with regard to receiving payment, scores and so on? For the purpose of disclosure, as a farmer, I am a participant in ACRES and I want to put that on the Dáil record.
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I know ACRES has had a very strong uptake in County Clare and there has been a good experience on the ground for the majority of farmers.
I want to make sure that it is a good experience for everyone, that it works well for everyone and that the system and administration work smoothly. There have been challenges in the first year. It is the only scheme within the CAP programme with which there were particular challenges last year. It is the most complex because it has moved to a results-based system, as is the obligation on all environmental schemes in CAP across the European Union. I wanted to ensure everyone that applied got in so we increased the number of places. I got additional funding and approval to do that. Given the payment challenges we had last year, I also intervened to, for the first time ever, make an interim payment to farmers as I wanted to see them getting money and not waiting on the majority of their payments. By last March, everybody had received either their 85% advance payment or an interim payment of €4,000 or €5,000. Since then, balancing payments have been issuing. As of the end of August, 82% of farmers had received their outstanding balance. The team has been working with the objective of, by the end of this month, having 95% of all balancing payments made.
There are a number of IT systems in place to administer it. Those had to be built and operated for the first time, which obviously brings challenges. The objectives are to ensure the issues we saw in the administration of the first year are fully resolved for year two and that the advance payments for this year are made by the end of November. We are on track to do that.
There are 8,000 farm families in County Clare and 85% of those families are involved in the suckler beef enterprise. I am one of those. County Clare is the heartland of the suckler system. Ennis mart and Sixmilebridge mart on Saturdays or mid-week are teeming with families and farmers bringing their cattle through the system. It will be very busy this winter with weanlings.
The ACRES scheme is all-important but many farmers do not yet trust it or believe it can work. The ideals of it are good but payments did not reach many people on time. There is still huge concern that the administrative functions of the Department did not crank properly to get applications processed and payments issued. Then there are the scorecards. People want to undertake non-productive investments, NPIs, to increase their funding and the output of their land and to become more viable in terms of ACRES, but all of that detail seems to be lacking. When will the scorecards issue to everyone? I think only 35,000 have issued, yet some farmers are in their second cycle of inspections and do not know where they are at with that. It is not so much the scheme as the operation and administration of it that is the big concern for the farming community.
We have issued 35,000 scorecards so far. It is important farmers get that so they can look to improve their scores in future years. Farmers do not know how they will score until they get the scorecard. That is a change from previous schemes. The average payments of €5,200 for the co-operation and €5,100 for the general are on track and where we expected them to be, but there is significant variation at farm level depending on the score. There has been significant work in recent months on getting scorecards out, and that continues. Approvals will be given for the NPIs that have been applied for by the end of this year so farmers can undertake works and be paid for them. They will improve their score going forward. We have recently reopened that.
We intervened to ensure that, as of March last year, every farmer had received 85% of their advance payment, or €4,000 or €5,000. We did that because I did not want farmers to be waiting, like in many cases in the past, for their first payment. I understood that where they had carried out the work, it is important they received the payment.
The whole point of the scorecard is to lead farmers to make informed decisions around their NPI. Many farmers, including myself, are being contacted by farm planners. They are giving us the menu of options and most of us are standing back because we do not have a scorecard and are not sure what we are doing. Should we go off and invest this if it will not change things materially? It would offer comfort if the Minister were to say that when scorecards are eventually issued to everyone, the potential increased payment will be backdated for the period in which they were sitting at home waiting for it to issue.
For budget 2025, which is imminent, and other budgets and schemes that may follow, is there an administrative wing in the Department large enough to roll this out? The Minister is responsible for leading this out and he has done a very good job in his Department along with the Ministers of State, but is the administrative Civil Service wing large enough to carry out these schemes and ensure that they are well oiled and that payments go out on time? It is particularly devastating for a farmer who contacted me recently. The farm is locked in probate because someone passed away. He is locked out of payments for all of 2023 and 2024 and they are backlogged. He will eventually get them but it is devastating. You would not ask somebody to take on the local shop, supermarket or other enterprise following the death of a parent and expect them to run it. Farms run on empty very often, so this payment is all-important.
Probate is always an issue and will always, unfortunately, hold up a payment. Probate has to be completed because there has to be legal certainty as to who the payment is made to after a death. That can always be challenged during the probate process so the Department has to have that certainty. That is an issue we cannot resolve but will try to work through, being as supportive as we can.
Across the schemes there has been a strong outcome. The new schemes have got up and running well. The most complex and challenging has been ACRES but much work, effort and resources have gone into it. I am confident going into year two that the issues that arose in year one will be ironed out and resolved. We have worked hard over the course of this year to address those issues. It has not been satisfactory in terms of the delays. That has been part of the administrative challenge of it. Everybody has worked hard to get it going and we have taken the intervention steps as well to ensure farmers get payment. The scoring is really important and scorecards continue to go out. The payment the farmer gets is entirely dependent on the score. We will be making announcements and giving approvals-----
Will you backdate it?
The score informs the payment. Where a farmer gets the full payment, it is based on the score and only occurs when the score is finalised. On giving farmers approval for NPIs, every farmer in the co-operation scheme has €17,500 available to spend over the course of ACRES to take steps which will see improvements in the scores at farm level. That €17,500 is still available to every farmer. We want to make sure farmers get those approvals to start drawing that €17,500 down so it can impact their score and their base payment.
Agriculture Schemes
Violet-Anne Wynne
Question:60. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the challenges with the ACRES scheme, and the repayments that farmers are being requested to repay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38143/24]
I ask the Minister his views on the challenges with ACRES and the repayments farmers are being requested to make. Go raibh maith agat.
I thank the Deputy. We have discussed it in a fair bit of detail. In terms of uptake, we have had 55,000 farmers apply. The Government has intervened to make sure every farmer who applied got approval and was taken into it when they applied. We had 46,000 applications in tranche 1. We had projected that 30,000 would apply but we intervened to accept all 46,000 applications. About 10,000 farmers applied in tranche 2. Again, we intervened and took all of those in. It is the one scheme in which there were challenges in relation to payments last year. I intervened to issue an interim payment to everyone who had not received their advance. It will always be stalled until probate is completed but, apart from a small number of instances like that, every farmer in ACRES by the end of March had received their 85% advance, or €4,000 or €5,000. Balancing payments started to issue over the summer and, as of the end of last month, 82% had received their balancing payment. Work is under way with the objective of getting that up to 95% by the end of this month.
I want ACRES to work well and be a positive experience for every farmer. It has been, in the vast majority of instances. Payments have been strong in most instances but not all. There has been frustration concerning the uncertainty around scores. I am constantly monitoring the scheme because I want it to be a positive experience for everyone and to make sure, as we get into year two, payments happen when they should and on schedule. We are on track to make advance payments to ACRES farmers by the end of November. I also want to see farmers who have already applied get approval for NPIs.
It has also been opened up for new applications now to make sure farmers get approval in a timely fashion for those too.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. I appreciate, and I believe a lot of farmers appreciate, that there has been a huge uptake on ACRES and that this would have caused difficulties. At this point, however, they are frustrated and their patience has waned. I will give a bit of context. I recently met with members of the IFA in my office in Clare. They outlined their full discontent at this situation and especially about the repayments. For context, in County Clare agriculture contributes over €1 billion to the local economy and 12,000 people are employed directly or indirectly in agriculture. More than 20% of the working population in County Clare is involved in agri-related jobs and there are more than 6,000 individual family farms in the county. We know the background and the history and that they were to receive their payments in November. Some did receive it in February and March, as the Minister has outlined. The Minister said that 95% will have received the payment by the end of this month and this is what he is aiming for. I am just curious as to why that would not be the full 100%. Is there an appeals process in respect of the scorecards for farmers? Is this an independent individual who would process those appeals?
There are a number of issues that have to be worked through in cases where people have not been paid yet. As we discussed with Deputy Crowe earlier there are probate issues, for example, which every year hold up a number of payments. The team is working through it with the objective of getting it up to 95% and, as I said previously, 82% had received their full payment at the end of last year. Everyone in this scheme has received either 85% of what they are due or either €4,000 or €5,000. As a result of the interim payment approach that was taken to make sure we could get payments out to people, some of them actually received a higher payment than they were due. We put in place a process to make sure that in those instances farmers can ensure it is netted off future ACRES payments and contained within their overall ACRES payment structure.
With regard to the scores, the first port of call is engaging with the ACRES co-operation project, CP, teams that have done the scoring. At the moment the CP teams are holding meetings with farmers to discuss the scores that different commonages have had and updating farmers on the reasons behind those scores.
I believe that an appeals process will be beneficial. I hope those meetings will result in a resolution for everybody involved. In the latter half of year 2 the scorecards are only coming out. For the farmers themselves, the repayments and all of that issue was based on the scorecards but they could not access their own scorecards. That was an issue.
Family farms are struggling. I know myself that when one is struggling financially any delays in payments, or any repayments where one must pay money back, have a detrimental impact on the whole household. I do not believe it is appropriate they have had to go through this process as there have been so many difficulties. It is hard to see how their payments for this year will be on time in November if, by the end of September, not all 100% have received their payment from last year.
There are a number of other issues that I did not get to touch on here today but it is really important that the Minister look at an appeals process for farmers.
With regard to querying scores, the facility is in place for engaging with the local CP teams and having it assessed.
On the wider point in respect of payments, we have worked hard to make sure farmers could get payments. Obviously, the objective was to ensure everybody got their 85% advance but in the absence of that we made the interim payment. I accept the point Deputy Wynne is making about cases where the interim payment would end up being higher. For example, if one is on the CP stream, the interim payment was €5,000. If the score was on the commonage and it proved to be smaller, then there may be a repayment due or an overpayment in place. In these instances we have given the facility to make sure that is taken off future ACRES payments and netted against future ACRES payments. This is to be as understanding as possible. The objective has always been to serve farmers in the best way possible. I made the high interim payment because I felt that on balance it was better to get farmers paid more earlier, rather than them not being paid enough, and then having it netted in future ACRES payments. I wanted to make sure we were not interrupting cash flow for farmers for important payments they were waiting on.
Forestry Sector
Violet-Anne Wynne
Question:61. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the ash dieback scheme recently announced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38144/24]
What are the views of the Minister on the recently announced ash dieback scheme? Will the Minister of State make a statement on the matter?
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Deputy Senator Pippa Hackett)
I thank Deputy Wynne for the question. In May this year I received approval from Cabinet for an ash dieback action plan to implement the recommendations in the report of the independent review group, which I commissioned. The action plan addresses all 13 of the review group's recommendations. It provides for, among other things, an additional €79.5 million in funding to pay for a new climate action performance payment, CAPP, scheme. This payment of €5,000 per hectare is available to forest owners who fully engage with my Department's reconstitution schemes and carry out replanting. This now brings the overall financial package available to ash plantation owners who are dealing with or have dealt with ash dieback to over €230 million. I believe it is a fair and generous scheme. It was hard fought for and it delivers significant supports for those farmers impacted by this devastating disease in their plantations.
As part of the action plan, a task force was established with the responsibility of overseeing the implementation of the plan. This task force comprises officials from my Department and stakeholders, including ash forest owners. The role of the task force is to ensure that the plan is implemented in an effective way, with a co-ordinated response and resolution of obstacles to implementation. The task force has met twice, discussing each of the recommendations and associated actions and responses. Some useful clarifications have been made and actions agreed to progress the implementation of the plan.
My Department has been receiving applications for the CAPP first instalment since late August and will commence payments in the coming weeks. For the applications received so far there will be payments of over €1 million. There are many more ash owners eligible to apply for the first instalment and I strongly encourage them to do so through www.agfood.ie. I also encourage those ash forest owners who have not yet applied for the enhanced reconstitution scheme to do so. This will give them financial support to clear and reconstitute affected sites and will also enable them to apply for the new climate action performance payment of €5,000 per hectare.
I appreciate the information. This has been a long-standing issue that I have raised with the Minister of State and through committees. The IFA farmers in particular were hoping for a grant of some sort to ensure the local authority would head up the removal of the roadside trees. The current issue is that the farmer is liable if the tree were to fall or any such incident. The farmers have said it would be most appropriate if there was a scheme in place for the local authority to identify the trees and take them out safely. It does require a significant amount of expertise. It is hard to distinguish between trees that are dead and those that are still good trees. They also drop in a fashion that is not quite normal. The Minister of State has outlined the plan. Does that take into account the expertise requirement that is needed?
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Deputy Senator Pippa Hackett)
The plan I outlined relates to plantation ash forestry only and plantation ash that was grant-aided through my Department in recent years. The Deputy has raised an important issue about the widespread nature of the disease. It impacts the vast majority. There may be 1% or 2% of trees that might not be as impacted so badly. It is a widespread disease and is endemic now across Europe. There is a lot of criticism pointed at our Department that somehow we were responsible for its importation. It is endemic across Europe and it was always going to arrive on Ireland's shores, unfortunately.
I met with the IFA yesterday on issues to do with forestry and this was one of the issues that came up. Certainly the scheme I outlined in my opening statement pertains to plantation forestry. There is a need to address other ash trees across the countryside but responsibility for this does not lie wholly with my Department. A whole-of-government approach is certainly needed over the coming years to deal with those trees.
I appreciate the clarification on the information the Minister of State has provided. I agree that there does need to be an interdepartmental action on this. As far as the IFA is concerned, the solution or the pathway is there. The local authority would be the best placed body to remove the roadside ash trees in a safe manner. That is taking everybody's best interests into consideration. Yes, the IFA has criticised the Department of agriculture because it believes that it is an unfair amount of pressure to place on landowners, given that it was down to the Government's mismanagement. I appreciate that the problem is all across Europe but this again points to biosecurity measures. We recently saw the discovery of a bark beetle in Cratloe and I believe it has now extended to Cork as well. The landowners feel that they need support on this issue as it is not something they can undertake on their own.
I will take a supplementary question from Deputy Durkan.
Following up on the last line of questions, what is the extent to which research continues to take place in order to establish the effect on other species or a variation of the disease affecting other species? Regarding the various ash species, for example, American ash, has that species been affected to the same extent? From casual observation, it does not look like as though it has. This might be of some interest to people who find themselves in the position of having to replace forestry.
I thank both Deputies. I am open to correction on this but I think species like mountain ash do not seem to be as impacted but certainly it has impacted those plantations and also our native species, which have been here for centuries. It is definitely having an impact but some trees are showing signs of more resilience to it. Teagasc is very active in research in this space. It is trying to identify existing species here that are resilient to it or developing a new species. The ash tree is synonymous with Ireland. It is a native tree and it is important that we do whatever we can to support it into the future. It is heartbreaking to see the decimation across the countryside now. If there was some hope that we would eventually have a new, resilient species, that would be brilliant. I take on board the comments regarding the wider impacts and the role of local authorities, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and Irish Rail in this regard. A number of State agencies will have a role to play in a cross-government approach to this issue.
Fisheries Protection
Catherine Connolly
Question:62. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 1260 of 9 September 2024, the status of the public consultation on a review of trawling activity inside the six-nautical-mile zone which closed on 12 April 2024; if the submissions have now been analysed; the timeline for publication of a report of the public consultation; when a decision will be made regarding the introduction of measures to protect the fishes concentrated within the six-nautical-mile zone; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37936/24]
The Minister and I are more than familiar with this issue, so we might not bother with the history of it. My question is very specific. It relates to trawling inside the six-nautical-mile zone by vessels more than 18 m long. We know there is a long history here so my question is specific. I know the communication period for submissions has closed. I know there were an extraordinary number of submissions. Have they been analysed? When will a report be available? When will a policy be available and when will it be implemented?
As the Deputy pointed out, I held a public consultation on the review of trawling activity inside the six-nautical-mile zone and the baselines. The consultation took place over eight weeks and closed on 12 April. The purpose of this consultation was to invite stakeholders and interested parties to advise me of their views on any changes to policy within the scope of the review. A large volume of submissions - more than 5,000 of them - were received. These submissions will be used to inform my review of trawling activity inside the six-nautical-mile zone and baselines. Over the past few months, my Department has been in the process of analysing the submissions. All relevant issues must be carefully considered before a decision can be made. The consultation was taken without prejudice.
The Deputy referred to the history of this. In 2018 a transition period was put in place to ban vessels of more than 18 m from trawling in inshore waters. The ban was announced at that stage but, subsequently, legal proceedings saw it overturned. An outcome of the legal proceedings was received last year and, following on from that, I commenced this new consultation. I am very committed to pursuing this issue.
The Deputy will understand the amount of work involved in the context of the large number of submissions. From the history of this, the Deputy will also understand the importance of making sure that each step is taken with assurance because of the potential for a judicial review, as happened the last time. It is now more than six years since the ban was introduced. There are significant issues there regarding inshore fisheries and making sure the stocks are properly and sustainably managed. My team continues to work on it. I do not have a timeline but I have them working as hard as possible to go through the 5,000 submissions and to net out and crystallise the different legal considerations in order that I can take it forward. I am very committed to making sure this is stepped forward as quickly as possible.
I do not doubt that at all but, as the Minister said, in two months it will be six years since the decision was made to bring in this very welcome policy because of unsustainable fishing practices in the six-nautical-mile zone, particularly in respect of sprat. I will not rehearse all of that again but it was urgent enough in December 2018 and here we are, almost six years later, and there is no policy. It is important to say that on each occasion the courts endorsed the right of the Government to produce a policy and also that it was an important policy. Nobody disagreed with the policy, except the two boat owners who brought the case. When it came to the final judgment, they did not succeed. The Department lost on the basis of a faulty consultation or information going to England and Europe. Those were the only two reasons that it fell. It was not because of the policy or on the basis of the arguments brought in the High Court by the boys from the two big boats. I will rephrase that - the gentlemen or the owners of the boats. There is urgency to this issue.
I am addressing this urgently. As we know, the outcome of the High Court proceedings only came in the second half of last year. I then commenced the process of formulating the new public consultation process as promptly as I could and it opened in April 2024. I want to see this progressed as quickly as possible. We have to be very conscious that we do things in a sure-footed way that prevents there being any chink which could potentially be legally challenged in terms of any decision that comes out of that. The decision was taken and announced in 2018. It was in the courts for most of the time since then, up until the second half of last year. I am now stepping forward the new consultation and the new process with the objective of making sure that we have a firm and sound outcome.
I welcome the consultation and the 5,000 submissions but we really need a date for when those submissions will be analysed. I suspect that the vast majority of them are in support of the Government's policy, as were the High Court and the Court of Appeal. Both of them found no difficulties with the policy; it was the consultation. The two gentlemen who brought the first action said it was because the consultation process was flawed. The Court of Appeal did not agree with that and stated that the Government and the Department failed to tell England and the EU. That was the only fault line, not the policy. It is really important to come back and ask why this was urgent in 2018. It was urgent because of unsustainable fishing practices within the six-nautical-mile zone. That has gone on unabated for the past six years. On top of that, if we do not have a policy, we will not be able to support local fishers and rural development along the coastal area from Donegal to Kerry unless this policy is brought in as a matter of urgency. What resources has the Department put in place to deal with the extraordinary number of submissions?
I would not want the impression to be given that I have not stepped this out in a prompt fashion. I have done so and am very committed to it. It was not possible for me to take any action until I got the final ruling from the High Court, which was delivered in the second half of last year. It had been in the court system from 2018 until then.
I now want to continue as promptly as I can to get to a conclusion but, given the history of the issue, the Deputy will understand that I want to make sure the outcome stands up to all scrutiny, is absolutely sound and holds whenever it is actually concluded. As the Deputy will know, there were issues with legal challenges but this decision was taken back in 2018. I am very committed to it. I am committed to the sustainability of the inshore sector and to supporting that sector. As the Deputy will know, I recently announced a €5,000 support payment for inshore fishers given the very difficult economic circumstances they faced this year. Of course, their economic well-being going forward is entirely dependent on sustainable stocks of fish and on fishing them sustainably. That is very much going to inform this consideration too.
Nitrates Usage
Paul Murphy
Question:63. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on whether the nitrates derogation overwhelmingly benefits a wealthier minority of intensive farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38156/24]
I presume the Minister is aware of the major investigation into the intensive farming lobby published yesterday. The investigation says this lobby is "preventing Ireland from addressing its poor air and water quality and meeting its climate targets". Does the Minister agree that the nitrates derogation overwhelmingly benefits a wealthier minority of intensive farmers and major agrifood industry players? Is this why he is defending a licence to pollute?
No, I certainly do not agree. If the Deputy had spent a bit more time analysing and assessing this and informing himself of this issue, he would not be making those assertions across the floor of the Dáil. No matter the issue he is addressing, it is always Deputy Murphy's approach to paint life as a competition between oligarchs and the wider population. He is trying to do the same here in respect of agriculture, tying it into his approach to the nitrates derogation. A trip beyond the M50, walking around a few farms, meeting a few farmers and going to the odd mart across the country would certainly help inform his approach and insight into this.
The average size of dairy farm in this country is about 90 cows. We have about 17,000 farmers. The average income for dairy farmers in 2023 was €49,000. Some 40% of our dairy farmers farm in derogation. If the Deputy was to take himself to Cavan and Monaghan, he would find many farmers in derogation there. I am talking about farmers with smaller farms of 50, 60 or 70 cows. If we were not able to maintain our derogation, many of these farms would become unviable and unable to produce a full-time family income. The outcome of the removal of our derogation, which is what the Deputy wants, would inevitably be consolidation and larger farms. Of course, this might feed into his narrative and allow him to stand up and rail against large farmers in future years, if he is still here. That is what his policy and approach of trying to do away with the derogation would actually achieve. It is important.
There are good, valid and scientific reasons as to why we have the derogation. We can grow more crops and grass in this country, utilising more nutrients over the course of the year to grow those plants, than some other countries across Europe can. Those countries are much more arid in nature and do not have the same growing capacity. However, all of that is dependent on us improving our water quality and meeting the nitrates directive, which we and all farmers in derogation are absolutely committed to doing.
The Minister suggests that I should inform myself and, perhaps for the tenth time, says I should travel outside the M50. For the tenth time, I will tell him that I live outside the M50. People right across this country have a right to have input into how our farming is done and on the impact on our environment. I ask the Minister to inform me. When the cut to the derogation rate was announced last year, he said that 7,000 farmers out of 130,000 family farms avail of it. By his own admission, only 5% of farmers are affected while 95% are unaffected. Despite this, he is going hell for leather to defend the interests of that 5%. Will he tell me what is the average income of those 7,000 farmers? Please inform me so that we can deal with that. We know that two thirds of farms earned less than €20,000 in 2023. If you add the 50,000 farms that are too small to feature in the Teagasc national farm survey, you see that 78% of Irish farms earn less than €20,000. The vast majority of those do not benefit from the derogation. This is a derogation that benefits big farmers and big agribusiness, which I might get to in a supplementary.
Again, Deputy Murphy is bending over backwards to present this in his favoured manner of oligarchs against the rest of the world. As I said to him, we have approximately 17,000 dairy farmers. Among those 17,000, the average number of cows is about 90. Of those 17,000 dairy farmers, about 40% farm in derogation. The average income across those 17,000 was €49,000.
Will the Minister tell me about the 7,000?
I expect it would be the same or very close to it. The average number of cows is 90. It is really important for those farmers, particularly those whose viability and capacity to continue into the future depend on that derogation, that we maintain it. As I have said, we are very confident that we can do that, looking to improve our water quality while supporting those farmers. Any removal of the derogation would not only impact the viability of many of our family farms, it would also significantly impact all of our sectors because it would lead to increased competition for land, resulting in challenges right across the farming sector.
The Minister did not give me the figures for the average income of the 7,000. That is what I am interested in getting. He suggests that it is some sort of conspiracy theory to say that the economy is run by very wealthy corporations - he used the term "oligarchs" - but it is not; it is the reality. Let us look at who is lobbying to retain the nitrates derogation. Glanbia made €117 million in profit last year and is actively lobbying for it. After meeting with the Taoiseach in May, the CEO of Dairygold said that 60% of its supplier farms are under derogation and that it was “important that we work hand-in-hand with the Government”. Apart from the big farmers, it is the dairy processors and the big agrifood companies that benefit from the derogation because they have invested very significantly in dairy expansion off the back of it and are making record profits. The rest of us are paying the price for that in the water quality in half of our water bodies being deemed poor or moderate. The Minister admits that the vast majority of farmers in this country do not benefit from this derogation. He is engaged in this campaign at the expense of our environment for a tiny minority.
Is it not assumed that all farmers benefit from the supports available to agriculture in one way or another? Is it not unwise to give the impression that we are anti-profit? I do not know anybody who works for nothing. If the Deputy opposite is suggesting that would be a good thing and beneficial to the agrifood sector in this country, there is a clear and unequivocal answer to that. All farmers, large and small, rich and poor, are entitled to produce food for the country and, as a result, need to be treated equally.
The dairy sector in this country is based on the co-op structure. Given the socialist utopia Deputy Murphy is looking for, I would have thought he would be a bit more supportive of the sector given that it is farmers co-operating for the benefit of farmers. If he was to spend a bit more time meeting a few farmers or listening, looking and interrogating the statistics rather than trying to shoulder everything into his narrative of the wider world, he would realise that the nitrates derogation is really important in allowing ordinary family farms in this country to make a basic and decent living, providing a wider good to all of society in producing food in a sustainable manner. As a Government, we are absolutely committed to maintaining the derogation and to backing those farmers. I encourage the Deputy to get out and about a bit more and to engage with them himself.
Rural Ireland.
Big industry has been lobbying the Minister, as exposed by what has been discovered by DeSmog.
Keep painting that picture, Paul. It is rubbish.
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