With regard to schemes proposed in the past, I read alarming figures in this week's issue of the farming supplement of the Irish Independent. According to the report, €107 million of funding was returned to the Department of Finance. This is alarming given that farmers could use this money. Debt collectors are visiting co-operatives trying to have money from farm loans returned. The conditions of schemes being introduced are so stringent as to prevent farmers accessing them. Their requirements are set too high.
Last year, €40 million in funding under REPS was returned due to lack of participation in the scheme. We met the Department last autumn and, thankfully, REPS III is much more farmer friendly. We hope participation will be much higher. It is crucial that the requirements of schemes are achievable and farmer friendly.
We have a problem with high somatic cell counts. A co-operative has produced figures showing that 30% of its milk has a somatic cell count above 400,000 per millilitre. As a result, farmers are losing out badly in the milk cheque payments. The figure is increasing by 2% to 3% every year which is the reason we devised this food quality scheme. Members will agree that food quality is fundamental to the health of the nation — we are what we eat. This also applies to animals because we eat meat.
We want to introduce a five-year milk quality assurance and traceability scheme to ensure all milk meets standards. The scheme must be applied nationally and must, therefore, include every dairy scheme. We have fulfilled all the conditions and criteria. We wanted the scheme to be farmer friendly and decided it would be a five year scheme, as proposed in the Structural Funds division. The aims of the scheme would be to quality assure milk and establish traceability of elements. Farmers would have to have to fill out one form.
We know all about tagging and the requirement to have cards and we wanted a scheme which would be easy to access. The objective of the scheme would be to achieve higher milk quality. Under EU regulations we will have to meet current standards within two years. The raw material is milk.
Denmark has a high standard with a somatic cell count of less than 200,000 per millilitre and its farmers comply with it. If farmers have an incentive to meet such a level, it will be possible to have a quality milk product. Milk with a somatic cell count of more than 400,000 cannot be used to make cheese, which limits the number of products one can produce from it. In addition, the annual form, a draft of which we have supplied to the Department, would include information on the traceability of meal fed to calves. Elements would, therefore, be traceable and the calves produced would be healthy and meet quality standards.
The dairy sector is facing spiralling costs due to testing requirements, the need for milking machines and so forth. The sector is also labour intensive and demands dedication. There is a negative view of dairy farming which we want to change to a positive one. We argue that young farmers will not get involved in the sector because they would have to work a seven-day week. They will do so, however, if they are paid for it. It is possible dairy farming will be a part-time occupation. Dairy farmers should be paid and should have choice. If a farmer has 30,000 gallon quota, he deserves to have a choice to stay in business rather than being regarded as a number which, when removed from the equation, will be forgotten about.
Some dairy farmers have been working in the sector since the 1960s and want to remain in it. Some will be able to remain as full-time farmers with higher single payments. They deserve the right to continue in the sector because they were its foundation. One cannot simply argue that it is too bad, their farms are not viable.
We are trying to create a positive image and enable farmers to access the scheme and receive perhaps €2,000 over a five-year period. We will target rural development funds. The environment is important and farmers have been the custodians of the rural landscape from time immemorial. Why should we change that? We want to maintain the rural fabric and protect our identity. We do not want to change overnight. Why should the small farmer not be able to produce milk, as the medium and large farmer does, without discrimination? We will have factory farms, medium-sized farms and small farms.
If a farmer produces 2,000 gallons of milk per acre, considerable problems will arise with regard to slurry. Is this sustainable or will we have large lorries from Glanbia, Dairygold or another company collecting a large amount of milk at the front gate, while the farmer tries to get rid of the slurry at the other end?
One must consider all the issues. We want the environment to remain intact and we have a window of opportunity. Although time is limited, it is within our power to deal with the issue now. If the dairy door closes, it will be gone forever. The only time this happened previously was during the Mulder case which the plaintiff, Mr. Mulder, won. At that time, dairy farmers had an incentive to go back but that will not happen again. We can decide the future of dairy farmers and generations to come or we can change the rural fabric and ruin everything, as we will do if we do not support small farmers.
The schemes that have been submitted before 2 July closing date must be national schemes in which every participant is involved. The criterion to be met is that all farmers in the dairy sector must be involved. It is important to keep farm families supported. We must sit up and smell the roses. Things are getting very thorny out there and some kind of system must be put in place as farmers deserve the chance to be viable. We must get a scheme into operation which is accessible. Our scheme is farmer friendly and many farmers said they would not have a problem with it and that it is easy to operate.
Rural development funds totalling €98 million will become available and if it can be shown that the dairy farmer is in need of help then these funds can be used to give us €6,000 or €7,000 which would make a significant difference to the dairy farmer. It is a proactive approach to trying to deal with issues such as the inequality that exists within the single payment and it could provide a positive way to address the matter. That is where our group is coming from. As I said, we have tried to meet the criteria to the best of our ability.
We want future generations to have options and choices like other people in similar situations. If the job is going to be a part-time one farmers deserve to get a proper price. It has been said that milk prices will go down further so something else must come in from the outside. Since this money is available, why should we not access it? We ask the committee to look very carefully at our submission and help us keep things intact or it will result in a change to the detriment of rural Ireland.