Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 December 2012
519. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the eligibility criteria for the beef technology adoption programme; the reason he has not made this programme available to new entrants to farming; if he will investigate the case of a person (details supplied) in County Offaly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56312/12]
View answerThe Beef Technology Adoption Programme (BTAP) is an initiative to address the significant challenges to farm-level profitability that exist in the beef sector by incentivising participants to improve the productivity and technical efficiency of their beef enterprises.
With a budget of €5m per annum, the Programme was conceived to cater for approximately 5,000 participants with a maximum annual payment of €1,000 per participant. Based on the qualifying criteria applicable for established producers, the Programme was heavily oversubscribed with some 7,250 applications received by my Department, of which over 1,000 were subsequently found to be ineligible. All eligible applicants were accepted and the final payment amount will depend on the number of participants fulfilling the task requirements of the Programme.
The eligibility criteria as set out in the Terms and Conditions for the 2012 BTAP were as follows: Farmers with suckler cows had to be current participants in the Suckler Cow Welfare Scheme (AWRBS), that is, they must have had received payments under the scheme on 2010-born calves and have applied to participate in ICBF HerdPlus prior to applying for the Programme; or Beef farmers without a suckler herd had to have applied to participate in ICBF HerdPlus prior to applying for the Programme. Any farmer finishing animals to slaughter had to have applied for membership of the Beef Quality Assurance Scheme (BQAS) before the application date for the Programme and had to be a member of the scheme by 31 October 2012. They also had to have finished a minimum of 15 cattle to slaughter in 2011.
I understand that the individual concerned was not admitted to the BTAP because he did not satisfy either of the primary eligibility criteria for suckler farmers or finishers and there were no places reserved in the 2012 Programme for new entrants to farming. However, the operation of the Programme is currently being reviewed in light of the experience to date and I can confirm that the position of new entrants to farming will receive careful consideration by my Department in the context of its deliberations on the design of a Programme for 2013.
