Michael Healy-Rae
Question:590. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the grassland payment will be retained and improved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9275/14]
View answerTuesday, 25 February 2014
Questions (590)
Written answers
Further to the reply furnished to the Deputy in PQ 7824/14 on 18th February, I confirm that there is no legal basis for the continuation of the Grassland Sheep Scheme in its present form. The funding for that Scheme became available through the use of unused funds under the Single Payment Scheme. As of the 1 January 2015 the Regulation that governed the Single Payment Scheme is superseded by EU Regulation 1307/2013 which introduces the new Basic Payment Scheme and related schemes.
The option to incorporate the value of the payments received under the Grassland Sheep Scheme into the value of the entitlements that will be allocated to sheep farmers is designed to safeguard these payments for such farmers. The implementation of this option in Ireland effectively ring-fences this significant fund for sheep farmers which otherwise would be distributed generally to the value of entitlements held by all farmers.
As previously noted sheep farmers generally hold low value entitlements under the current Single Payment Scheme and will benefit significantly from the model of convergence that is to be applied in Ireland where those with a low Initial Unit Value will see the value of their entitlements increase over the period of the scheme.
The incorporation of the Grassland Sheep Scheme payment into the calculation of a farmer’s Initial Unit Value in 2015 will obviously result in a higher entitlement value for the farmers concerned from the start of the Scheme rather than relying solely on the gradual process of convergence to increase the unit value over the five year period up to 2019. Our analysis confirms that as a result of this provision the group of farmers who receive the Grassland Sheep Scheme will have the immediate benefit of an additional €10.3 million in 2015 as part of their payment under the Basic Payment Scheme.