Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 February 2015
131. Deputy Tom Fleming asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will prioritise the old-young farmers category for the 60% grant in the new targeted agricultural measures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6828/15]
View answerI join previous speakers in congratulating Deputy Martin Ferris and the Ardfert team on winning their third all-Ireland title at the weekend. I am not forgetting the neighbouring club of Brosna which also won an all-Ireland title. Deputy Martin Ferris and I are delighted at the great double secured by teams from County Kerry at the weekend.
I ask the Minister to prioritise the category known as old-young farmers for the 60% grant in the new targeted agricultural measures. These farmers are being deprived of vital payments under the measures because they were actively engaged in farming before 1 January 2010. I ask the Minister to address the issue.
A number of questions have been tabled on young farmers, old-young farmers and so forth which I will answer as we reach them. We worked hard during the negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy to ensure young farmers would be given preferential treatment. As a result, they will receive a top-up on the single farm payment and priority in the national reserve which will increase their single farm payment. In addition, under Pillar 2 grant aid programmes, young farmers will receive 60% grant aid under the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, while everybody else will receive grant aid of 40%.
We will hopefully announce in approximately one month the first of the TAM schemes and we will roll them out thereafter.
All farmers, regardless of their age or whether they are legally identified as young farmers under the CAP regulations, will get grant aid if they are successful under the TAM scheme process. However, one of the things we had to agree to have mandatory preferential treatment for young farmers in the CAP was a strict definition of who would be in and who would not. Young farmers have to have entered farming within the past five years and have to be under the age of 40. Those are the two criteria. Some people will miss out because they took up farming prior to 2010 but even though they are under the age of 40, they are not categorised as young farmers and, therefore, they will get 40% rather than 60% grant aid. We recognise there is a group that missed out on installation aid when it was abolished in 2008. Some farmers who took up farming between 2008 and 2010 missed out on installation aid and are not categorised as young farmers. They are getting preferential treatment in the national reserve, which I will deal with in a later question.
I ask Members to watch the clock because every Member is entitled to ask questions later.
I compliment and congratulate the Minister on what he has achieved for young farmers but the question relates to a category of farmers who are vital to the future of the agriculture industry. Up to 3% of farmers are in this age group. Most of them are totally dependent on farm income. Mr. Rea from County Kerry stated in the Irish Farmers' Journal, "I am a reasonably productive beef and tillage farmer and I suppose I am the classic old young farmer". He did the green certification in 2008 but he missed out on installation aid because he was farming since before 2010. He will not have access to the national reserve either. He will miss out through no fault of his own. Surely, as he states, there has to be some leeway. Will the Minister increase the 40% grant aid to 60% under the national reserve for this category of "young old farmer"?
The TAM scheme does not come out of the national reserve, as the reserve cannot be used for grant aid. The reserve comes under pillar 1 payments, which are direct payments entirely funded by the EU. The priority phase 1 payments from the national reserve will be to young farmers and new entrants. We will top young farmers' entitlements up to the national average and we will also pay new entrants to farming who might have naked land - that is, land without entitlements. We will put entitlements in place for them. In addition, there is a young farmer's top-up, which is 25% of the national average payment on top of the single farm payment. The Deputy is correct that the category of farmers to whom he refers has been hard done by. They missed out on installation aid and they are not categorised as young farmers. We made the case to the Commission that they were a disadvantaged group and, as a result, they can get preferential treatment through the national reserve. Their single farm payment will be topped up to bring them up to the national average, which will be welcome, because the payments to many of them are well below the national average. We worked hard to get this across the line and the Commission accepted that we could make an exception for that group and that we could accept that they were disadvantaged.
However, the TAM scheme is different. It comes out of rural development programme money, which is 54% co-funded by the EU.
Extra grant aid - the figure of 60% - can only go to young farmers who are categorised as such under the definition. We are doing something for other farmers through the national reserve, but it took us a long time to find a way to do this. Under the rural development programme, if someone is not a young farmer, he or she cannot receive 60% grant aid.
The farmer to whom I refer has stated he is now at the stage where he needs to upgrade, but he is excluded from accessing 60% grant aid under the TAM scheme. He says it is not a level playing field, but based on the Minister's statements, I hope he will act positively. We cannot leave these farmers behind; we must provide them with every assistance and support possible to ensure they will be included in finding the way forward for the agriculture industry. I ask the Department to prioritise them at all times in all schemes.
The farmer concerned is going to receive grant aid. He is not excluded from the TAM scheme, but, like most farmers, will receive 40% grant aid, which is significant. Few schemes have been introduced in any Department under which more than 40% grant aid is given in terms of capital investment. The farmer concerned can avail of this, but he will not be in the same category as a young farmer who started farming in the past five years. Some people aged 41 years who started farming in the past three years believe they should be in this category, as do some under the age of 40 who started farming six or seven years ago. Whenever we have a defined category , there are always people on the margins who are left out. I have a lot of sympathy for them, particularly young farmers under the age of 40 who have been farming for six or seven years. That is the reason we are now helping them through the national reserve. Grant aid of 40% under the TAM scheme gives farmers an opportunity to invest in expansion and growth programmes on their farms and I encourage them to do so. However, not everybody can receive grant aid of 60%.
