Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 July 2015
322. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the current and capital funding allocated to his Department; the underspend or overspend in 2015 to date under each category based on his Department's spending profile; the funding made available within and external to his Department's functions to support innovation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30118/15]
View answerThe current and capital funding allocated to my Department for 2015 and the variation from the January-June profile are set out in the following table.
|
€000 |
Current |
Capital |
Total |
|
2015 Full year estimate |
1,044,068 |
216,000 |
1,260,068 |
|
Variation from Jan-June profile |
-12,201 |
-12,497 |
-24,698 |
It should be noted that the profile of projected expenditure on a monthly basis is drawn up at the beginning of each year in order to anticipate the department’s funding requirements and financial management over the course of the year. There are many reasons why expenditure may vary such as the level and timing of payments under demand led schemes, the levels of disease incidences.
As regards funding to support innovation, my Department and its agencies (Teagasc, Marine Institute, Bord Bia, BIM) and other agencies that we work with such as Enterprise Ireland are involved in facilitating/encouraging all kinds of innovation in various ways. In addition, the Food Wise 2025 strategy recognises that innovation will continue to be a key driver of competitiveness and growth for the agri-food sector; and emphasises the need for a consumer-led focus for future investment in innovation, research and development.
My Department provides substantial funding to Teagasc each year (€123m in 2015) to aid Teagasc’s mission to support science - based innovation in the agri-food sector so as to underpin profitability, competitiveness and sustainability. Knowledge transfer supports innovation by farmers in the management of their businesses and provides access to the technologies they can apply to improve their competitiveness. The knowledge transfer advisory programme is delivered by Teagasc advisers in 12 Regional Advisory Areas throughout Ireland. These advisers are in contact with some 80,000 farmers.
Under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 my Department has allocated a budget of €4m over the 2014-2020 period for European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) for agricultural productivity and sustainability. The new Beef Data and Genomics programme is another example of the innovation funded through the 2014-2020 RDP. The allocation for 2015 is €52m. This programme is a world first in terms of building a breeding index built on genomic evaluations in the beef sector and no other country in the world has done this on this scale.
As regards innovation in the marine domain both the Marine Institute and BIM are actively engaged with the sector at all levels in the promotion of innovative practices and the research upon which such practices are based. Total funding for BIM in 2015 is €19m while the MI 2015 budget is €26.6m.
My Department has awarded €100 million to a range of research performing organisations for collaborative research projects through our FIRM, Stimulus and CoFoRD competitive funding programmes over the last 4 years and the 2015 budgetary provision relating to this amounts to €14.6m. The new SHARP ‘strategic research and innovation agenda’ that was developed by a cross-funder Working Group of the Research Prioritisation process led by DAFM for the innovation agenda, especially in the technological domain.
