Rural Development Programme Funding

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 February 2019

Thursday, 21 February 2019

Questions (156)

Charlie McConalogue

Question:

156. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the financial allocations on an annual basis under the 2014-2020 RDP for schemes (details supplied); the annual amount expended on the schemes in each year since they were established and to date in 2019; the number of active participants in the scheme; and the number of approved applicants that subsequently withdrew from each scheme in tabular form. [8929/19]

Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

I wish to advise the Deputy that the information requested is set out in the following table.  The financial allocation for each scheme for the year 2020 will be considered as part of the Estimates process later this year.

Knowledge Transfer Group Scheme

Year	Annual Financial allocation €	Annual Amount Spent €	No. of active participants in scheme	No. of approved applicants that withdrew
Year 1 2017	25m	20.33m	19,395	305
Year 2 2018	23m	15.4m1	18,992	403
Year 3 2019	22m	Payments due to commence Autumn 2019 in respect of Year 3	18,889	103

GLAS

Year	Annual Financial allocation €	Annual Amount Spent €	No. of active participants in scheme3	No. of approved applicants that withdrew
2015	See note 2	N/A	N/A	N/A
2016	138.5m	103m	35,382	218
2017	228.5m	196m	49,872	1778
2018	226m	232m	49,119	380
2019 to date	202.9m	15m	48,897	17

TAMS II

Year	Annual Financial allocation €	Annual Amount Spent €	No. of active participants in scheme	No. of approved applicants that withdrew
2015	0	0	2,599	N/A
2016	28m	3.971m	7,684	N/A
2017	49.831m	31.256m	12,172	N/A
2018	69.943m	66.716m	17,101	N/A
2019 to date	69.482m	10.505m	18,836	N/A

Sheep Welfare Scheme

Year	Annual Financial allocation €	Annual Amount Spent €	No. of active participants in scheme	No. of approved applicants that withdrew
Year 1 2017/ 2018	20m	18.42m	21,020	346
Year 2 2018 / 2019	18m	15.14m. Year 2 balancing payments due to issue in Quarter 2 of 2019.	18,738	892

Hen Harrier Programme

Year	Annual Financial allocation €	Annual Amount Spent €	No. of active participants in scheme	No. of approved applicants that withdrew
2017	2m	0.717m	0	0
2018	3.5m	2.005m	629
2019 to date	4.134m	0.619m	6294

Beef Data and Genomics Programme

Year	Annual Financial allocation €	Annual Amount Spent €	No. of active participants in scheme	No. of approved applicants that withdrew
2015	52m	30.1m	29,903
2016	51m	61m
2017	52m	47.5m
2018	49.5m	46.2m
2019 to date	46.5m	1.3m	24,544	7,2555

Notes:

1. Further payments currently issuing in respect of Year 2.

2. 2016 was the first full year of GLAS. As some GLAS contracts commenced on 01/10/2015 partial payments totalling €11.452m were paid in the 2015 calendar year.

3. Number of participants fluctuates due to participants withdrawing, rejections due to non-compliance and successful appeals. GLAS 3 contracts commenced on 01/01/2017. Active participant figures above as at year end.

4. Expressions of interest are being invited at the moment and this number will increase during the first half of 2019 to between 1,100 and 1,200 participants.

5. The number of active participants in BDGP I and II fluctuates on an ongoing basis as a result of participants withdrawing, or being disqualified for non – compliances, from the Programmes and also due to participants being re-admitted following successful appeals.

In 2015, 29,903 participants applied to participate in BDGP I, however 6, 858 of these have either withdrawn or have been disqualified with 23,045 eligible participants remaining in BDGP I .

In 2017 for BDGP II 1,896 participants applied to participate in BDGP II however 397 subsequently withdrew or were disqualified with 1,499 eligible participants remaining in BDGP II. The total number of active eligible participants in the two programmes currently stands at 24,544.