Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 6 September 2019
1415. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason the restriction has been put on farmers to reduce the herd by 5% if they wish to qualify for the beef compensation scheme BEAM; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35760/19]
View answerThe Beef Exceptional Assistance Measure is an exceptional aid provision which was given effect through Commission Implementing Regulation 2019/1132. While Member States were invited to give an opinion on the draft Regulation through the Commission’s Common Market Organisation (CMO) Management Committee, the Regulation was within the Commission’s own legal competence, and was not for negotiation with Ireland or indeed other Member States, in terms of its content.
The implementing regulation requires that " the measures taken by Ireland shall be aimed at reducing production or restructuring the beef and veal sector" among other objectives. The full Regulation is available online at:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32019R1132&from=EN.
The requirement under the scheme to reduce bovine livestock manure nitrogen by 5% over the period of the scheme assists in the building of economic and environmental resilience in the sector and will not require a reduction in herd size in all cases. Please see further details on my Departments website https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/farmerschemespayments/beam/.
I am delighted to see that a large number of farmers have already applied online for this key support. Some 20,000 farmers have already submitted their applications but there are over 70,000 farmers who are potentially eligible for a payment and I have decided to extend the deadline to 15th September to facilitate applications from as many of these as possible. I also want to ensure that my Department is in a position to make payments to applicants at the earliest possible date and therefore I would urge eligible farmers to make their application by the new deadline.
