Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2019
501. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which he has identified extra costs likely to affect the food industry in the aftermath of Brexit; the degree to which alleviation measures are in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42244/19]
View answer502. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which financial supports and-or incentives are in place to address the negative impact of Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42245/19]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 501 and 502 together.
Over the last three Budgets, the Government has acted to assist business, and farming in particular, to navigate the challenges of Brexit. Government responses include a series of low interest loan schemes, including most recently the new “Future Growth Loan Scheme”, which will bring up to €300 million of loans to the market and will support strategic long-term capital investment in a post-Brexit environment by SMEs, farmers and fishermen. The Scheme will build on last year’s €300 million Brexit Loan Scheme. Up to 4 October 2019, a total of 2,118 applications have been approved for these two schemes with 495 progressed to sanction at bank level to a total value of €94.2 million, of which about €35.9 million relates to farmers and food businesses.
Budget 2019 also saw the introduction of a €78 million Brexit Resilience Package for the Agri Food sector. The measures included €44m of direct aid for farmers, €27m in Brexit related supports for the food industry and €7m for DAFM Brexit-preparations. Bord Bia received an additional €5 million, bringing their total Grant in Aid to €46.6 million. This represented a 60% increase in funding for their food and drinks marketing, promotion and training programmes since 2014. Additional funding was also allocated to Teagasc to assist in the development of the Prepared Consumer Foods Centre in Ashtown and the National Food Innovation Hub in Fermoy.
In August, I introduced the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) which provides for up to €100m in support, in light of the difficult circumstances that Irish beef farmers have been facing as a result of market volatility and uncertainty arising out of Brexit.
And finally, as part of the ‘No-Deal’ contingency fund announced in Budget 2020, €110m will be made available in the first tranche to the agri-food sector, to be supplemented by any exceptional aid provided from the EU. This will provide immediate support for our beef sector (€85m), our fishing fleet (€14m), our food companies (€5m) and necessary support to other sectors to improve competitiveness (€6m) in the event of a hard Brexit on 31 October.
