Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 February 2021
951. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the EU co-financed funding provided in 2015 and 2016 to the Irish dairy sector to address income volatility within the sector; the value of each measure introduced; the terms and conditions of each scheme; the level of compliance with the terms of each measure; the refunds sought; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5733/21]
View answerFollowing a period of market volatility in the dairy sector during 2015 and 2016, the European Commission introduced a suite of measures to provide exceptional aid to affected producers, and to support prices. These measures were introduced through a number of Commission Regulations.
The first of these provided for temporary exceptional aid to farmers in the livestock sectors with Ireland being allocated €13.7 million from a total package of €420 million. Member States were allowed supplement this funding by a maximum of 100% and Ireland chose to avail of this option, thereby bringing the total budget to €27.4 million. For administrative simplicity and in order to deliver payments to affected farmers as quickly as possible, it was decided to provide a flat-rate payment of €1,395 to active dairy farmers, with a small number of additional payments made to new entrants and eligible young farmers. Approximately 17,600 dairy farmers benefitted from this scheme.
In addition, during 2016 a voluntary milk production reduction scheme was introduced. Applicant dairy farmers were required to reduce production in the final quarter of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015 and were paid an amount of 14c per kg reduction. Production volumes were verified by co-ops and the scheme was open to active dairy producers. Almost 4,000 dairy farmers benefitted from this scheme and were paid just over €6.6 million in total. Participants were required to reduce production in advance of payment; therefore there was full compliance with the measure by beneficiaries.
Finally, the Agriculture Cashflow Support Loan Scheme, developed by my Department in cooperation with the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, provided some €145 million of low-cost, flexible working capital finance to over 4,000 farmers in 2017. It was facilitated by €25m in public funding, including €11.1 million from the EU’s ‘exceptional adjustment aid to milk producers and farmers in other livestock sectors’ under Commission delegated Regulation 2016/1613. Normal bank lending terms and conditions applied to the loans, some of which continue to be repaid (loan terms ranged from one to six years).
