Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 October 2021
310. Deputy Johnny Guirke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the level of funding that will be made available to the agri-environmental scheme and agri-environmental measures in Budget 2022. [51455/21]
View answerIn a time of transition, farmers can have confidence that this budget protects farm families, farm profitability as well as safety and sustainability on farms, This is the second year of transition between the old CAP and the new. My key priority is to provide confidence to farmers and their families that their payments would be protected during the transition period. We have succeeded in maintaining all of the crucial farm schemes and the budget provision will also allow us to provide additional funding for a number of policy priorities
Budget 2022 provides a gross Vote of €1.858 billion for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Within the 2022 provision some €872 million allows key Rural Development Programme and Forestry supports to remain available through the transitional period between the two CAP programmes. This provides the budget to extend, or rollover, existing RDP schemes from 2021 including:
- More than €100 million in targeted supports for the beef and sheep sectors including BDGP, BEEP-S, Sheep Welfare Scheme and Dairy Calf Programme
- €80 million for on farm investments through TAMS including specific supports for solar energy installation
- €214 million for GLAS & REAP
- €14.6 million for Locally Led Agri-Environment Scheme
- €100 million for Forestry
These schemes are vital income supports for farmers and provide a measurable public good.
The current co-financing rate will remain for RDP measures during the CAP transition period.
The definitive allocations will be set out in the 2022 Revised Estimates Volume (REV) which will be published later this year.
