Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 October 2021
65. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will review the 5% nitrogen reduction criteria for the beef exceptional aid measure scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51490/21]
View answerThe Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) provided temporary exceptional adjustment aid to farmers in the beef sector in Ireland, subject to the conditions set out in EU Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1132. BEAM was funded by a combination of €50 million EU aid and over €27 million Exchequer support. It was provided to support Irish beef farmers who saw beef prices fall as a result of disturbance to the market.
One of the conditions of the scheme, under which the €50 million was granted by the EU, was that there had to be an element of re-structuring built into the scheme.
Accordingly, in applying for BEAM, participants agreed to reduce the production of bovine livestock manure nitrogen on their holding by 5% for the period 1st July 2020 to 30th June 2021 as compared with the period 1st July 2018 to 30th June 2019.
Reviewing the requirement at this stage is not an option. The money was paid to the participants who committed themselves to the explicit condition that they would make the 5% reduction.
Any change would be a breach of the EU regulation under which the €50 million was granted to Ireland. It would also be grossly unfair to the almost 19,000 participants who have already met their commitments under the scheme and to those farmers who were eligible but opted not to join the scheme.
Approximately 21,000 beef finishers were eligible for a payment under the scheme but chose not to participate in the scheme, having reviewed the commitments required, which included the 5% reduction. Their average payment would have been over €1,300 each.
Following engagement with the EU Commission, I secured flexibility around the deadline for meeting the 5% reduction. I introduced an option in March 2021 to allow participants choose an alternative reduction period of 1st January 2021 - 31st December 2021. This was to give participants every chance of meeting their requirements under the scheme.. The option to select this facility remained open until 21st June 2021 with more than 16,000 applying.
When the original reduction period ended on 30th June 2021, it was identified that approximately 5,300 of those approximately 16,000 BEAM participants who had opted to defer had in fact met all their BEAM commitments including the 5% bovine nitrates reduction. The Department therefore removed them from the later reduction period.
This leaves approximately 10,700 BEAM participants in the later reduction period. These participants will continue to receive a monthly letter from my Department (as all participants have done since February 2021) outlining the amount of nitrates they have already used (accumulated), the amount of nitrates they have left if they are to meet their 5% reduction and a projection based on the livestock numbers on their holding of their final nitrates position at the end of the reduction period.
