Dara Calleary
Question:8. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to support hill farmers in the next CAP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51715/21]
View answerThursday, 21 October 2021
Questions (8)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
Farmers and sheep farmers have been left aside in previous Common Agricultural Policy plans. Given his experience of the sector, what are the Minister's proposals within the new CAP strategic plan to support and sustain this sector and to guarantee and encourage people to go into it?
I thank Deputy Calleary for his question. Hill farming is a very important sector in the Deputy's constituency, as it is in mine. The sheep welfare scheme has been in place for the past while and was continued in 2020, 2021 and again for 2022. In addition, some of the key payments that are very important for hill farmers, such as the areas of natural constraint, ANC, payment, have been maintained for this year, as have environmental schemes.
The Deputy's question relates to the next CAP programme which was announced just yesterday. Overall, it provides for a 50% increase in the national co-financing based on the previous CAP. For this seven-year period, we will see €2.9 billion of national co-financing compared with €1.9 billion in the previous CAP. This is a demonstration of the significant commitment of this Government to supporting farm families. Included in that is support for sheep farmers.
In the proposals, to start in 2023, we will see an increase in the sheep welfare scheme, which will be available at €12 per ewe. Support will also be provided through the ANC payment, which has been available until now, and the young farmer schemes.
What will be particularly significant for sheep farmers will be the significant support available under the new environmental scheme, for which 50% extra funding will be provided. The new scheme will succeed the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, the agri-environment options scheme, AEOS, and the rural environment protection scheme, REPS, which preceded the AEOS. There will be the potential for some farmers to avail of landscape options and earn up to a maximum of €10,000, with an average of €7,500, and for other farmers to earn up to a maximum €7,000, with an average payment of €5,000. That will strongly support our hill sheep sector.
I thank the Minister and commend him and his team, including the Ministers of State, Senator Hackett and Deputy Heydon, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, on the new CAP programme. It appears from the early signs that it is very positive and will support farming in our region in particular.
On the extra €2.9 billion, how will the Minister ensure this money gets down to the farm table? There is so much red tape involved in schemes that people will not engage with them. This is particularly the case for hill and sheep farmers, which is an ageing sector. We need to encourage people to engage. In the context of the role of the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, sheep and hill farmers were the original biodiversity farmers, long before the REPS and other schemes. As I said to the Minister last week at Balla mart, hill farming in Mayo goes back 5,000 years.
They were the guardians of the environment and they continue to be. Unless we keep them on sustainably on the hills, that support and guardianship will be gone. This CAP plan, for many, may be the last chance saloon. We want to ensure that it will get right down to them with as little red tape as possible and that it will be easy to apply for.
That is really important and it is why I am engaging closely with farmers on putting together the CAP programme and those schemes. It is also why I visited Mayo with the Deputy last week and have been visiting every county. Indeed, I will be in Carlow this afternoon, and Kilkenny this evening, doing the very same thing.
It is crucial that this funding gets to farm families, in this instance to support hill sheep farming. We will engage further on the structure and composition of the various schemes to ensure they will deliver income for farmers, as well as the environmental and food production benefits. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, has provided for a 500% increase in the budget for organics over the coming years, which is unprecedented. She will engage with all sectors on the options that are available in that regard. That will be of interest to the hill sheep farming sector as well.
I think the target participation rate for the new agri-environmental scheme is 50,000, which equates to the current participation level in the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS. How will we ensure that those who are excluded from GLAS will not be excluded from the new agri-environmental scheme, whatever it will be called? How will we further ensure that the restrictions in the current GLAS scheme will not transfer across to the new scheme and that its benefits will not be lost to many, including many hill sheep farmers?
From memory, the number on the current GLAS programme is about 43,000 or 44,000. The 50,000 figure we have mentioned, therefore, will embrace all farmers. The objective will be to ensure that all farmers who want to participate in the scheme can do so. As for its composition, we will engage closely with farmer organisations to ensure the measures involved will provide options for all farmers to be able to engage.
Question No. 9 replied to with Written Answers.