Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 November 2021
715. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total funding available for on-farm investments between 2023 and 2027 with regard to the €100 million allocated as part of the CAP Strategic Plan in addition to funds remaining within the RDP less the funding allocated in budgets prior to 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54385/21]
View answerSubject to EU Commission approval, it is currently proposed that under the CAP Strategic Plan (CSP), an On-farm Capital Investment Scheme will continue to support general investment at a 40% grant rate.
A higher investment rate of 60% will be offered to qualified young farmers and qualified female farmers to support generational renewal and gender balance.
As the scheme is demand-led, the annual indicative financial allocation for this intervention varies year on year, dependent on the number of projects receiving funding.
It is intended that €440m will be made available for on-farm investments over the period 2021-2027, of which €340m will be funded from the transitional RDP in the period 2021-2025. This reflects the significant front-loading of EU funding in the first two years of the EU budget period 2021-2027. Once this period elapses, the CAP Strategic Plan will support on-farm investments in 2026 and 2027.
The average annual funding over the seven-year period based on the proposed allocation across both programmes is €62.85m, which compares favourably with the average spend of €40m per annum over the seven year period 2014-2020, and the most recent five-year average spend for the period 2016-2020 of €52m per annum.
The allocation of funding will be kept under review over the period.
