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Agriculture Schemes

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 23 March 2022

Wednesday, 23 March 2022

Questions (228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237)

Jackie Cahill

Question:

228. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers that applied for the BEAM scheme in 2019. [15431/22]

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Jackie Cahill

Question:

229. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers that received a full payment from the BEAM scheme in 2019. [15432/22]

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Jackie Cahill

Question:

230. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers that suffered penalties in regard to the BEAM scheme in 2019. [15433/22]

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Jackie Cahill

Question:

231. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the monetary amount farmers were penalised in regard to the BEAM scheme in 2019. [15434/22]

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Jackie Cahill

Question:

232. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the breakdown in percentage terms of penalties applied in regard to the BEAM scheme in 2019. [15435/22]

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Jackie Cahill

Question:

233. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers that applied for the BEAM scheme in 2020. [15436/22]

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Jackie Cahill

Question:

234. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers that received a full payment from the BEAM scheme in 2020. [15437/22]

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Jackie Cahill

Question:

235. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers that suffered penalties in regard to the BEAM scheme in 2020. [15438/22]

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Jackie Cahill

Question:

236. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the monetary amount farmers were penalised in regard to the BEAM scheme in 2020. [15439/22]

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Jackie Cahill

Question:

237. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the breakdown in percentage terms of penalties applied in regard to the BEAM scheme in 2020. [15440/22]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 228 to 237, inclusive, together.

The objective of the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) was to provide temporary exceptional adjustment aid to farmers in the beef sector in Ireland. The scheme was subject to the conditions set out in EU Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1132. BEAM was funded by a combination of €50 million EU exceptional aid and €27.8 million Exchequer support and was provided in light of the difficult circumstances that Irish beef farmers had been facing as a result of market volatility and uncertainty in 2019.

Under the scheme, aid was paid on adult cattle slaughtered between 24 September 2018 and 12 May 2019, at a rate of €100 per animal subject to a maximum of 100 finished animals per herd. Aid was also paid on suckler cows that calved in 2018, at a rate of €40 per animal subject to a maximum of 40 sucklers per herd.

Applications for BEAM were accepted from the 19 August 2019 with the deadline for applications extended to midnight on 20 September 2019.

Payments under BEAM commenced in December 2019. Payments totalling €77.86m issued to 33,478 participants under the scheme.

One of the conditions under which funding was granted by the EU was that there had to be an element of re-structuring built into the scheme as set out in Article 1 (3) of EU Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1132. Accordingly, in applying for BEAM, participants agreed to reduce the production of bovine livestock manure nitrogen on their holding by 5% for the period 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021 as compared with the period 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019. There was also a significant cohort of eligible farmers that chose not to apply to the scheme, on the basis they did not want to comply with the conditions.

Following engagement with the EU Commission regarding flexibility around the deadline for meeting the 5% reduction, I introduced an option for farmers to choose an alternative reduction period of 1 January 2021 - 31 December 2021. This was to give farmers every chance of meeting the requirements of the scheme. Some 16,000 farmers opted for this deferred reduction period before applications for deferment closed on 21 June 2021.

In September 2021, following the ending of the original reduction period on 30 June 2021, it was identified that some 19,000 participants had met the scheme commitments set out in section 7.0 of the BEAM Terms and Conditions and thus exited the scheme successfully without recoupment.

Approximately 5,300 of the 16,000 who opted to defer subsequently met all their BEAM commitments within the allotted timeframe, including the 5% bovine nitrates reduction in the original reduction period. My Department therefore, removed them from the later reduction period.

A further 3,627 participants who had not opted to defer did not meet some or all of the scheme commitments set out in section 7.0 of the BEAM Terms and Conditions. The total value of these overpayments was €5,277,820 with €3,377,804.80 returning to the EU and €1,900,015.20 returning to the Exchequer in line with the ratio under which they were initially paid.

A total of 234 of the 3,627 participants recorded a Nitrates reduction of between 4% and 5% which resulted in between a 20% and 80% recoupment as provided for the in the scheme Terms and Conditions. The total value of these partial recoupments was €168,560.

This left approximately 10,300 BEAM participants in the deferred reduction period.

In March 2022, following the ending of the deferred reduction period on 31 December 2021, it was identified just over 2,800 had met their scheme commitments set out in section 7.0 of the BEAM Terms and Conditions and they exited the scheme successfully.

This left 7,470 participants who did not meet some or all of the scheme commitments necessary to avoid a recoupment of some or all of their payments under the scheme. The total value of these recoupments was €12,596,536 with €8,061,783.04 returning to the EU and €4,534,752.96 returning to the Exchequer in line with the ratio under which they were initially paid.

282 of the 7,470 participants recorded a Nitrates reduction of between 4% and 5% which resulted in between an 20% and 80% recoupment as provided for the in the scheme Terms and Conditions. The total value of these partial recoupments was €287,976.

Overall, almost 22,000 of the 33,000 in the BEAM scheme have met the scheme commitments and they exited the scheme successfully.

Question No. 229 answered with Question No. 228.
Question No. 230 answered with Question No. 228.
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