Departmental Funding

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023

Tuesday, 25 July 2023

Questions (910, 926)

Bríd Smith

Question:

910. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to detail any funding or grant aid provided to the Dairy Council of Ireland since 2015 to date from his Department or the Government; the amounts spent by his Department or the Government in support of the processing and marketing of agricultural products, such as capital investment schemes since 2015; the amount of funding provided to Bord Bia since 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35864/23]

Bríd Smith

Question:

926. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will detail the funding to the Dairy Council since 2015, in tabular form; to outline under the specific headings that this funding was dispersed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36345/23]

Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

I propose to take Questions Nos. 910 and 926 together.

The National Dairy Council (NDC) is a private farmer-funded representative body in the agri-food sector.  It is not not a State Body. 

Financial records in my Department indicate that in the period 2015 to 2022, the following payments were made to the NDC:

EU School Scheme: These payments to the NDC relate to their status, since the school year 2017/2018, as an Aid Applicant under the EU School Milk Scheme. Such payments made to the NDC are made in arrears, on application, on a recoupment basis for eligible expenditure as outlined in the Regulation(s), accompanied by the required supporting documentation. Payments are made from EU funds from the annual financial allocation made available by the EU to Ireland with supporting national funds as made available by the Exchequer. The table below reflects both the EU and national funds. 

Year	Payments to NDC   €
2017	225,000
2018	826,365
2019	1,214,664
2020	1,107,440
2021	934,353
2022	1,043,527

EU Milk Promotion:  These payments represent funds made available on a competitive basis by the EU to eligible organisations in the Member States for multi-country programmes (typically three  years) promoting dairy on the internal market. The NDC is one such organisation. Supporting national funding was made available as was required under the Regulations at that time. Three such programmes were running in the relevant years. 

Year	Payments to NDC  €
2015	269,589
2016	184,285
2017	234,773
2018	161,413
2019	24,185

EU Exceptional Aid to the Dairy Sector:  An EU Exceptional Aid Scheme for the dairy and pig sectors was introduced by the EU Commission in recognition of the difficulties in those sectors and as a short term market stabilisation mechanism. As part of that measure, in 2016, the NDC received a payment for associated promotional work.  

year	payment to NDC  €
2016	30,000

Payments to the NDC did not include any funding for capital investment schemes.

I am not aware of any association the NDC may have with other Government Departments.

Question No. 911 answered with Question No. 904.