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.