Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
1268. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the estimated cost of expanding the straw incorporation measure to allow participants to receive payment for up to 60 ha of land. [37748/23]
View answerThe Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM) is a new scheme under Ireland's CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) 2023 - 2027. This scheme follows on from a successful two-year pilot in operation during 2021 and 2022.
The Measure is an annual voluntary scheme under which an applicant chooses to incorporate straw for a minimum of 5 hectares up to a maximum payable area of 40 hectares of eligible SIM crops from their overall holding.
The CSP has an allocation of €50 million for SIM over the 5 years of the plan, which gives an indicative annual budget of €10 million, targeting some 40,000 hectares of straw incorporation annually.
In order to increase the maximum payable area, my Department would be required to seek an amendment to the CSP. As part of this process, a significant and in-depth evaluation would be required to determine the number of potential applicants, the impact to the targeted environmental objectives as set out in the CSP and the impact on the volume of straw available for feed and bedding.
Were an amendment to be submitted and successful, the increase in the maximum payable area from 40 ha to 60 ha, would not result in any extra cost as currently the budget is fixed at €50 million over the 5 years. Where the total claimed area exceeds the total budget, ranking and selection applies and farmers with certain crops will be excluded. Farmers with only certain crops, for example oilseed rape, would be unlikely to be eligible for the scheme as the funding would be firstly assigned to applicants in higher tiers, for example those with oaten straw.
In 2023, 538 farmers submitted a claim for SIM in excess of the 40 ha maximum. If the maximum limit were to be raised to 60 ha, approximately €650,000 would be required from the budget to cover this increase if all the hectares claimed were ranked high enough to make them payable when the ranking and selection process was carried out.
