Vol. 398 No. 9
9 Mr. Connor asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if all areas in County Roscommon not at present classified as severely handicapped, under EC Directive 268/75, are now submitted to the European Commission for inclusion, to benefit from cattle headage payments as part of the national submission announced on 8 May 1990; if certain areas in Roscommon are to remain excluded; the names of any such areas; and the reason for such exclusion.
14 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food in view of the serious flooding in south County Galway this year; if all of south County Galway will be classified as a severely handicapped area.
44 Mr. Byrne asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food when the details of the proposed reclassification of farmland as disadvantaged for the purpose of EC headage grants will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
50 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if any areas in County Kildare have been included for consideration in the context of any proposed extension to the disadvantaged areas; the consultations which took place with agencies in County Kildare in determining the extent of any such submissions; if the EC Commission has accepted all or part of these proposals; if he will outline the projected cost benefit of the proposals in respect of County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose taking Questions Nos. 9, 14, 44 and 50 together.
A Government decision has been taken to lodge a detailed application with the EC Commission seeking their agreement to the extension of Ireland's disadvantaged areas by about two million acres and also to the reclassification of about 1.3 million acres from less severely handicapped to more severely handicapped status and some 0.26 million acres from mountain sheep grazing to less severely handicapped areas status.
My Department have this week furnished the EC Commission with details of the proposed extension and reclassification of areas and have had initial discussions on the matter.
Pending an EC decision on those proposals, however, I cannot disclose which areas are being included for designation as disadvantaged or for reclassification in any particular county, as it has been the custom in the course of previous surveys to await the final EC decision on the areas involved before publishing full details of those areas.
The extension and reclassification submissions are very detailed and comprehensive and take into account the reasons given by the Commission for rejecting the proposal lodged with them on 4 February 1987.
In relation to one point raised by Deputy Durkan, however, I can say that all areas submitted in County Kildare by public representatives, farm organisations or individual farmers before commencement of the nationwide survey were, in fact, surveyed. Indeed, overall almost 1,000 such submissions were received which led to an extremely extensive survey of about 6.68 million acres in 22 counties and to proposals to increase our disadvantaged areas by over 19 per cent and carry out large-scale reclassifications. As this is the largest ever proposed increase in our disadvantaged areas and will benefit some 29,000 farmers, I believe it is a very satisfactory outcome to the fourth review of our disadvantaged areas and I will make every effort to ensure early EC acceptance of this very favourable result.
I have in front of me a statement issued last week by a member of the Government, Deputy Leyden, Minister of State at the Department of Industry and Commerce. He stated clearly that the whole of Roscommon is to be included in the severely handicapped areas.
Deputy Connor, I must ask you to resume your seat.
Is the Minister denying—
Deputy Connor, resume your seat. You refused to listen to the Chair. Quotations at Question Time are not in order. That is a longstanding practice in this House.
To elucidate the facts——
I would be grateful if the Deputy would take notice of the Chair when the Chair intervenes.
I beg your pardon, with great humility.
I want to inform the House and the farming community in general that I have made a very deliberate decision to maximise every possible extension and reclassification throughout the country.
The Minister took long enough.
I think the submission I put forward, as distinct from previous ones which failed, will demonstrate how successful we were. I hope that will be evident in all the counties represented by members of the Front Bench and elsewhere.
Then the statement of the Minister's colleague is not correct.
I do not know what he said.
I have quoted what he said.
Deputy Connor, you seem to be ignoring the Chair. I will have to ask you to leave the House if you persist in that disrespect.
I mean no disrespect to the Chair.
I hope not.
Your hopes are fully fulfilled, Sir.
The Chair is fair and impartial in the strictest sense of that word. A number of Deputies have questions tabled in respect of this subject matter, Deputy Pádraig McCormack, Deputy Eric Byrne and Deputy Bernard Durkan. I will call the Deputies in the order in which their names appear on the Order Paper.
I related my question directly to the situation in south Galway. I am very glad the Minister of State is here. We got him down eventually to look at the grave damage that was caused there during the severe and unusual flooding in that area.
I went down willingly.
As a result of the visit of the Minister of State to the area all that area is now included, as indicated in the Evening Herald on Tuesday which stated that all of County Galway is now a handicapped area. All of County Galway, however, was a handicapped area before there was ever any change, so is all of County Galway now severely handicapped?
Are the Deputies opposite complaining about the possibility——
No. We want confirmation.
If it turns out that all of Galway, all of Roscommon and other places are to be classified as disadvantaged, will the Deputies be happy with that?
I did not hear the answer.
If this kind of barracking, interruption and disorder is to continue I will stop questions for today.
A Cheann Comhairle, we would like some answers.
I am asking for co-operation from the Front Bench.
You will get that co-operation.
I want to assure the House that, as events will show, when the Commission and Council have considered the applications there will be maximum extension and reclassification in all areas. I hope that when that happens Deputies opposite will not complain about what they failed to put in place in their time.
It could have been done three years ago if the Minister was doing what he should have been doing.
The Minister indicated that all areas submitted by the various bodies in County Kildare have been surveyed. He did not say, and I would ask him to confirm, whether those areas have been included? What are the reasons for non-disclosure of the areas in Kildare that have been included? Would it in any way jeopardise the submission to disclose them?
I can perfectly well understand the anxieties of Deputies and farm organisations to know exactly what is being done but these matters have to be considered first by the Commission and then, on a Commission proposal, must go to the Council of Minister where it has to be decided by a qualified majority. It would be absolutely outside the recommendations of the Commission to disclose these details in advance. It is as simple as that. Nobody has details of townlands or anything of the kind.
The Evening Herald has.
I cannot answer for everything in the Farmers' Journal or anywhere else. I want to assure Deputy Durkan and everybody else that every single area that applied has been surveyed. There were five main criteria that were essential before reclassification or extension could be effected. Those five criteria, particularly the one in relation to income, must be met.
What proportion is included?
I could not say that at this time.
I would like to welcome the Minister's positive indication about reclassification. I am sure we do not want all of Kildare reclassified. Could the Minister inform the House what timescale is involved and when might the results be known?
There were five elements in the submission. Extension was one and reclassification was another. Modulation in existing areas was another. Change from mountain sheep to handicap was another and, finally, coastal zones was another. I cannot say when the Commission will have completed all of this because it is very comprehensive. I am confident that we will get a decision at least on the extensions early in the second half of this year and probably on the reclassification as well. I cannot, however, say that definitely because it is a major job and it is not for me to tell the Commission when they should complete it.
Would it be any help if they had got the submissions earlier?
I just cannot leave that unanswered. This survey took over 12 months. It covered around 14,000 townlands and DEDs and was most comprehensive. It was done in a quarter of the time that their Government took to submit a failed application.
What were you doing for the two years before that?
Could the Minister confirm that all the areas submitted by Teagasc for inclusion have been included in the submission?
I am not saying they have all been included in the submission to Brussels. They were all surveyed. Unless the Department were to have no role at all we could not submit them all to Brussels. We spent over 12 months surveying every second farm but any submissions, whether from Teagasc, farm organisations or otherwise, were seriously considered.
Would the Minister not accept that because this submission did not go until now that he missed an opportunity while he was President of the EC Council of Ministers to ensure that this got through as quickly as possible? The reason it did not was because it was late going over there. Second, would the Minister not accept that the application itself and the survey should have been finished when he said it should have been finished and that this would have avoided any undue delay so that farmers would have got money this year?
I would like to have it concluded during our Presidency but because of its nature and scope it seems it will not be concluded during our Presidency. I assure Deputies, however, that I am satisfied that I will have sufficient goodwill, understanding and support from the Council and particularly from the Italian Presidency, to ensure that the next Presidency will also deal favourably with the matter. I am quite satisfied that will be the case.
We will wait and see.
