Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 20 Mar 1991

Vol. 406 No. 7

Adjournment Debate. - Disadvantaged Areas Extension.

Mr. Sheehan

I thank you most sincerely for giving me the opportunity of raising this very important matter. It is clear that the Department of Agriculture and Food and the Minister for Agriculture and Food have been dragging their feet in relation to this important question. I deplore the action of the Minister and our Agriculture Commissioner in Brussels for the incompetent manner in which they presented Ireland's application for the extension of the disadvantaged areas.

In an interview which John Cushnahan, MEP, and I had with the Commissioner, Ray MacSharry, in Strasbourg on 23 November, 1990, Mr. MacSharry promised that the fate of thousands of Irish farmers who hope to be included in the extension of the disadvantaged areas would be known in three weeks from that date. That was reported in a reputable national daily paper. It is now four months since the Commissioner gave that promise and there has still not been a decision.

The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, Deputy Kirk, is on the record of the House as saying that Ireland's application would be finalised during our term of the EC Presidency which expired on 30 June 1990. What has happened since? Everybody knows that Italy held the Presidency since then and that we are now half way through the Luxembourg Presidency, but no action has been taken on Ireland's application, which is a disgraceful state of affairs. Paddy Lane, a reputable Member of the European Parliament, gave an interview in the Farm Exam on 1 February 1990, over 13 months ago. He stated in the Farm Exam on 1 February 1990 that this would be a St. Patrick's Day gift. Nothing has happened since. Another St. Patrick's Day has come and gone and no action.

It is high time the Commissioner in Brussels, the Minister for Agriculture and Food and the MEP apologised for misleading Irish farmers. Why has it taken over three years to present Ireland's application and get a decision on it? Why keep thousands of Irish farmers in limbo waiting to know if they are included in the extension? It is clear that a half-hearted commitment on the Government's part, coupled with a bungling approach by the Minister for Agriculture and Food, has resulted in thousands of farmers losing out for two years on badly needed financial assistance.

It is now vitally important that the appeals procedure the Minister is supposed to be setting up be totally independent and conclude its deliberations as quickly as possible. It is very hard to understand why Ireland's case has been deferred for so long. It was clear once the criteria were laid down for the extension of the disadvantaged areas that it was only a matter of applying for that extension. The criteria for the areas to be included are a stocking rate of less than one livestock unit per hectare, that less than 7.8 per cent of the area be ploughed land and the family farm income per male farm worker in the area not exceed 80 per cent of the national average family farm income per male farm worker.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Deputy might now bring his remarks to a close.

Mr. Sheehan

I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Walsh, and the other Minister of State in the Department to ensure that the thousands of Irish farmers who are waiting on a decision on their application get some promise that the Minister will do something for them immediately and thereby restore credibility in agriculture.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

I am glad Deputy Sheehan raised this matter in the House. It gives me an opportunity to respond to the case he has made.

When we made our case to the EC Commission last June for the extension and reclassification of Ireland's disadvantaged areas I must confess I hoped that we would have a decision on the matter by now. To a certain extent, therefore, I can sympathise with Deputy Sheehan's impatience in relation to this issue. I am just as impatient as he is because I do not like to see people in limbo any more than he does and I would like to see a final resolution of this matter as soon as possible.

In the final analysis the decision is not one that we can make in Ireland and it is one, therefore, that is outside our control. To the extent that it is within our control — by which I mean the speed with which we respond to the various technical queries raised by the EC Commission on the submission — I can assure Deputy Sheehan and the House that the Department of Agriculture and Food have responded to those queries as quickly as it was possible to do so, have had a number of meetings with the EC Commission whenever requested by the Commission and have dealt with a large number of detailed queries in an expeditious and effective manner. Now that we have given the Commission full replies on all the points raised by them the ball is back in the Commission's court and I am very glad to let the Deputy and the House know that we should see a Commission proposal next month.

The delay and the queries raised by the Commission are not due to any mistakes or delays on our part. We made our submission on the basis that the maximum number of areas would be included. That meant including all areas which together could be shown to meet the criteria. We pushed the boat out as far as we could. This, of course, inevitably meant the Commission examined the case very carefully and queried a number of matters. We could have taken the easy way out and submitted less and the examinations would have taken less time but, at the end of the day, it was surely better that we sought the maximum extension and reclassification. We are now confident that we have satisfied the Commission in regard to most of their queries and that virtually all the cases we have submitted will be accepted.

Some more general queries have been raised at a higher level by the EC Commission recently following completion of consideration of the technical queries and a meeting is being held with the Commission tomorrow to consider those general queries. At that meeting we shall be urging the Commission to expedite our case for extension and reclassification so that it can be presented in the very near future to the EC Council of Ministers. Next month we are to get a proposal from the Commission on this.

In the meantime, in relation to people losing out, I can assure the Deputy that any applicants under the disadvantaged areas schemes who have land in the areas covered by the extension and reclassification proposals finally agreed by the EC will have their cattle, horses, sheep or goats inspected administratively or in the field so that payment of 1991 disadvantaged areas grants can be made on those animals to any eligible applicants. This, of course, will mean that certain inspections will have to be carried out on a provisional basis pending the final EC decision on extension-reclassification. I reiterate that it does mean that we are not allowing the delay in obtaining an EC decision on our submission to get in the way of making payments to eligible applicants in the new areas in 1991.

We have established a commission composed of totally independent and objective people and any areas that, at the end of the day, feel hard done by or left out can make their case to that independent body for inclusion.