I hope I will receive a more accommodating response than that given by the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, to Deputy Broughan.
The issue I want to raise is causing great concern to many farm families. In what has become a bureaucratically insane Common Agricultural Policy we now have a multiplicity of premium schemes to which people must have recourse for income. There are nine premium schemes in operation under which applications have either been made or are outstanding. In addition, we have the headage payments under the disadvantaged areas scheme and this year sees the commencement of the area aid scheme with its own plethora of systems and criteria, rules and regulations. It has reached the point where the IFA and FBD felt — rightly — that it was necessary to produce a guide to applicants for these various schemes. If one did not have such a guide one would need a computer programme, a special calendar and a diary to remind one when to apply for these various aids forced on us by the bureaucracy of the Common Agricultural Policy.
All these payments assume a greater importance in the context of total farm income and, as CAP reform and the forthcoming GATT agreements are progressively put in place, these schemes will become even more important to the point where, in some farming systems and in some parts of the country, premium payments under these various schemes will account for almost the entire disposable income of a farm family. This means that prompt payment of these premia is a matter of the greatest importance for farmers and the record of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry in this regard is extremely bad. The deficiencies under these schemes are widespread and I will give some examples.
There has been a delay so far of over four months in making payments of winter beef premium to 16,000 producers who are owed £14 million. Those people applied in May of this year for that premium. A sum of £82 million is due and still unpaid in headage payments under the disadvantaged areas scheme for 1993. There have been lengthy delays in payments under the special beef premium, the suckler cow premium and the ewe premium schemes and I would like to mention some of the cases where payments remain outstanding. They include the special beef premium scheme applied for in June 1992, the special beef premium scheme applications made in December 1992, the suckler cow premium scheme applications made in December 1992, the suckler cow premium scheme for small milk producers applications made in June 1992. Now, in October 1993, under those four schemes alone, there are substantial amounts of money outstanding on foot of applications made during the course of last year.
The situation is now so critical that the two organisations I mentioned a moment ago have drawn up a charter of farmers' rights and it is appalling that people have to campaign for prompt payment within the calendar year of application and as soon as EC regulations permit.
I have been told that the payments under the area aid scheme cannot begin before 16 October, according to EC regulations. I have been told also that it is hoped to have "as many as possible paid by the end of November". Judging from the record of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry in this regard I predict that a substantial number of farm families will still be awaiting payment of these area aid premiums next Christmas. The Minister of State should listen to my predictions because I remember a previous occasion in this House I predicted to him that nobody would receive any payments under the review of the disadvantaged areas scheme before 1993. I was right; they do not have any hope of obtaining payments under that scheme until 1994.
I want the Minister to take this matter in hand. He has gone along with these crazy CAP reforms that have given us this multiplicity of premium schemes. He has gone along with the systems that have made the cheque in the post such an important part of farm income and he now has a responsibility to make this work. I call on the Minister now to make sure that all arrears are paid and all payments brought up to date by the end of November of this year at the very latest. If he does not do that he will be condemning a great many farm families around the country to the breadline this winter.